A Different America?

A few weeks ago, on a talk show, House Speaker Mike Johnson emphatically stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not be trusted. The former KGB officer, according to Speaker Johnson, has broken promise after promise, treaty after treaty, and his word is meaningless. I believe Speaker Johnson speaks the truth.

Putin’s 2014 invasion and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea violated a Peace Treaty and triggered protests throughout the free world, but, unfortunately, little was done to halt Russian aggression. In February of 2022, without provocation, Putin attacked Ukraine again, even reaching the outskirts of Kyiv, before his armies were driven back by the Ukrainian army.

Putin’s unprovoked attacks on a peaceful country violated the Trilateral treaty signed by the US, Russia, and Ukraine in 1994 that promised security to Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine giving up their nuclear weapons. The US, at that time, promised to defend Ukraine if attacked by Russia. For the past three years, in light of Russian aggression, our government and our European allies have been sending military assistance and economic aid to Ukraine. Conservative Republican Senator Lindsay Graham, as well as other US senators from both political parties, have complimented Ukraine on numerous occasions for their bravery and steadfastness in resisting Russian tyranny.

The war has devastated the nation of Ukraine. Their cities and towns have been bombed and destroyed, thousands of people have been killed, and their economy has been left in shambles. For what purpose? Why did Putin launch an unprovoked attack on a peace-loving nation? So Putin can regain territory lost when the Soviet Empire collapsed and reestablish Russia as a world power.

Speaker Johnson was simply telling the country what everybody already knew, or should know, when he said that Putin, an authoritarian dictator, could not be trusted. The cliché, “Past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior” has proven true over and over again. People don’t stray far from how they have acted in the past.

Putin’s unreliable promises make the press conference between President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky all the more troubling. Why our nation’s leaders would berate and try to intimidate a country’s president who is bravely trying to lead his people to defend themselves against a tyrant’s aggression escapes me and has raised concerns all over the free world—can America still be valued as a beacon of light for countries yearning for freedom?  

President Trump has said that the Ukrainian president does not want peace, but I can’t for the life of me understand why the president would say such a thing. President Zelensky understands all too well that any treaty without US assurances of security for Ukraine would not be worth the paper it was written on. Why? Because, in the words of Speaker Johnson, Mr. Putin cannot be trusted. If Ukraine signs the Peace Treaty that President Trump proposed, it would mean the end of Ukraine.

Any peace treaty without US guarantees would be the equivalent of the Munich Pact signed in 1938 between Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy. In the treaty, Germany promised that it had no more territorial aims on Czechoslovakia. After the treaty was signed, Neville Chamberlain naively declared that the agreement insured “Peace for our time.” Hitler soon reneged on his promise and conquered the rest of the country. Today, the Munich Pact is regarded as a failed treaty that helped stoke the flames for World War II. History has taught the world that dictators cannot be appeased.  

I’ve been shocked and dismayed that so many in Congress have defended the president’s behavior in the White House. President Zelensky was a guest of President Trump during a time when Ukraine was fighting for its survival against a much superior foe who savagely attacked the peaceful country. President Zelensky has witnessed every day his people’s courage and suffering and knows first-hand the brutality and perfidy of Putin’s regime. Men are going to the front with artificial limbs to continue the fight against the Russians. The heroics of the Ukrainian people are profiles in courage.

How can we not stand with a country that is risking everything to fight tyranny? It’s unfathomable to me that our government, who has historically stood by democracies who were attacked by authoritarian states, would publicly humiliate and shame a friend seeking US assistance. Why is President Trump reorienting America’s moral compass? To what purpose? For business opportunities in Russia? Really? Has our nation become so greedy, so consumed by the almighty dollar, that we have abandoned principles like honor, dependability, virtue, integrity, and love of freedom?

The question every American must ask themselves: Is America a defender of Democracy or a pal of autocrats? For 248 years that answer has been unequivocal, but now the world watches and wonders if America is still “the shining city on a hill” or has morphed into a dark enabler of despotism. There was only one person who gained from that contentious meeting in the White House—Vladimir Putin—a tyrant who has no love for America or any country that stands in the way of his evil ambitions.  

I can’t imagine how difficult and demanding the office of president. The pressures of the person sitting in the Oval Office must be immense, and I want every American president to be successful, regardless of party. Still, in the last few weeks we have seen America forsake its allies, break its promises to the poor and needy, and create economic havoc around the world. I pray this is not America’s new trajectory.

In the aftermath of President Trump’s withdrawal of military support for the Ukrainians, Rory Stewart, a British statesman, raises an important question for Americans:

“Was it for this that the US spent 80 years building power and alliances? Not to be a force for good. But instead to impoverish neighbors, threaten those it once protected, rob minerals from war-torn countries, and break its promises to 100s of millions of the poorest in the world?”