After barely six months in office, President Donald Trump has gone from peacemaker to warmonger. He attacked Iran and is threatening more strikes, bombarded Yemen’s Ansar Allah militants on behalf of Israel and Europe, is encouraging the former to conquer Gaza, and is increasing U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine cataclysm. War with Russia is the most immediate danger. Its invasion of its neighbor was a tragedy, but requires U.S. avoidance, not involvement. Throughout most of America’s history, Ukraine has been ruled from Moscow.
The Ukrainian people have long suffered under that relationship, but Washington never considered going to war on Kiev’s behalf. Ukraine matters far more to Europe than America, and, as Trump has admitted, the current conflict was fueled by Washington’s multiple broken promises not to expand NATO to Russia’s borders. U.S. interests would be best served by cutting off fuel for the conflict, with its dangerous potential of escalating into a nuclear confrontation.
Trump has offered no compelling explanation for his stunning volte-face, with his plan to further empty American military arsenals for Kiev and impose additional economic sanctions on Moscow. He has advanced neither the impossible case that American security is at risk nor the implausible claim that Moscow plans to conquer the rest of Europe. What else could justify incurring nuclear risks that he long warned against? One of his chief hawkish critics, former National Security Council staffer Fiona Hill, has inadvertently detailed how little is at stake for America.
She complained that Trump believes the conflict is “just about real estate, about trade and who gets what, be it minerals, land or rare earths” and doesn’t understand that Russian President Vladimir Putin “doesn’t want a ceasefire. [He] wants a neutered Ukraine, not one that is able to withstand military pressure. Everybody sees this, apart from Trump.” That is obviously terrible for Ukrainians, but they are not the first people to live in a bad neighborhood, restrained by powerful neighbors. The situation is not particularly threatening for Europeans who enjoy a far larger combined economy, population, and military budget than Russia, and matters very little militarily, politically, or economically to the U.S.
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