OPINION:
In the foreign policy and national security business, it’s preferable to be clear unless being vague is necessary for your purpose.
Sometimes national leaders are opaque when they are considering actions they do not want to telegraph. In Ukraine, however, we should be explicit.
Indeed, being explicit is exactly what the United States and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization should be in declaring our clear stance concerning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In the early phases of this war, the Biden administration fumbled. It did not deter Russia, but rather teased its aggression through the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan just two years ago. When NATO members realized the danger of Russia’s invasion, President Biden seemed to cower behind them until it was clear that the Ukrainians would not roll over and play dead while Russia stormed their country.
Mr. Biden seemed incapable of saying that we want Ukraine to win. And when his advisers finally persuaded him to declare as much, his provision of military support was sluggish. It’s better now, but the inexplicable delays have made it harder for Ukraine.
The war has reached a critical point where Ukrainian forces are beginning to make progress against a battered Russian army whose morale, by all accounts, is profoundly low. Indeed, the Russian mercenary force, the Wagner Group, revolted over the poor orchestration of the war, an event that shook the Russian regime to its roots. The unexplained death of the Wagner potentate Yevgeny Prigozhin has put that immediate threat on hold.
Nonetheless, Russian President Vladimir Putin senses American fatigue in supporting Ukraine and has decided to rattle his nuclear saber again, provoking the hand-wringers in Congress and putting anti-Ukraine gasbags in high dudgeon.
Some panicked observers are even peddling the stunningly unlikely belief that unless we abandon Ukraine now, we will be compelled to eventually deploy U.S. forces there to deter Russia from seizing the entire country. Mr. Putin delights in our war-weariness and baseless anxiety.
On the contrary, the U.S. and NATO need to “sit steady in the saddle.” Moreover, we must be clear about our policy in Ukraine, which heretofore has been episodic, halting, inconsistent and trite, like declaring that “we’re in it as long as it takes.”
It’s time to seriously state what that takes.
Try this declaration:
“The U.S. policy in Ukraine is designed to unambiguously stand against the naked aggression of one sovereign nation over another. Our goal is to support Ukraine with military provisions, economic assistance, and diplomacy to compel Russia to withdraw from Ukrainian territory Russia seized from 2014 to the present.
“Our support with NATO for Ukraine will not be deterred by escalatory threats from Russia, nor will we tolerate any aggression by Russia directed at our alliance. On this, we are firm.
“Nonetheless, we seek a peaceful solution to Russia’s war of aggression that will secure the safety of not only Ukraine but also Russia’s return to a cooperative place within the family of European nations committed to peace, open commerce, and mutual respect for the self-determination and sovereignty of all nations in Europe.
“In that regard, we reaffirm our support for a free Ukraine, as well as our pledge to Russia that the U.S. and NATO do not seek the demise of the Russian state in any manner. We seek peace but will support Ukraine as long as Russia’s aggression continues against a neighboring free state.
“For those who say we have no interests at stake in the war’s outcome in Ukraine, peace in Europe is a key national security objective for the U.S. and NATO. It is important to remember that the NATO treaty is one of ‘North Atlantic’ nations. This includes Canada and the U.S. So, in every respect, Russian aggression in Ukraine has an impact on the entirety of NATO.
“While the U.S. does not desire to introduce ground forces in Ukraine, we remain unwavering in our support to Ukraine to defeat Russia’s aggression. However, we are now ready to entertain serious discussions regarding peace. The preconditions for that are (1) cessation of all hostilities against Ukraine, (2) the disengagement of all combat forces, (3) withdrawal of Russian forces to pre-2014 international borders, (4) a complete exchange and accounting of all prisoners of war, and (5) a return of all Ukrainian civilians and children forcibly removed from Ukraine by Russia.”
Given Mr. Biden’s inclination to mishandle international crises, it is unlikely he would issue a statement of this nature. However, his state and defense secretaries would do well to summon the courage to affix their names to something similar and make clear to the president that we are at a critical point in this war where clarity, not obscurity, is vitally needed.
• L. Scott Lingamfelter is a retired Army colonel. He is the author of “Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War” (University Press of Kentucky, 2020) and “Yanks in Blue Berets: American UN Peacekeepers in the Middle East” (UPK, 2023).
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