(Dobbs) If You Aren't Aligning With Ukraine, You Are Aligning With Russia
It has become a cynical litmus test for the hard-right.
When I saw the news that Russia yesterday killed more than 50 civilians— non-combatants— in a small Ukrainian village far from the front lines, the first thing that came into my head was, “Can you believe it?!?” But that’s really two questions. First, can you believe that Vladimir Putin is so bloodthirsty to win his war that he would do something as brutal as this, and second, can you believe that there are diehards in the United States Congress, and Americans who back them, who don’t want to help Ukraine fight back?
How in heaven’s name can they turn a blind eye to the butchery? In the middle of the day, a 24-foot-long Russian missile hit a village named Hroza, in the northeastern part of the country. It tore apart what locals call a “grocery-cafe,” where people had gathered for a wake. A local official says Russia’s rocket wiped out almost half the entire population of Hroza. Western reporters confirm, there were no Ukrainian military units or industrial sites in the area.
That means, like so many massacres before it, the attack on Hroza was an act of terrorism, which is generally defined as violence against non-combatants— translation: non-fighters— for political or social gain. It also was a war crime, which is generally defined as a deliberate or even just reckless attack on civilians.
With history as our guide, this wasn’t a one-off, where Russia could claim that the missile’s targeting system malfunctioned. Bombardments like these— war crimes like these— have happened time and time again in the more than nineteen months since Putin’s army invaded. The United Nations tracks injuries and fatalities in the war zone and in its report a month ago, the toll of civilian casualties targeted by the Russians was 27,149, including 9,614 deaths. And they report this data with a caveat: because of the dangers and difficulties of getting reliable counts in a war zone, the true numbers most likely are far bigger. They’re already bigger in the month since that report. And bigger still after the strike on Hroza.
By comparison, although Ukraine has sent armed drones all the way to Moscow, you can’t find reports of anyone killed in Russia. There aren’t any. Zero. And as a reminder to those doubters who would cut off aid, there have been no American casualties either. Zero again. We have no troops in the war. The worst costs we suffer by supporting Ukraine are financial, nothing more. It is not breaking our society. It is not changing our lives.
But the war is destroying Ukraine. They are fighting for their lives. They are fighting for their survival.
The former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, General Wesley Clark, framed Russia’s missile strike in starkly repugnant terms: “It’s punishment, plain and simple. The Ukrainians are resisting, they should be killed.”
Yet a growing number of American politicians and citizens are willing to let Russia get away with it. They are willing to let Putin get away with it. Opposing Ukraine aid, even if only a cynical maneuver to win concessions on other budgetary issues, has become a litmus test for the hard-right.
It is true that there have been slaughters over the years on other continents where the U.S. did not respond. But what sets this apart from the rest is that supporting Ukraine isn’t just a matter of doing what’s morally right. It’s a matter of doing what’s strategically required, because if Putin gets what he wants in Ukraine, his megalomaniacal obsession could push him to go for more. That’s another reason why he has to be stopped.
Right now, this scrappy nation wants to align with the U.S. and the West. If these shortsighted Americans who would cut off aid aren’t aligning themselves with the victim, they are aligning themselves with the aggressor. If they aren’t aligning themselves with Ukraine, they are aligning themselves with Russia. And putting other allies at risk.
They should know better. They should be ashamed.
There is no silver lining in the mass murder in Hroza, but one positive thing could come out of it. It could knock some sense not only into some of the critics who oppose funding Ukraine’s defense, but maybe also into the leadership and populations of our allies, some of whom have signaled their own weakening support.
For them, and for Americans sitting on the fence, these are the choices: align with the West, or align with Russia.
Over more than five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He also co-authored a book about the seminal year for baby boomers, called “1969: Are You Still Listening?” He has covered presidencies, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 37-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame.
Spot On! Well said. Thanks Greg!
Throughout history allies help allies in times of mortal danger. For us to abandon Ukraine now is akin to moral danger, from which we will suffer within.