True evil often begins with a masquerade. The most vicious regimes in history have depended on the pretensions of benevolence and the avowal of a higher purpose.  The Kremlin asserts that Ukraine is not a country but part of Russia that was lost after the Soviet Union fell. This is untrue.

Russian President Vladimir Putin rules a nation and threatens the world. He does so by inculcating fear and luxuriating in indifference. America cannot be indifferent to this scourge, for Russian success in Ukraine will place Putin at the heart of an axis composed of Russia, China, and Iran. We must not allow this murderous phalanx to be revivified after having been weakened by the astute actions of the Trump administration. 

Any accord that substantiates Russia’s domination of Ukrainian provinces, including parts of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson Oblasts, as well as Crimea, is unacceptable. The annexation of these Ukrainian territories, when coupled with Moscow’s influence over Transnistria in Moldova since 1992 and its suzerainty over Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia since 2008, will set the template for China’s invasion and intended dominion over Taiwan and areas of the South China Sea, for it would control parts of the First Island Chain.

For Iran, territorial domination may be represented not by an absolute command of foreign nations but through terrorist acts designed to destabilize Israel and the Arab Gulf states. Thus, anything resembling a Russian victory in Ukraine will resound across the world, imperiling free nations on distant continents.

Actions

Decisiveness and intrepidity by the United States are required, not lassitude and perplexity. U.S. President Joseph Biden promised to burnish other nations’ respect for America at his inauguration. Nevertheless, his administration made several critical errors in its first year, with disastrous repercussions. It executed a deadly and calamitous retreat from Afghanistan that both armed and invigorated our nation’s enemies; risked our energy independence to please environmental extremists; fortified the Kremlin by restricting American hydrocarbon production and approving the Russian Nordstream II pipeline; and impaired Saudi Arabia by delisting Iran’s Houthi proxies as a terrorist organization. The Houthis remain the scion of Iran, the rogue state with which the president sought to reestablish a discredited nuclear agreement.

Should the Biden administration’s failings continue, such enfeeblement may serve to greenlight the next war by demonstrating a weakness of purpose and negligence in planning. We must contest aggression, not signal our incapacity to forestall it.

Decisiveness can be defined as unrepressed action pursuant to an objective. Clustered around this word are others: resolve, certainty, determination, firmness, grit, and power. These are words Putin understands. Anything resembling negotiation constitutes nothing but a mask or pause that the Kremlin will repurpose to realize its goals of expansion, occupation, and domination.

President Donald Trump exemplified decisiveness in his contestation of China and Iran, in his termination of Major General Qasem Soleimani, the murderous head of Iran’s Quds Force, and in his establishment of the Abraham Accords. I, therefore, believe that when Donald Trump speaks of ending the war in Ukraine in one day, he refers to his plan for resolute and immutable action in his conduct of America’s international relations and not to any accommodation of Moscow’s aims. It is decisive American support for Ukraine that will end the war on terms acceptable to Ukraine and NATO.

Had President Trump won the 2020 election, it is extraordinarily doubtful that Putin would have had the temerity to invade Ukraine in 2022, for the abhorrent and ill-planned retreat from Afghanistan would not have occurred. Though we cannot undo the past, we should be mindful of our words. It is one thing to say that protecting America’s borders is of equal or greater importance than protecting Ukraine’s. It makes no sense to argue, however, that if money is not allocated to protect America’s borders, Ukraine’s should be left molested. That is akin to cutting off one’s nose to spite his face. It is logically deficient since it ensures the worst possible outcome in each domain.

Wisely, the House of Representatives rejected this trap and passed a crucial bill to support Ukraine on April 20, 2024. Legislators from both parties joined together in their appreciation of freedom, understanding that apathy, fear, and isolation do not define strategy; they presage defeat.

In Ukraine, men and women of extraordinary courage sacrifice themselves to secure liberty for their children and fellow citizens, and they deserve our most sincere support. Field Manual No. 3-0 was publicly distributed by the U.S. Army on October 1, 2022. It stipulates a defining principle of combat, namely the importance of mass, or the integration of “all the elements of combat power and synchronizing their application against a decisive point.”

Mass and concentration can create “overwhelming combat power at specific locations to support the main effort.” Regrettably, despite the positive steps taken by Congress, these precepts are absent from President Biden’s policies.

In his classic treatise on strategy, Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz argued that in war, it is imperative not to waste time. The Biden administration’s recalcitrance in providing heavy armaments to Ukraine wasted precious time as it hindered Kyiv’s decisive application of mass.

If the weapons that were subsequently supplied to Ukraine had been delivered in a timely manner, a pivotal advantage would have been conveyed to Ukraine. Long-range missiles are essential to modern warfare but were not provided in the first year of combat. Such weapons are vital to hold Russian formations at risk, thereby greatly complicating the Kremlin’s plans for enveloping engagements.

In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022, portable weapons, which included the Javelin anti-tank missile provided by the Trump administration, should have been bolstered immediately by the delivery of M1 tanks—held in storage—as well as fourth-generation fighter aircraft, such as the F-16. The early introduction of the M1 and other comparable German and British tanks would have allowed Ukraine to institute more effective combined-arms tactics, fusing these heavy tanks with infantry and other vital components of warfare before the proliferation of Russian drone swarms, which must now be countered.

The F-16 first flew in 1974. Only now, years after Russia’s invasion, are a number of these planes headed to Ukraine. Had significant quantities of technologically advanced systems been transferred to Ukraine immediately after Russia’s invasion, such rapidity would have saved lives by facilitating Ukraine’s mastery of the battlespace.

Commitment

By supporting Ukraine, we prevent a larger European war that may involve America’s military due to our Article 5 treaty commitment to the integrity of NATO member states. By helping Ukraine, we prevent Russia’s reconstitution of its old empire, which would act in accordance with Iran and China, to dictate world fossil-fuel prices, causing cascading economic strife in America and across the globe.

Freedom is not an afterthought. It is a rare condition throughout history and remains the most precious commodity that humanity has ever attained. In light of the stakes involved, we must allow Ukraine to dictate the terms of any peace. The global geostrategic dangers leave our nation no choice but to support Ukraine’s crusade to recapture all of its territory.

Context

Sweden’s and Finland’s ascension to NATO membership mandates our consideration of the post-war European landscape. The Three Seas Initiative and other groups of nations that border Ukraine must consider shared security goals after Russia’s objectives are defeated. Such steps constitute a necessary prologue to NATO membership for Ukraine, which can only be realized after victory and the establishment of borders that are permanent and free of Russian intrusion.

By empowering Ukraine to reestablish control over its sovereign territory, we rupture China’s designs against Taiwan, thus helping to prevent an assault that would shatter the living standards of the world by crippling supplies of essential goods such as semiconductors. Therefore, we must act in support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity lest we undercut our nation’s own interests.

By aiding Ukraine, we undermine the creation of a Chinese-Russian axis bent on exerting military and economic hegemony, which would devastate our economy. In the Middle East and Africa, a Chinese-Russian axis would fuse with Iran and other terrorist forces to form a machine of conquest and influence.

The calamitous war in Ukraine is the result of Russia’s mechanisms of subjugation, which have been allowed to feed on the world’s (Europe’s in particular) demands for natural gas and other hydrocarbons. Russia’s energy sector, which rests on oil, coal, and natural gas revenue, funds a significant part of its federal budget.

If Russia is allowed to exert dominion over the Donbas and Ukraine’s coast, the Kremlin will next seek to control the energy resources of other independent countries that were once part of the Soviet Empire. Russia will become a juggernaut, dominating fossil fuels in addition to its present lead in supplying nuclear power plants to recipient nations across the globe. This is what is at risk. It is thus imperative that the principles of American military and energy dominance be advanced, as must our restraint in the use of force that commits our country to battle, for our nation’s armed forces must not fight in Ukraine.