Our Response to Ukraine exposes our hypocrisies, it is also not wrong.
The world is watching as Russia demolishes Ukraine. We wring out hands and express platitudes of support for the Ukrainian people as hospitals and evacuees are bombed. The 24-hour news cycle airs endless clips of the devastation being wrought on Ukrainian cities. All eyes are on eastern Europe. The political parties have found unity in condemnation of the violence. The U.S. along with its European allies have put in place, arguably, the most meaningful and economically devastating sanctions ever imposed.
It is, arguably, morally, and strategically correct for the U.S. and its allies to do everything in their power to end this conflict (short of military action). But it is also hypocritical. Wars are fought throughout the world every day. There are horrendous, heart-breaking humanitarian crises all over the world, but our gaze does not fall upon those tragedies. According to UNICEF there are 2.3 million children under the age of five suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen. If you turn on CNN, do you hear much about that? Is anything at all mentioned on Fox News? Have our political leaders taken any kind of action to end that crisis? Humanitarian crises seem to matter more when they occur in Europe. Poland has opened its doors and arms to Ukrainian refugees, but not long-ago European borders were being closed to refugees from Syria.
Supporting democracy is a goal most American politicians will give lip service to (though this has dramatically changed in recent times). In Myanmar the democratically elected President was deposed by the military (that President had her own crimes to answer for, but that is beside the point). Where was American support for democracy then? Where was the media. Democracy matters more when it is threatened in Europe.
The hypocrisy is plain. One need only be peripherally aware of the world to recognize the contours. And yet… the war in Ukraine is different, and different in a way that, partially, justifies the attention. The most basic difference is that Russia is a nuclear power. Indeed, Russia has more nuclear weapons than any country in the world (U.S. included). A shooting war with the world’s largest and most volatile nuclear power is an existential threat. That this war is occurring on Europe’s doorstep, on NATO’s doorstep, exponentially increases the danger. NATO has been the cornerstone of the post-cold war U.S. and European security. The U.S. has inalienable obligations to its NATO allies. If Russia attacked a NATO member the U.S. must defend that nation. The consequences of a miscalculation by Russia or the U.S. and by extension NATO could be incomprehensibly devastating, to the world.
The likelihood of a shooting war or nuclear conflict between the U.S./NATO and Russia remains low, but that probability is still the highest it has been since the Berlin wall fell. The point, though, is not probabilities, it is consequences. The possibility of nuclear war, however remote, requires that the whole world pay attention to Ukraine. The war in Ukraine is a threat to the security of the entire world. For the sake of U.S., NATO, and world security there is no choice but to support Ukraine.
For what it is worth, my belief is that we, as citizens of the U.S. and world, should be supportive of Ukraine and do what we can to end the war and alleviate the suffering. However, at the same time, we should take this moment examine whether foreign policy should be dictated solely by security and economic interests. Isn’t there room for generalized compassion? Isn’t there a way to standup for human rights not only when it is important to our own national interest, but also when it is inconvenient?
Congressional progressives have addressed a similar critique in the days since the war in Ukraine commenced. They have been criticized for utilizing “whataboutisms”.Which is a horribly simplistic argument that relies on the avoidance of complex thought. It is not inconsistent to voice support for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia while also asking that the U.S. and the world do better in other parts of the world. Is not this the time to consider our role in the world.
