Former Reagan Special Assistant: U.S. Should Not Go to War With Russia Over Ukraine
It would be great to insulate Ukraine from its position next to its large, authoritarian, and threatening neighbor, but that objective is not worth going to war with a nuclear-armed power, he wrote
Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, wrote in an op-ed published Wednesday that the longer the Ukraine War is allowed to drag on, the closer the world inches to WWIII.
Bandow wrote in AntiWar.org that the U.S. and Kyiv do not share the “same interests.”
“All other things being equal, it would be great to insulate Ukraine from its position next to its large, authoritarian, and threatening neighbor. But that objective is not worth going to war with a nuclear-armed power, which is why members of the transatlantic alliance spent 14 years ostentatiously misleading successive Ukrainian governments, seeming to promise membership while refusing to consider membership. No NATO member was prepared to fight for Ukraine.”
Bandow pointed to how the U.S. is experiencing “official and informal censorship of news and social media threatens to cancel anyone pro-Russian, even if not a propagandist, biasing reporting. This limits access to accurate information, even for policymakers who strongly support Ukraine.”
Read Bandow’s op-ed in AntiWar.org
The New York Times reported last week that U.S. intelligence knows more about the Russian military than it does the Ukrainian fighters. The report said American intelligence agencies have “less information than they would like about Ukraine’s operations and possess a far better picture of Russia’s military.”
Beth Sanner, a former senior intelligence official, told the paper: “How much do we really know about how Ukraine is doing?”
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“Can you find a person who will tell you with confidence how many troops has Ukraine lost, how many pieces of equipment has Ukraine lost?” she asked.
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That did not stop U.S. President Joe Biden from giving Ukraine another $1 billion in military aid and Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, from visiting Kyiv on Friday to praise the “grit” of Zelensky’s troops and promised military training so his forces can defeat Russia.
"Two months on from my last visit, the Ukrainian grit, determination and resilience is stronger than ever, and I know that unbreakable resolve will long outlive the vain ambitions of President Putin," Johnson said.
Bandow concluded that the U.S. and Europe “should focus on ending, not winning, the war.”
“Life is unfair, President Jimmy Carter once observed. That is especially true when it comes to international affairs. In a perfect world Ukraine would recover its territory, including that seized in 2014, collect reparations from Moscow, and frame Putin’s written apology for invading. However, none of these should be Washington’s objective. The US should promote a stable, peaceful settlement, one that keeps the Pandora’s Box of nuclear war closed.”
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