Keep helping Ukraine

OPINION:

I have very much appreciated Clifford May’s strong and clear defense of our financial support of Ukraine. In his recent column, “Strategery 101: When enemy Russia attacks friend Ukraine, back the friend,” (Web, Dec. 27), he writes that Ukraine is in “a war against the invader Vladimir Putin, a predator allied with China’s communists, Iran’s jihadis and North Korea’s despotic dynasty — an axis of America’s enemies.”

Mr. May reminds us that if we abandon Ukraine, as so many seem to want, Mr. Putin will be well on his way to achieving his mission of reestablishing the Russian empire. Mr. Putin would think, Mr. May adds, that “the Americans turned a blind eye to the conquest of Ukraine. So, what are the chances they’ll go to war over Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia?” Then other countries in the neighborhood would soon be “in the Kremlin’s crosshairs” as well. Such a move by the U.S. would likely also inspire Xi Jinping to firm up his plans for the conquest of Taiwan, and inspire Kim Jong Un to plan an attack on South Korea.

A fallacy that even many on Fox News profess is that we cannot even defend our own southern border, so why should we pay scarce money to defend Ukraine’s border? But the one has nothing to do with the other. We were not defending our borders before Russia’s attack on Ukraine. That was the decision of President Biden and the Democrats. If we stop helping Ukraine defend itself, we will not somehow magically improve our problem on our southern border. The Democrats simply do not want to do that.

Thank you very much, Mr. May, for your thoughtful, honorable defense of U.S. military aid to Ukraine in that country’s fateful struggle.

ANN SCHUTT
Beltsville, Maryland