From the Right
By Don Schmitz
No, Ukraine shouldn’t be admitted into NATO, at least not now. NATO was formed in 1949 by the U.S., Canada, and some western European countries to counter the imminent threat of the Soviet Union bent on conquering all of Europe. It’s important to note that this was the first time the U.S. entered into a military alliance during peacetime outside of the Western Hemisphere.
America has a long history of caution on this topic, going back to our first president, George Washington, who stated in his farewell address to the nation: “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world.” He knew the cost of blood and resources war exacts, and Americans were suspicious of the ego-driven wars of kings and dictators.
The world wars impacted our perspectives. President Woodrow Wilson foolishly thrust us into the pointless World War I even though we had a strict policy of neutrality, and most Americans had no desire to be involved. Germany’s unrestricted U-boat attacks were a provocation, but when they tried to form an alliance with Mexico against us, they sealed their doom.
It’s a teachable moment: Be careful about forming alliances seen as provocations. 116,000 Americans died in that pointless war, further galvanizing the isolationist sentiments of Americans. As Hitler and the Soviets conquered Europe, and Imperial Japan conquered the West Pacific and Southeast Asia, polling showed 93 percent of Americans were against declaring war on Germany in May 1940 as the Wehrmacht invaded France. Japan foolishly bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, Congress declared war the next day, then three days later Italy and Germany declared war on the U.S. honoring the Tripartite Pact signed with Imperial Japan in 1940. Consequently, their nations were utterly destroyed in WWII. Be careful about forming alliances.
I’m not an isolationist, and we learned in WWII that the world was smaller, the weapons incomprehensibly more powerful, and the socialist megalomaniacs personified by the Nazis and Communists had no limit on their willingness to butcher people. Nuclear weapons brought about mutual assured destruction, but the tyrants had to believe the world’s democracies would stand united to stop their military domination. What intense debates we had during the Cold War! “Better Red than Dead” the left chanted, promoting unilateral nuclear disarmament and slashing our military. They thankfully lost that debate, and ultimately the U.S.S.R. collapsed, bankrupted trying to match the defense buildup under Reagan in the ’80s. The republic fell apart into separate nations, including Ukraine in 1991, which overnight became the world’s third-largest nuclear power with ICBMs, heavy bombers, and 1,700 nuclear warheads. In 1994 Britain, Russia, and the U.S. signed the Budapest Memorandum with Ukraine, guaranteeing to respect their territory if they destroyed their nuclear arsenal.
Despicably, Vladimir Putin’s Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, which the U.N. rejected as invalid. Afraid of Russian escalation, President Obama would only send non-lethal aid to Ukraine, like blankets, as they fought Russian incursions into the Eastern Donbas. President Trump sent lethal aid, such as anti-tank missiles, but in 2022 sensing American political weakness after the Afghanistan debacle, Russia launched a full invasion. Clearly, they miscalculated American and world resolve, and the fierce bravery of the Ukrainians. We’ve given $113 billion in aid with another $80 billion from NATO members. Tiptoeing around nuclear trip wires, the allies have gradually become bolder, sending advanced weapons, while Putin’s generals threaten nuclear retaliation as their soldiers die by the tens of thousands.
Article 5 of the NATO treaty states that “any attack on a NATO member in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.” It was designed as a trip wire to deter the Soviets from attacking any NATO country, or we would all fight. Attack Munich, we respond as if you were attacking New York. If Ukraine was currently a member of NATO, European and American troops would be actively fighting Russian troops, who would probably attack other NATO countries, and our navies would be engaged. From the Pacific to the Atlantic, it would rage, and the Russians would lose. With bases in their motherland being destroyed, they would retaliate, including on American soil. Fingers would quiver above the button. In the future, should Ukraine be allowed to join NATO, there would be American and NATO troops stationed there. Ukraine’s border with Russia is commensurate to ours with Mexico, and Moscow is the same distance as Las Vegas is from the border. Imagine if China formed a treaty with Mexico and stationed troops in Tijuana and Juarez. It was Germany’s foolish overtures to Mexico that drew us into WWI. Yet Putin evokes Stalin, and all free people must vigorously oppose his ilk. WWII reinvigorated the Virginian motto “Sic semper tyrannis” (thus always to tyrants). But carefully, very carefully.