As I write this article, Vladimir Putin, the dictator of Russia, is dragging his feet and throwing multiple spanners in the works since Ukraine bravely accepted President Donald Trump’s proposal for a 30-day full ceasefire.
As I type, the NATO secretary general is visiting President Trump and they’ve both just said they would like to see nuclear de-escalation across the globe with the secretary general referencing a previous Republican President, Ronald Reagan, who agreed to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with the USSR in 1987.
I am also reminded of another former Republican President, George W. Bush. In 2002, President Bush spoke in Warsaw at a NATO summit and said, “The days of the Warsaw Pact seem distant — they must seem to you; after all, the Warsaw Pact ended a half a lifetime ago for you. It was a dark and distant era.”
Bush went on to say, “We are committed to work toward world peace, and we’re committed to a close and permanent partnership with the nations of Europe. The Atlantic alliance is America’s most important global relationship. We’re tied to Europe by history; we are tied to Europe by the wars of liberty we have fought and won together. ”
Every day we see fresh horrors coming from the battlefields of Ukraine. Thousands of dead a week. As President Trump says, “There is so much death.”
We must ask ourselves how we got here and who is responsible.
Post the fall of the USSR, the United States, Russia, and the U.K. signed an agreement with Ukraine for Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees. The agreement specifically prohibited Russia from threatening or using military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, Belarus, or Kazakhstan except in self-defense.
Let me repeat that: Russia signed a treaty guaranteeing Ukraine’s security and right to exist and this was backed up by the United States.
It is fashionable now to argue that this is a war thousands of miles away or that the war would never have happened if President Trump had been in office and how President Joe Biden gave billions to Ukraine that we won’t see back.
There’s an argument, too, about whether NATO is still worthwhile.
Those arguments fundamentally miss the point that the United States signed an agreement promising security guarantees to Ukraine in exchange for giving up nuclear weapons and those arguments spectacularly miss the point that the only nation in the history of NATO to invoke Article 5 and ask for military assistance is the United States of America after 9/11.
And NATO stepped up. When the United States came under attack, European countries didn’t say, “Oh it’s an ocean away.” They didn’t say, “Oh it is someone else’s problem.”
They stepped up.
Why? Because they believed in democracy, and they believed in the promise of America.
It is right to seek Peace. There has been too much death. But it is also right to stand for up a democracy against a dictatorship. Plenty of people in the MAGA movement talk about rigged or stolen elections. Putin rigged elections. Putin stole elections. We cannot sit here and talk about election integrity and security and the will of the people when Vladimir Putin ignores the will of the people and is a dictator.
It is also right that all of NATO needs to spend more on defense. It is not fair for the United States to carry the burden, and it is right for European countries and Canada to spend more. If Poland can spend 4% of its gross domestic product and tiny Estonia can spend 3.43% of their GDP vs. the USA at 3.38%, then the rest can also step up and should step up.
And it is also right for the United States to seek a minerals deal with Ukraine. This is in effect a new security guarantee. No American president will sit idly by if Americans are attacked. Any bombing of any minerals installation with American citizens would be a direct attack on the United States.
You can be America First and believe in NATO. You can be America First and believe Ukraine shouldn’t submit to Russia. You can be America First and believe in a strong minerals deal and a strong peace deal.
But you aren’t America First if you believe in supporting a dictator over a democracy. As President Trump says, Peace Through Strength is the only option.
One side, Ukraine has accepted a ceasefire. One side, Putin is dragging its feet.
Actions speak louder than words.
Neil Fitzgerald is an international nonprofit leader having served in the U.S., U.K. and globally for various nonprofit and charity boards. He served as a conservative council member in the U.K. and as a campaign manager. “Right Here, Right Now” regularly appears on Saturdays and rotates among local Republicans.
