Our Historic Betrayal of Ukraine
America is no longer a moral force
We have seen the best of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves.
King Lear, Act I, ii
I’m more than a day late and a dollar short with this update, but it’s almost impossible to keep up with the enormity of the Donald Trump’s presidency. I find myself quoting the Duke of Buckingham in Richard III, when asked to murder the two princes, responds, “Give me some breath, some little pause, my lord.”
But even King Richard did not move at the pace of the Trump Administration and Elon Musk. We’re only a month in and we bounce from crisis to crisis created by Trump, including the greatest turn on a country’s allies since Italy switched sides in World War I.
The temptation is to turn away, to not witness what is being said and done in our names. Threaten Panama? Announce a planned annexation of Greenland, by force if necessary? The proposed ethnic cleansing of Gaza?
I never expected to see in my lifetime O Canada to become the 21st century version of "La Marseillaise."
There are no limits to the betrayals of trust, the destruction of the goodwill built by the United States in two world wars and in the creation of the post-war order.
But this week’s betrayal of Ukraine, while expected and feared, joins the list of the most immoral acts committed by our country. The United States met with Russia to decide the fate of Ukraine without any Ukrainian representatives present.
The meeting has been described as a modern Munich Conference after the meeting between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler which decided the fate of Czechoslovakia in 1938. It was more like the conferences that decided the partition of Poland, and its eventual disappearance, by Prussia, Russia and Austria in the 18th century.
Not only did the United States announce a change in sides in the conflict, our country did it after engaging in terrible extortion. To continue our aid to Ukraine, we demanded in perpetuity 50% of their income from mineral rights development, oil and gas, and even Ukraine’s port activity, with no guarantee of protection of Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Anne Applebaum described the inhuman position our country has adopted:
The Ukrainians, who have suffered hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties, whose cities have been turned to rubble, whose national finances have been decimated, and whose personal lives have been disrupted, are offered nothing in exchange for half their wealth: no security guarantees, no investment. These terms resemble nothing so much as the Versailles Treaty imposed on a defeated Germany after World War I, and are dramatically worse than those imposed on Germany and Japan after World War II.
This demand for Ukraine’s economic lifeblood made by our government in our country’s name is a stain on our flag that will be nearly impossible to remove, regardless of how the Ukraine war actually ends. Generations of good will and a reputation of a nation that at least attempts to be a beacon of morality in global affairs, wiped out in one mad gesture by Trump. It will take generations of American leaders to undo the damage and restore our reputation.
Who will trust America’s word when, with one election, the American people could choose another ignorant thug like Trump who would betray every agreement, and even the truth itself?
Our betrayal of Ukraine is visible for the whole world to see. But, if there was any doubt, the United States under Trump has chosen to rub the world’s nose in the shit we’ve created. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is supporting a resolution at the United Nations that marks the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a resolution that does not mention who started the war, demand Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine, or mention any of the atrocities committed by Russia. The following is Rubio’s explanation for this betrayal of the truth:
In 1994, the United States, Russia, and Great Britain promised Ukraine it would not be subjected to military or economic coercion in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons. Russia betrayed that promise and began undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty in 1994 with the seizure of Crimea.
We’re now betraying the promises made by our government to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty with the demand for its material wealth. We have become the aggressor nation we swore we would oppose.
And, like Oskar in The Tin Drum, all we can do is watch the horror unfold and scream.
“I would say roughly that Dean Martin has been stoned more often than the United States embassies.” - Frank Sinatra, Live at the Sands, 1966.
A sin without redemption.