An excellent guest article by the esteemed Victor Davis Hanson! 👏👏👏 A fascinating piece that everyone across the political spectrum ought to read. George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden didn’t check Putin’s aggression when they should have. As a result, under Bush Putin took Crimea, under Obama he got Georgia and under Biden he invaded the Donbass and Ukraine itself. But what about under Trump? Notta. Vladimir Putin didn’t dare make a move under our 45th and 47th President. President Trump pushed NATO to meet their military expenditure goals, send much needed military aid to Ukraine and withdrew from a lopsided missile treaty with Russia. I’m not supportive of Trump’s tariffs or trade war but after reading what Mr. Hanson write I can say I at least understand what he’s doing and why and that it’s nothing new. If not for Trump, the nations of NATO would never have increased their defense expenditures and many still have yet to comply. But I have a feeling they will soon. At the end of the day, I’ve got nothing against our friends in Europe but they need to do for self and have strong militaries of their own to defend themselves and their people against Russia, China and Islamic Fundamentalist terrorism. The United States can’t always be there to hold their hand. They need to become self-sufficient. Trump negotiating with Putin isn’t selling out. The Russia hawks in both parties might think that but they’d be wrong. FDR negotiated with Josef Stalin. Richard Nixon negotiated with Leonid Brezhnev and Mao Zedong. JFK and Nikita Khrushchev saved the world together during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Just to name a few. Trump’s critics are purposely ignoring or have forgotten history. Donald Trump has many flaws and has enacted some policies I disagree with, but at the end of the day he cares about this country and Ukraine and a ceasefire with Ukraine and a detente with Russia would both hugely beneficial for our national security, our citizens and world peace. President Trump seeks to do both these things in addition to relax tensions with China and Iran. He must be applauded for that!
Great points in this article. I agree that the recent EU announcement of spending 845billion on weapons and defense in Europe over the next few years is severely unlikely.
To an earlier point, While I do agree in principle that invading a sovereign nation’s territory is a violation of international law, circumstance means everything. Historically, Crimea and Dunbass have never been Ukrainian ethnically, nor have those regions ever spoken Ukrainian as a dominant language. Those regions only became Ukraine in the 1950’s because Stalin wanted more distributed authority amongst his locally subjugated counterparts. Then, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Europe decided to cede even more land to Ukraine than they had previously. I Only bring this up to emphasize a different point, that a people who are governed by a culture not their own are not, in the fullest sense, a free people. Given enough time, nations will form through the succession of regions that do not, or likely have never related to the culture of the dominant regions. We can only hope that these disunions will occur politically, and peacefully. This is the case with attempts to break away from the UK in Scotland, or the attempts made by the ethnically Basque areas of Northern Spain and Southwestern France to form a common political party (Or again with the Catalan region of Northeastern Spain though this hasn’t been entirely peaceful). But we can only hope for peaceful disunion because history does not give us many examples of this happening. In fact, the fall of the Soviet Union probably stands as the most peaceful disunion we have in human history. But if that’s wrong I welcome a correction. At any rate, it’s my observation that throughout history a people will break from tyranny in whatever way possible. This has been accomplished almost entirely through war. The tyranny of being ruled by people who are not your culture is seemingly benign, but a tyranny nonetheless.
All good points. The legal point stands, of course, because (1) the UN charter (i.e., the international treaty to which Russia is an original party that bans conquest), (2) Russia's recognition of Ukraine's pre-war boundaries in 1991, (3) Russia's guarantee of Ukrainian territorial integrity in 1994 in exchange for Ukraine's nuclear weapons.
At the same time, Ukraine will never recover Crimea, nor especially Donbas, without facing an insurgency. As frustrating as letting Russia profit by its wrongs might be, Ukraine is likely better off without either of those places.
Perhaps we'd be better off too if we traded New England for Alberta. All those Democrat Senators and electoral votes, gone. LOL
VDH always gets it right! All of this is true! I’m embarrassed for Europe that they are not smart enough to get on board and end this war, as well as the war in Israel. This is their backyard. Why wouldn’t they prefer peace? They are simply fools.
An excellent guest article by the esteemed Victor Davis Hanson! 👏👏👏 A fascinating piece that everyone across the political spectrum ought to read. George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden didn’t check Putin’s aggression when they should have. As a result, under Bush Putin took Crimea, under Obama he got Georgia and under Biden he invaded the Donbass and Ukraine itself. But what about under Trump? Notta. Vladimir Putin didn’t dare make a move under our 45th and 47th President. President Trump pushed NATO to meet their military expenditure goals, send much needed military aid to Ukraine and withdrew from a lopsided missile treaty with Russia. I’m not supportive of Trump’s tariffs or trade war but after reading what Mr. Hanson write I can say I at least understand what he’s doing and why and that it’s nothing new. If not for Trump, the nations of NATO would never have increased their defense expenditures and many still have yet to comply. But I have a feeling they will soon. At the end of the day, I’ve got nothing against our friends in Europe but they need to do for self and have strong militaries of their own to defend themselves and their people against Russia, China and Islamic Fundamentalist terrorism. The United States can’t always be there to hold their hand. They need to become self-sufficient. Trump negotiating with Putin isn’t selling out. The Russia hawks in both parties might think that but they’d be wrong. FDR negotiated with Josef Stalin. Richard Nixon negotiated with Leonid Brezhnev and Mao Zedong. JFK and Nikita Khrushchev saved the world together during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Just to name a few. Trump’s critics are purposely ignoring or have forgotten history. Donald Trump has many flaws and has enacted some policies I disagree with, but at the end of the day he cares about this country and Ukraine and a ceasefire with Ukraine and a detente with Russia would both hugely beneficial for our national security, our citizens and world peace. President Trump seeks to do both these things in addition to relax tensions with China and Iran. He must be applauded for that!
Great points in this article. I agree that the recent EU announcement of spending 845billion on weapons and defense in Europe over the next few years is severely unlikely.
To an earlier point, While I do agree in principle that invading a sovereign nation’s territory is a violation of international law, circumstance means everything. Historically, Crimea and Dunbass have never been Ukrainian ethnically, nor have those regions ever spoken Ukrainian as a dominant language. Those regions only became Ukraine in the 1950’s because Stalin wanted more distributed authority amongst his locally subjugated counterparts. Then, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Europe decided to cede even more land to Ukraine than they had previously. I Only bring this up to emphasize a different point, that a people who are governed by a culture not their own are not, in the fullest sense, a free people. Given enough time, nations will form through the succession of regions that do not, or likely have never related to the culture of the dominant regions. We can only hope that these disunions will occur politically, and peacefully. This is the case with attempts to break away from the UK in Scotland, or the attempts made by the ethnically Basque areas of Northern Spain and Southwestern France to form a common political party (Or again with the Catalan region of Northeastern Spain though this hasn’t been entirely peaceful). But we can only hope for peaceful disunion because history does not give us many examples of this happening. In fact, the fall of the Soviet Union probably stands as the most peaceful disunion we have in human history. But if that’s wrong I welcome a correction. At any rate, it’s my observation that throughout history a people will break from tyranny in whatever way possible. This has been accomplished almost entirely through war. The tyranny of being ruled by people who are not your culture is seemingly benign, but a tyranny nonetheless.
All good points. The legal point stands, of course, because (1) the UN charter (i.e., the international treaty to which Russia is an original party that bans conquest), (2) Russia's recognition of Ukraine's pre-war boundaries in 1991, (3) Russia's guarantee of Ukrainian territorial integrity in 1994 in exchange for Ukraine's nuclear weapons.
At the same time, Ukraine will never recover Crimea, nor especially Donbas, without facing an insurgency. As frustrating as letting Russia profit by its wrongs might be, Ukraine is likely better off without either of those places.
Perhaps we'd be better off too if we traded New England for Alberta. All those Democrat Senators and electoral votes, gone. LOL
Well, I love Maine. It’s my home now too, so maybe we can just trade most of New England. Save New Hampshire and Maine.
Totally good with that. Keep Maine, give ‘em Minnesota. 🤣
VDH always gets it right! All of this is true! I’m embarrassed for Europe that they are not smart enough to get on board and end this war, as well as the war in Israel. This is their backyard. Why wouldn’t they prefer peace? They are simply fools.