A few decades from now, when the history of the early 21st century is written, it should be clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was one of the period’s most gigantic and unforced errors.
The thought comes to mind upon word that Finland, which shares an 800-mile-long border with Russia, has been approved for NATO membership. This would not have happened unless smaller countries near Russia realized that if Putin could try to take out Ukraine, he might come after them one day, too.
To put this news another way, Finland was never a NATO member during the challenging years of the Cold War, roughly from the end of World War II in 1945 to the end of the Soviet Union in 1990. But now, three decades later, the Finnish government sees the benefits of joining a defense alliance that includes almost every country in Europe, along with the United States.
What a disaster Ukraine has been for Putin and Russia. He thought NATO, the United States and the Ukrainians themselves would just roll over and let him fulfill his territorial ambition of piecing the old Soviet empire back together.
But a year in, the Ukrainian military and citizens continue to put up a good fight against a much larger aggressor. Even worse for Putin, something happened that no one in Europe or the U.S. expected: President Biden successfully took on a leadership role in keeping NATO unified against Russia.
So far, there haven’t been many cracks in the alliance. The most significant have been a reluctance among a few well-armed European nations to share tanks and other equipment with Ukraine; plus Turkey’s resistance to Finland joining NATO (the Turks continue to hold up Sweden’s application to join).
American leadership came with a price — tens of billions of dollars in military supplies and training. But there has been no talk of sending American troops into the fray, and rightly so. Our military has had its fill of optional combat for a while. Our proper role is to send equipment to aid Ukraine’s troops.
When anyone questions the wisdom of helping Ukraine, they should look at what the nations of Eastern Europe have done since the Iron Curtain and the Soviet empire collapsed in 1989 and 1990. These countries had had their fill of communism. They looked to the west, which flourished after World War II while the people under Russia’s influence languished.
Today, NATO’s membership includes three former Soviet republics and 11 countries that are former Warsaw Pact members. Russia was understandably worried that NATO’s membership borders kept moving eastward, but it has turned out that invading Ukraine was the absolute wrong way to do something about it.
Some Americans think we need to let Europe solve its own problems. But defending Ukraine is bigger than stopping Russia. China is watching too, and just waiting for our resolve to weaken.
— Jack Ryan, McComb Enterprise-Journal
