Why Republicans must back Ukraine as Biden claims moral victory

As Russia’s war on Ukraine enters its destructive second year, the Republican Party must decide what its foreign policy will be. To be sure, GOP support for Ukraine cannot be taken for granted given the responses of some presidential candidates, or potential candidates, to a questionnaire published by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. Asked by Carlson if “oppose Russia in Ukraine [is] a vital American national strategic interest,” former President Donald Trump said, “No, but it’s for Europe.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis agreed that defending Ukraine was not vital to the United States. Russia’s war, DeSantis said, is “a territorial dispute.”

Although DeSantis later backtracked on that position, such rhetoric risks ceding the high ground of the freedom cause to President Biden. Although he could do more, Biden is right to support and arm Ukraine. This is not to absolve the president of his countless political failures. History will offer no excuse for Biden’s disastrous and aggressive withdrawal from Afghanistan, his appeasement and weakness towards Russia in the run-up to his invasion of Ukraine, and his insufficient support for Kyiv in the early stages of the war. For the good of America and the world, Republicans should work to defeat Biden in 2024.

To establish the right Ukrainian policy, however, the GOP cannot simply oppose the president. Rather, it must learn the right lessons from history, including the Trump administration’s foreign policy successes.

One narrative, embraced by some on the right, is that China is laying the real threat, while Russia’s war against Ukraine, unfortunate as it is, does not really affect American interests. According to this thinking, the war in Ukraine is a “distraction” from China, and the United States should divert its attention from Europe to the Pacific.

Arguments of this kind are logically flawed. Russia’s success in Ukraine would give China what it wants: a defeat for democracy, a defeat for international law, and a defeat for American leadership in the world. If Ukraine’s sovereignty is lost, China will likely conclude that it can take Taiwan. The world will become more dangerous.

Along with the misguided notion of “turning to China,” there are calls to announce time and resource limits on America’s engagement with Ukraine. This may seem like a reasonable and conservative position. But conservatives should see that such self-imposed limits would incentivize Russia and China to outlast the United States in a struggle for power and values. Where our will and commitment are weak, theirs will be strong; and they are ready for a war of attrition.

Consider the likely outcome if Ronald Reagan, while confronting the Soviet Union, pre-announced the limits of America’s ultimate resolve in the Cold War. The USSR would have patiently awaited America’s inevitable surrender. Millions would still live under Soviet oppression. There would be no independent and democratic Ukraine to defend.

At first glance, the Republican move away from Ukraine may seem consistent with Trump’s foreign policy. But Trump’s political heirs — and Trump himself, as a candidate — would do well to remember the distinction between the former president’s rhetoric and his actions in office. Trump, as a negotiator, has consistently used rhetoric to achieve his ends as he seeks the best “deal” for the American people from adversaries, allies and even his own military leaders.

Along with talks and deals, Trump has practiced a forceful foreign policy. For example, he ramped up criticism of former President George W. Bush’s Iraq war, but he decimated the territorial caliphate of ISIS. He questioned the importance of NATO, but, after successfully persuading member states to contribute more to its budget, he strengthened the organization.

He wanted to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, but he kept a residual force on the ground and the country’s fragile democracy intact. And while Trump talked about a better relationship with Moscow, he also sold arms to Ukraine – something the Obama-Biden administration never did, even after the invasion and annexation of Crimea. by Vladimir Putin in 2014.

In today’s foreign policy debate, the GOP should look to Reagan and the record — if not always the rhetoric — of Trump. Neoconservative excesses and false globalist promises deserve criticism. But isolationism, or a policy of self-containment announced in advance to America’s enemies, will only lead to a more dangerous world. For the world’s only democratic superpower, there can be no turning back.

Augustus Howard is a columnist specializing in domestic politics and foreign policy.