This is an excellent article that outlines clearly the events that led to the tragic war in Ukraine. If more people knew the truths of this history I believe there would be a groundswell of opposition in the US and Europe. RFK Jr has the courage to publicise the truth and this is the main, but not the only, reason I will be voting for him. Congratulations to the author of this piece.
Whether you agree with RFK is not important, voting for him could be the only chance for survival and the possibility saying that you didn’t agree with him.
While I support the point of the article that Bobby is worthy of support because he will end the "endless" Ukrainian war, it isn't by far the strongest argument in favor of his election. His Ukrainian position is so close to Trump's, there isn't really a competitive advantage. Both know, the minute the money stops, the war is over. Bobby's vaccine record is a much greater reason to support him. Trump has no where to run and no where to hide relative to vaccines.
Thank you for this excellent article. I'm supporting RFK for sure BUT I'm deeply concerned that the election is OVER ONE YEAR AWAY!!! We are at a precipice - what on earth are we supposed to do til then with these madmen playing with fire - my prayer is that we have a world still in which to cast a vote for RFK in 2024.
Thank you Professor Kovalik. I wonder if you would answer this: define the major 1 or 2 differences of your philosophy compared to Dr. Richard Reich Stanford and Obama’s Sec. of Labor who declares RFKJr a crack pot and a nut job sadly.
Excellent analogy by Daniel Kovalik re Cuban crisis handled by JFK and current presidential goal of RFK Jr. to end the Ukraine war via negotiations. Further, Mr. Kovalik laid out the sequence of actions taken by Biden and Kiev which finally necessitated Putin to launch the Special Military Operation. RFK Jr. is the one candidate to who has the proven courage and character to fully do all possible to bring this tragic war to a negotiated peace.
-----------------------------------
For any interested, here’s a detailed sequence of why Article 51 finally had to be invoked, in addition to the eight year Kiev bombardment of Donbas and gathering of Kiev forces.
----------------------------------
2008: Bucharest Summit Declaration: “We agreed today that these countries [Ukraine and Georgia] will become members of NATO.”
Apr 24 2019: Rand Corporation US/NATO strategies for total destabilization and collapse of Russia. 1) Extending Russia 2) Overextending and Unbalancing Russia
Nov 19 2021: US: “...Georgia and Ukraine will become NATO members...”
Dec 01 2021: Russia request for written security guarantees
Dec 03 2021: BIDEN: “I DON’T ACCEPT ANYBODY’S RED LINES”
Dec 10 2021 Russia: “... fundamental interests of the European security, ... necessary to formally disavow ... Bucharest Summit that ‘Ukraine and Georgia will become NATO members,”
Dec 17 2021: Putin published: Proposed Treaty between The United States of America and the Russian Federation on security guarantees. (Biden ignored)
Jan 26 2022: Putin: .“If we do not receive a constructive answer from the west ...” Biden ignored
Feb 23 2022: Putin: “This is that red line that I talked about multiple times. They have crossed it.
Feb 24 2022: Putin: UN Article 51 invoked. Russian Special Military Operation initiated.
-----------------------------------
Note: in Dec 2022 Both Francois Hollande (France) and Angela Merkel (Germany) admitted that the Minsk Protocols of 2014 and 2015 were falsely used by France and German to give Ukraine more time to arm for war, not for advertised purpose - peace.
We all know Biden provoked Russia into acting with the SMO but RFK Jr is just a crank in so many ways and his positions on Israel are appalling. Even if he's sincere on ending the proxy war in Ukraine, he speaks about Putin in the same stereotypical ways as the warmongers do. Who knows what he might do with China or Africa or the middle east. He'd certainly try to do damage to medical science.
If you're looking for genuine peace advocate alternatives to Biden there is Cornel West so the only reason to push for RFK is to damage Dems in the primary. But what will you do after that when RFK has solidly lost the primary? What will he do? Back Biden? Probably.
Excellent article Daniel, which cross-checks my own detailed research. I pose the question to you & readers, "What are we all going to do about war in our own lives?" How can we 'Organize from the TREE-ROOTS of all our relations in our everyday living & working? In the end, with a captured Finance, Media, Religion, Education, Military-Industrial, Legislative, Judicial, Pharma-med COMPLEX, the best we all can do in support of Bobby at the top, is to 'Become-the-change, we-want-to-see, in our own lives.
INDIGENOUS CIRCLE-OF-LIFE. In the Great Spirit's eyes, its not so much about "answering when we die", (many are paralyzed in this abstract fear) as much as supporting all people, pregnant women, husbands, partners, children, elderly, handicapped, ill & injured, while we are alive.
All humanity's 'indigenous' (Latin 'self-generating') ancestors & people today call this the 'Great-good-way-of-kindness', 'Great Law of Peace' indeed the 'Constitution'. Indigenous peoples & 1st Nations here accomplished 'economic' (Greek 'oikos' = 'home' + 'namein' = 'care-&-nurture') inclusion from the bottom-up through organization in the ~100 (50-150) person Multihome-Dwelling-Complex (eg. Longhouse-apartment, Pueblo-townhouse & Kanata-village).
My ancestors the 'Haudenosaunee' (Iroquois 'People-of-the-extended-rafters' aka 'Welcome') maintain welcome for 10s of 1000s of years before the European invasion & after, but its up to all of us to embrace our indigenous: loving, intimate, intergenerational, female-male, interdisciplinary, critical-mass, economies-of-scale responsibility, now in our time. 70% of people today live in multihomes with an average of 32 dwelling-units = ~100 people. 20% of Multihome-dwellers are extended-families living intentionally in proximity for social & economic collaboration. Multihome-extended-family contribute trillions of $ of the most individually appropriate goods, services, sharing & caring/year as Turtle-Island, N-America's largest essential Economic sector, albeit unrecognized by government, education & institutions. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/C-relational-economy/1-extending-our-welcome-participatory-multihome-cohousing
TRUMP INDICTED AGAIN!! OMG....OMG....OMG...The DEEP PUSSY STATE STRIKES AGAIN !!
Trump reacts: " It's those Lizard People , and the Radical-Antifa-Marxist clique of pacifist warmongers, and dem Dominion Election Machine-Maduro- Venezuela Commie slime ... shit , why not throw in Iran and Ortega and the Martians ? Yes.... They STOLE that 2020 election, people . We all know that!! I mean 750 million WHITE MAGA PATRIOTIC " GOD" -FEARING SALT- OF -THE-EARTH CHRISTMAS LOVING VIETNAM-WAR APPROVING REAL NO BULSHIT TYPE people, they can't be wrong!! You know, the REAL People of this ''GREAT'' COUNTRY ( the greatest one in the world , OF COURSE ) . Not those Negro-loving homo feminist elitists with their fancy-ass caviar shit. " Asked by an atheist Muslim-loving fake news MSM journalist if he had ever tried caviar, Trump replied: FUCK NO, all I ever eat are cheeseburgers !! "Why do I think you are lying to me ? " replied the hot MSM babe . " YOU never beleive anything I say !! " replied an emotionally fried Trump. " Anyways, I'm a gonna pardon myself , and all other indicted and jailed MAGA patriots , when I become president again , so ain't nuthin' to worry about ! "
So the drama continues. And RFK Jr. wants to reach out to these people ( who hate him deep down ) , and "Heal The Divide " , good fucking luck with that!!
Here , below this paragraph, is a more detailed correct position on this topic , IMO, as explained by Michael Kazin, a former editor at "Dissent" journal, a democratic socialist mag. , which is the closest overall to my ideology on most topics, along with JFK, RFK, Franklin Roosevelt, and Malcolm X ( M. L. KIng would not have approved of any war, which is kind of unrealistic and makes me laugh, with putrid fascist scum and his ilk of murderous psychopaths ,like Putin in the world )
Reject the Left-Right Alliance Against Ukraine
If American leftists take seriously their commitment to self-rule and loathing of foreign aggression, they should shed their ambivalence about supporting Ukraine.
Michael Kazin ▪ March 7, 2023
The “Rage Against the War Machine” rally on February 19, 2023 (Pamela Drew/Flickr)
At critical times, foreign wars have tested the moral convictions of American leftists and affected the fate of their movement for years to come. The Socialist Party’s opposition to entering the First World War provoked furious state repression but later gained a measure of redemption when Americans learned that U.S. troops had not made the world safe for democracy after all. Leftists proved prescient again in the late 1930s when they rallied to defend the Spanish Republic against a right-wing military and its fascist allies, Italy and Germany. The republic’s defeat emboldened Adolf Hitler to launch what quickly became the Second World War. When, twenty years later, American Communists backed the Soviet Union’s crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, they shoved their party firmly and irrevocably to the margins of political life, which opened up space for the emergence of a New Left that rejected imperial aggressors of all ideological persuasions.
The war in Ukraine has a good chance of turning into another such decisive event. Who to blame for the bloodshed in that country should be obvious: a massive nation led by an authoritarian ruler with one of the world’s largest militaries at his disposal is seeking to conquer and subjugate a smaller and weaker neighbor. In pursuit of that vicious purpose, Vladimir Putin’s soldiers have committed countless rapes and acts of torture. His air force is systematically trying to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure and economy, hoping to undermine its citizens’ will to resist. Yet Ukrainians, with the aid of arms from the United States and other NATO countries, have so far managed to fight this superior force to a stalemate.
A sizeable number of American leftists have embraced an alternate reality. For them, the culprit is NATO’s post–Cold War expansion, fueled by the drive of the U.S. state and capital to bend the world to their desires. The popular author and journalist Chris Hedges cracks that the war in Ukraine “doesn’t make any geopolitical sense, but it’s good for business.” The Green Party condemns the “perpetual war mentality” of the “US foreign policy establishment” and concludes, “There are no good guys in this crisis.”
These critics ignore or dismiss the fact that every nation that joined NATO did so willingly, knowing that Russia was capable of launching the kind of attack now underway in Ukraine. In the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s demise, the expansion of NATO may well have been too hasty. But not one of its newer members has done anything to threaten Putin’s regime. And every country that joined the alliance enjoys a democratically elected government. They contrast sharply with the handful of nations, besides Putin’s, that voted against a UN resolution last month demanding the Russians withdraw from Ukraine: Belarus, North Korea, Syria, Nicaragua, Eritrea, and Mali. All but the last are one-party dictatorships, and Mali relies on Russian mercenaries to battle Islamist rebels.
It seems not to bother these leftists that they are making common cause with some of the most atrocious and prominent stalwarts of the Trumpian right. Tucker Carlson routinely bashes the U.S. commitment to Ukraine with lines like “Has Putin ever called me a racist?” while Marjorie Taylor Greene recently declared, “I’m completely against the war in Ukraine. . . . You know who’s driving it? It’s America. America needs to stop pushing the war in Ukraine.”
On February 19, some members of the alliance of right and left staged a demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to vent its “Rage Against the War Machine.” Speakers included Ron Paul and Tulsi Gabbard as well as Jill Stein, the Green Party’s 2016 nominee for president. Carlson promoted the event on the highest rated “news” show in the history of cable TV. At the Memorial, several protesters flew Russian flags.
To paraphrase August Bebel’s famous line about anti-Semitism, the hostility of those leftists who oppose helping Ukraine is an anti-imperialism of fools—although, unlike past Jew haters, they are fools with good intentions. Wars are always horrible events, no matter who starts them or why. And we on the left should do whatever we can to stop them from starting and end them when they do.
But neither the United States nor its allies forced Putin to invade. In speech after speech, he has made clear his mourning for the loss of the Soviet empire and his firm belief that Ukraine should be part of a revived one, this time sanctified by an Orthodox cross instead of the hammer-and-sickle. As the historian (and my cousin) David A. Bell wrote recently, the United States is not “the only international actor that really matters in the current crisis.” It may have the mightiest war machine, but Biden is not shipping arms to Ukraine in an attempt to subjugate Russia to his will. We should, Bell writes, “judge every international situation on its own terms, considering the actions of all parties, and not just the most powerful one. . . . the horrors Putin has already inflicted on Ukraine, and his long-term goals, are strong reasons . . . for continuing current U.S. policy, despite the attendant costs and risks.”
The monetary cost is obviously not small. By the end of January, the United States had spent $46.6 billion on lethal aid to Ukraine. But as a portion of what our bloated military has available to it every year, that sum is little more than a rounding error. The defense budget in the past fiscal year was close to $2 trillion. The cost of the latest U.S. aircraft carrier ran to $13 billion all by itself. The Navy now has eleven aircraft carriers. Isn’t helping Ukraine defend its right to exist as an independent country a worthier expense?
The debate over the war among American leftists could have an impact on whether the United States keeps sending substantial aid to Ukraine’s armed forces. Progressives wield more influence in the Democratic Party than they have in decades. So far, most have followed the lead of Bernie Sanders in denouncing the Russian onslaught and endorsing the NATO effort to repel it. More Republicans oppose aiding Ukraine than Democrats. But if that changes, public backing for U.S. policy, already slipping after a year of inconclusive fighting, could crumble entirely. A negotiated settlement may be the only way the war ends. But without a strong and consistent policy of support to the government in Kyiv, the agreement would be on Putin’s terms.
One doesn’t have to think the stakes of the conflict in Ukraine are similar to those in the Spanish Civil War to hear echoes from that benighted past. If American leftists take seriously their commitment to self-rule and loathing of foreign aggression, they should shed their ambivalence about supporting Ukraine. But I’ll let a democratic socialist from Ukraine have the last words. “I know that the left tends to look for a nefarious U.S. plot behind everything,” writes the sociologist Alona Liasheva. “Of course, I think it’s important to analyze every conflict to understand all the players, the dynamics, and who’s culpable.” But “In the case of Ukraine, it’s far simpler than many on the left think. Ukraine was attacked by an imperialist army, and as a result we are in a struggle to defend our lives and our very right to exist as a sovereign nation. . . . This is not an abstract question for us. The international left can make a material difference in whether we are able to win or lose.”
Michael Kazin is co-editor emeritus of Dissent. His most recent book, What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party, just came out in paperback.
Correction: an earlier version of this article stated that Medea Benjamin spoke at the Rage Against the War Machine rally. She was scheduled to speak but canceled her talk at the request of Code Pink.
This is an excellent article that outlines clearly the events that led to the tragic war in Ukraine. If more people knew the truths of this history I believe there would be a groundswell of opposition in the US and Europe. RFK Jr has the courage to publicise the truth and this is the main, but not the only, reason I will be voting for him. Congratulations to the author of this piece.
Fantastic piece, Daniel. End the endless wars and color revolutions. The only regime change we need is the one at home: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-execute-a-color-revolution
Thank you, Daniel - for this and for all your invaluable work.
Thank you, Daniel!
Whether you agree with RFK is not important, voting for him could be the only chance for survival and the possibility saying that you didn’t agree with him.
we def need a change in leadership at the top willing to give kennedy jr a try .....
While I support the point of the article that Bobby is worthy of support because he will end the "endless" Ukrainian war, it isn't by far the strongest argument in favor of his election. His Ukrainian position is so close to Trump's, there isn't really a competitive advantage. Both know, the minute the money stops, the war is over. Bobby's vaccine record is a much greater reason to support him. Trump has no where to run and no where to hide relative to vaccines.
Thank you for this excellent article. I'm supporting RFK for sure BUT I'm deeply concerned that the election is OVER ONE YEAR AWAY!!! We are at a precipice - what on earth are we supposed to do til then with these madmen playing with fire - my prayer is that we have a world still in which to cast a vote for RFK in 2024.
Thank you Professor Kovalik. I wonder if you would answer this: define the major 1 or 2 differences of your philosophy compared to Dr. Richard Reich Stanford and Obama’s Sec. of Labor who declares RFKJr a crack pot and a nut job sadly.
Excellent analogy by Daniel Kovalik re Cuban crisis handled by JFK and current presidential goal of RFK Jr. to end the Ukraine war via negotiations. Further, Mr. Kovalik laid out the sequence of actions taken by Biden and Kiev which finally necessitated Putin to launch the Special Military Operation. RFK Jr. is the one candidate to who has the proven courage and character to fully do all possible to bring this tragic war to a negotiated peace.
-----------------------------------
For any interested, here’s a detailed sequence of why Article 51 finally had to be invoked, in addition to the eight year Kiev bombardment of Donbas and gathering of Kiev forces.
----------------------------------
2008: Bucharest Summit Declaration: “We agreed today that these countries [Ukraine and Georgia] will become members of NATO.”
Apr 24 2019: Rand Corporation US/NATO strategies for total destabilization and collapse of Russia. 1) Extending Russia 2) Overextending and Unbalancing Russia
Nov 19 2021: US: “...Georgia and Ukraine will become NATO members...”
Dec 01 2021: Russia request for written security guarantees
Dec 03 2021: BIDEN: “I DON’T ACCEPT ANYBODY’S RED LINES”
Dec 10 2021 Russia: “... fundamental interests of the European security, ... necessary to formally disavow ... Bucharest Summit that ‘Ukraine and Georgia will become NATO members,”
Dec 17 2021: Putin published: Proposed Treaty between The United States of America and the Russian Federation on security guarantees. (Biden ignored)
Jan 26 2022: Putin: .“If we do not receive a constructive answer from the west ...” Biden ignored
Feb 23 2022: Putin: “This is that red line that I talked about multiple times. They have crossed it.
Feb 24 2022: Putin: UN Article 51 invoked. Russian Special Military Operation initiated.
-----------------------------------
Note: in Dec 2022 Both Francois Hollande (France) and Angela Merkel (Germany) admitted that the Minsk Protocols of 2014 and 2015 were falsely used by France and German to give Ukraine more time to arm for war, not for advertised purpose - peace.
We all know Biden provoked Russia into acting with the SMO but RFK Jr is just a crank in so many ways and his positions on Israel are appalling. Even if he's sincere on ending the proxy war in Ukraine, he speaks about Putin in the same stereotypical ways as the warmongers do. Who knows what he might do with China or Africa or the middle east. He'd certainly try to do damage to medical science.
If you're looking for genuine peace advocate alternatives to Biden there is Cornel West so the only reason to push for RFK is to damage Dems in the primary. But what will you do after that when RFK has solidly lost the primary? What will he do? Back Biden? Probably.
Excellent article Daniel, which cross-checks my own detailed research. I pose the question to you & readers, "What are we all going to do about war in our own lives?" How can we 'Organize from the TREE-ROOTS of all our relations in our everyday living & working? In the end, with a captured Finance, Media, Religion, Education, Military-Industrial, Legislative, Judicial, Pharma-med COMPLEX, the best we all can do in support of Bobby at the top, is to 'Become-the-change, we-want-to-see, in our own lives.
INDIGENOUS CIRCLE-OF-LIFE. In the Great Spirit's eyes, its not so much about "answering when we die", (many are paralyzed in this abstract fear) as much as supporting all people, pregnant women, husbands, partners, children, elderly, handicapped, ill & injured, while we are alive.
Those who will dig (research) into their indigenous ancestors, will find love, caring & sharing, worldwide in abundance. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/a-home/3-indigenous-circle-of-life
All humanity's 'indigenous' (Latin 'self-generating') ancestors & people today call this the 'Great-good-way-of-kindness', 'Great Law of Peace' indeed the 'Constitution'. Indigenous peoples & 1st Nations here accomplished 'economic' (Greek 'oikos' = 'home' + 'namein' = 'care-&-nurture') inclusion from the bottom-up through organization in the ~100 (50-150) person Multihome-Dwelling-Complex (eg. Longhouse-apartment, Pueblo-townhouse & Kanata-village).
My ancestors the 'Haudenosaunee' (Iroquois 'People-of-the-extended-rafters' aka 'Welcome') maintain welcome for 10s of 1000s of years before the European invasion & after, but its up to all of us to embrace our indigenous: loving, intimate, intergenerational, female-male, interdisciplinary, critical-mass, economies-of-scale responsibility, now in our time. 70% of people today live in multihomes with an average of 32 dwelling-units = ~100 people. 20% of Multihome-dwellers are extended-families living intentionally in proximity for social & economic collaboration. Multihome-extended-family contribute trillions of $ of the most individually appropriate goods, services, sharing & caring/year as Turtle-Island, N-America's largest essential Economic sector, albeit unrecognized by government, education & institutions. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/C-relational-economy/1-extending-our-welcome-participatory-multihome-cohousing
DO-WE-KNOW-WHO-WE-ARE-? http://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/structure/9-do-we-know-who-we-are is a web-based Community-Economy software enabling those 70% of all populations still culturally connected in the Multihome to:
A) CATALOGUE local individual & business for: talents, goods, services, resources & dreams. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/home/membership
B) MAP local proximal collaborative relations for complementary economic concertation
C) ACCOUNT for collective contributions, buying, selling & co-investment. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/relational-economy
D) COMMUNICATE such as formally through COUNCIL PROCESS or Both-Sides-Now, Equal-time, Recorded & Published dialogues for reaching formal agreement together as well as conflict-resolution. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/d-participatory-structure/1-both-sides-now-equal-time-recorded-dialogues
Wartime Presidents get re-elected
Terrific
OFF TOPIC
TRUMP INDICTED AGAIN!! OMG....OMG....OMG...The DEEP PUSSY STATE STRIKES AGAIN !!
Trump reacts: " It's those Lizard People , and the Radical-Antifa-Marxist clique of pacifist warmongers, and dem Dominion Election Machine-Maduro- Venezuela Commie slime ... shit , why not throw in Iran and Ortega and the Martians ? Yes.... They STOLE that 2020 election, people . We all know that!! I mean 750 million WHITE MAGA PATRIOTIC " GOD" -FEARING SALT- OF -THE-EARTH CHRISTMAS LOVING VIETNAM-WAR APPROVING REAL NO BULSHIT TYPE people, they can't be wrong!! You know, the REAL People of this ''GREAT'' COUNTRY ( the greatest one in the world , OF COURSE ) . Not those Negro-loving homo feminist elitists with their fancy-ass caviar shit. " Asked by an atheist Muslim-loving fake news MSM journalist if he had ever tried caviar, Trump replied: FUCK NO, all I ever eat are cheeseburgers !! "Why do I think you are lying to me ? " replied the hot MSM babe . " YOU never beleive anything I say !! " replied an emotionally fried Trump. " Anyways, I'm a gonna pardon myself , and all other indicted and jailed MAGA patriots , when I become president again , so ain't nuthin' to worry about ! "
So the drama continues. And RFK Jr. wants to reach out to these people ( who hate him deep down ) , and "Heal The Divide " , good fucking luck with that!!
Here , below this paragraph, is a more detailed correct position on this topic , IMO, as explained by Michael Kazin, a former editor at "Dissent" journal, a democratic socialist mag. , which is the closest overall to my ideology on most topics, along with JFK, RFK, Franklin Roosevelt, and Malcolm X ( M. L. KIng would not have approved of any war, which is kind of unrealistic and makes me laugh, with putrid fascist scum and his ilk of murderous psychopaths ,like Putin in the world )
Reject the Left-Right Alliance Against Ukraine
If American leftists take seriously their commitment to self-rule and loathing of foreign aggression, they should shed their ambivalence about supporting Ukraine.
Michael Kazin ▪ March 7, 2023
The “Rage Against the War Machine” rally on February 19, 2023 (Pamela Drew/Flickr)
At critical times, foreign wars have tested the moral convictions of American leftists and affected the fate of their movement for years to come. The Socialist Party’s opposition to entering the First World War provoked furious state repression but later gained a measure of redemption when Americans learned that U.S. troops had not made the world safe for democracy after all. Leftists proved prescient again in the late 1930s when they rallied to defend the Spanish Republic against a right-wing military and its fascist allies, Italy and Germany. The republic’s defeat emboldened Adolf Hitler to launch what quickly became the Second World War. When, twenty years later, American Communists backed the Soviet Union’s crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, they shoved their party firmly and irrevocably to the margins of political life, which opened up space for the emergence of a New Left that rejected imperial aggressors of all ideological persuasions.
The war in Ukraine has a good chance of turning into another such decisive event. Who to blame for the bloodshed in that country should be obvious: a massive nation led by an authoritarian ruler with one of the world’s largest militaries at his disposal is seeking to conquer and subjugate a smaller and weaker neighbor. In pursuit of that vicious purpose, Vladimir Putin’s soldiers have committed countless rapes and acts of torture. His air force is systematically trying to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure and economy, hoping to undermine its citizens’ will to resist. Yet Ukrainians, with the aid of arms from the United States and other NATO countries, have so far managed to fight this superior force to a stalemate.
A sizeable number of American leftists have embraced an alternate reality. For them, the culprit is NATO’s post–Cold War expansion, fueled by the drive of the U.S. state and capital to bend the world to their desires. The popular author and journalist Chris Hedges cracks that the war in Ukraine “doesn’t make any geopolitical sense, but it’s good for business.” The Green Party condemns the “perpetual war mentality” of the “US foreign policy establishment” and concludes, “There are no good guys in this crisis.”
These critics ignore or dismiss the fact that every nation that joined NATO did so willingly, knowing that Russia was capable of launching the kind of attack now underway in Ukraine. In the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s demise, the expansion of NATO may well have been too hasty. But not one of its newer members has done anything to threaten Putin’s regime. And every country that joined the alliance enjoys a democratically elected government. They contrast sharply with the handful of nations, besides Putin’s, that voted against a UN resolution last month demanding the Russians withdraw from Ukraine: Belarus, North Korea, Syria, Nicaragua, Eritrea, and Mali. All but the last are one-party dictatorships, and Mali relies on Russian mercenaries to battle Islamist rebels.
It seems not to bother these leftists that they are making common cause with some of the most atrocious and prominent stalwarts of the Trumpian right. Tucker Carlson routinely bashes the U.S. commitment to Ukraine with lines like “Has Putin ever called me a racist?” while Marjorie Taylor Greene recently declared, “I’m completely against the war in Ukraine. . . . You know who’s driving it? It’s America. America needs to stop pushing the war in Ukraine.”
On February 19, some members of the alliance of right and left staged a demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to vent its “Rage Against the War Machine.” Speakers included Ron Paul and Tulsi Gabbard as well as Jill Stein, the Green Party’s 2016 nominee for president. Carlson promoted the event on the highest rated “news” show in the history of cable TV. At the Memorial, several protesters flew Russian flags.
To paraphrase August Bebel’s famous line about anti-Semitism, the hostility of those leftists who oppose helping Ukraine is an anti-imperialism of fools—although, unlike past Jew haters, they are fools with good intentions. Wars are always horrible events, no matter who starts them or why. And we on the left should do whatever we can to stop them from starting and end them when they do.
But neither the United States nor its allies forced Putin to invade. In speech after speech, he has made clear his mourning for the loss of the Soviet empire and his firm belief that Ukraine should be part of a revived one, this time sanctified by an Orthodox cross instead of the hammer-and-sickle. As the historian (and my cousin) David A. Bell wrote recently, the United States is not “the only international actor that really matters in the current crisis.” It may have the mightiest war machine, but Biden is not shipping arms to Ukraine in an attempt to subjugate Russia to his will. We should, Bell writes, “judge every international situation on its own terms, considering the actions of all parties, and not just the most powerful one. . . . the horrors Putin has already inflicted on Ukraine, and his long-term goals, are strong reasons . . . for continuing current U.S. policy, despite the attendant costs and risks.”
The monetary cost is obviously not small. By the end of January, the United States had spent $46.6 billion on lethal aid to Ukraine. But as a portion of what our bloated military has available to it every year, that sum is little more than a rounding error. The defense budget in the past fiscal year was close to $2 trillion. The cost of the latest U.S. aircraft carrier ran to $13 billion all by itself. The Navy now has eleven aircraft carriers. Isn’t helping Ukraine defend its right to exist as an independent country a worthier expense?
The debate over the war among American leftists could have an impact on whether the United States keeps sending substantial aid to Ukraine’s armed forces. Progressives wield more influence in the Democratic Party than they have in decades. So far, most have followed the lead of Bernie Sanders in denouncing the Russian onslaught and endorsing the NATO effort to repel it. More Republicans oppose aiding Ukraine than Democrats. But if that changes, public backing for U.S. policy, already slipping after a year of inconclusive fighting, could crumble entirely. A negotiated settlement may be the only way the war ends. But without a strong and consistent policy of support to the government in Kyiv, the agreement would be on Putin’s terms.
One doesn’t have to think the stakes of the conflict in Ukraine are similar to those in the Spanish Civil War to hear echoes from that benighted past. If American leftists take seriously their commitment to self-rule and loathing of foreign aggression, they should shed their ambivalence about supporting Ukraine. But I’ll let a democratic socialist from Ukraine have the last words. “I know that the left tends to look for a nefarious U.S. plot behind everything,” writes the sociologist Alona Liasheva. “Of course, I think it’s important to analyze every conflict to understand all the players, the dynamics, and who’s culpable.” But “In the case of Ukraine, it’s far simpler than many on the left think. Ukraine was attacked by an imperialist army, and as a result we are in a struggle to defend our lives and our very right to exist as a sovereign nation. . . . This is not an abstract question for us. The international left can make a material difference in whether we are able to win or lose.”
Michael Kazin is co-editor emeritus of Dissent. His most recent book, What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party, just came out in paperback.
Correction: an earlier version of this article stated that Medea Benjamin spoke at the Rage Against the War Machine rally. She was scheduled to speak but canceled her talk at the request of Code Pink.