(Dobbs) The Downgraded War
We are backing allies in two wars, and cannot afford to take our eyes off either.
The first week of October, Ukraine’s 20-month stretch of horror still was a front page story. The flow of weapons, the uneven counteroffensive, the Russian resistance, the growing doubts in the U.S. and Europe.
Then came Israel’s day of horror, October 6th. Waves of rockets and torrents of terrorists from Hamas. Citizens slaughtered, hostages captured, the government caught unawares. The Palestinians’ days of horror, not to be understated, were soon to start and keep getting worse. Views about who’s at fault have conflicted, world opinion has shifted.
But while that’s all bona fide front page news, Vladimir Putin’s tyranny and the battles in the beleaguered Ukraine haven’t gone away. Yet reports about both have sunk way down in the lineup of stories. On some days, although nothing has gotten better since the Middle East blew up, you’ve had to search to read about it.
I took a look at yesterday’s story lineups on the websites of three of America’s biggest sources of news. At The New York Times, you had to scroll a ways down from the stories in the Middle East to find the first story from the war zone in Europe, and it was one that linked the two wars: “Israel and Ukraine both say they need these three weapons from the U.S.” At CNN.com, there were 13 stories from Israel and the Gaza Strip, then nine on the race to be the next Speaker of the House, six on Trump’s tribulations, a few murders… and finally, three reports about Ukraine. Television network newscasts still command audiences in the tens of millions and at the leading network, ABC News, you had to read past hurricanes and crimes to find two stories about Ukraine.
So maybe it’s time for a few updates from the increasingly downgraded war.
Death and destruction, and despotism from Moscow, have not stopped. The counteroffensive the West hoped would turn the war hasn’t, but Ukraine keeps fighting. Its forces have crossed the Dnipro River into the Russian occupied region of Kherson. But over the weekend, two Russian missiles struck a postal facility in Kharkiv, a region Russia took, then lost, now is trying to take again. They killed six Ukrainians. It is becoming a war of attrition: which side will wear down first? There is progress, but winter isn’t far off and that progress will be stalled in the mud.
For some who’ve supported Ukraine’s defense, that’s not enough any more. The pro-Russian winner of parliamentary elections three weeks ago in the former Soviet republic of Slovakia, which had been on Ukraine’s side, has pledged “not to send a single cartridge” anymore to help Ukraine. In Poland— probably the most ardently anti-Russian of all the former Soviet republics and which, of all the allies, has the longest border with Russia— the BBC reports that “Ukraine fatigue” has set in. Poland might send fewer arms and accept fewer refugees. Its president recently painted a portentous parallel, comparing Ukraine to a drowning man who risks dragging his rescuers down with him.
Most of Europe still stands with Ukraine though— the Netherlands’ prime minister just announced that his military is sending additional Patriot missiles to help Kiev defend its skies. The foreign minister of Lithuania, which also shares a border with Russia, says the West should back Ukraine until every Russian invader is driven out.
But then there’s the United States of America. President Biden, reflecting what polls suggest is still the will of the American people, has said and said again that we will stand with Ukraine and against Russia for as long as it takes. But for members of the hard-right in Congress, it already has taken too long. When President Zelensky came last month to Washington, House Republicans— soon to fight their own internecine war— wouldn’t even formally meet with him. And additional funding to keep Ukraine’s military on the move is tied up in the whole quarrel over government funding. Some of the Republican frontrunners for president have jumped on that short-sighted bandwagon. Analysts say that if we don’t keep helping, allies in Europe can’t make up the difference.
If Western support cracks, the question is, will Ukraine’s resolve crack with it?
Meanwhile, Putin turns more evil.
He has been charging without evidence that Poland is plotting to take parts of western Ukraine for itself, and called his concocted scenario “a very dangerous game.” His former prime minister refers to three other allies in the fight against Russia— Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania— as “Baltic provinces” which means, in his terminology, they belong to Russia.
Internally, Putin has led Russia ever closer to the epoch of the Soviet Union. After being arrested in March on charges of espionage, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is no closer to freedom and if eventually he is found guilty at trial, he faces up to 20 years in prison. Then last week, another American journalist, Radio Free Europe’s Alsu Kurmasheva, was arrested and accused of failing to register as a foreign agent, a charge used in Russia these days to harass anyone speaking out against the Kremlin.
Finally, Putin’s nemesis Alexei Navalny, neutralized to extinguish open opposition to the Russian president, is serving a sentence of 19 years on trumped-up charges and soon will be moved to a “special regime,” meaning harsher, prison. When he was back in court last week, his three lawyers were detained and face up to six years behind bars themselves for “participation in an extremist organization.”
The Soviet system is alive and well in Russia.
So, if as Americans we are to make informed decisions about our nation’s foreign policy, there are two wars that need our attention. Both promise more blood on the battlefield, and neither will be won by either side very soon. In his television speech over the weekend, President Biden assured both allies that the flow of assistance from the U.S. would continue. That’s the good news. But the bad news is, if American citizens stop paying attention, support will wane, and American interests around the world will suffer.
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.
Thank you Greg. Excellent and necessary essay. In this era of sound bite lengths for memories, many would rather concentrate on NFL standings. But as you wisely remind us, engaged people who clearly see the danger cannot look away.
I’ll bet that our wives are having more fun than we are today.