The argument between Texas Senator John Cornyn and The Federalist’s Sean Davis began over the former criticizing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ characterization of the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a territorial dispute.
“Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY “didn’t want to appeal to the hearts of Americans, in other words, but to their heads. … [T]his was his answer: Help us fight them here, help us defeat them here, and you won’t have to fight them… https://t.co/HmPJSjrTCl
Davis wasn’t wrong. Cornyn, however, is.
Sidebar: There is some interesting debate around Chamberlain and the British government buying time to prepare for certain war by leveraging a nation they knew they couldn’t save.
“In short, Chamberlain’s government did not believe that Britain had the military muscle either to deter German aggression or to actually defeat Germany in the event that it couldn’t be deterred. The British were well aware that a revisionist Germany had been rearming while Britain and France – in deference to post-war domestic political sensibilities – had been disarming. And the evidence suggests that they were painfully aware that by 1938 Britain had no realistic hope of prevailing in another war with Germany.
And so, the Chamberlain government decided to take the only course of action open to it: delay military confrontation with Germany until Britain had adequately prepared itself for a major war.”
We are not remotely in this same situation.
Sure, there are some similarities: A tyrant, annexation, blathering about the motherland, but that’s where the similarities end. Putin is a weakened shadow of his former self, his economy is propped up by Chinese dollars for dirty Russian gas and OPEC+. The United States and European allies have levied sanctions, not silence, against the aggressor. Putin’s only hope of victory lies in a war of attrition unless peace negotiations take place.
What is his idea of “victory?” What is Ukraine’s?
Neocons who struggle with basic geography argue that Putin’s imperialist expansionism will put Russia at NATO’s borders. Five NATO members already border Russia: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Poland. Now what?
There are a few scenarios here:
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Cornyn is suggesting that Russia is going to invade a NATO nation.
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Cornyn is suggesting that Russia is going to go full “Red Dawn” and invade the U.S.
Both of these are unrealistic scenarios.
Fearmongering a Republican governor with the threat of war in our country — and using the words of a foreign leader to do it — as a substitute for smart deterrence and peace through strength is shallow and lazy.
A strong United States is a deterrent to tyrants. Millions of Americans have no desire to further involve our nation in a conflict encouraged by weak leadership in Washington.
(We reached out to Senator Cornyn’s office to invite him to discuss this on my program and his office replied that he was traveling in the state and unable to join.)
