US and Ukraine, Goals in Conflict Among the nations aiding Ukraine in its resistance to the Russian invasion, America has been foremost. Yet the war interests of our two nations are not identical.
To the U.S., the imperative is that the war be contained, not expanded, and that we not be drawn into a wider war with Russia.
For the independence, territorial integrity and democratic rule of Ukraine, while championed by the U.S., are not vital U.S. interests. None of them justifies a war with Russia that could imperil the security and, if it escalated to nuclear weapons, the very survival of our country.
That America is not "all in" in Ukraine is obvious. Before Feb. 24, the U.S. never brought Ukraine into NATO, never gave it an "Article 5" war guarantee, never agreed to fight alongside it if attacked.
From the first February days of this war, we ruled out U.S. "boots on the ground" or U.S. participation in a "no-fly zone," which would require U.S. pilots to shoot down Russian planes.
These decisions and declarations about what we would not do testified to the limits of the U.S. commitment to Ukraine, as well as to our reluctance to take serious risks to ourselves on Kyiv's behalf.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's goal, however, the defeat of the Russian invaders and their expulsion from Ukraine, would require greater support from the U.S. and NATO than he is receiving or is likely to receive.
The U.S. and NATO are willing to supply Ukraine with the weapons to defend themselves and defeat the Russians in battle, but neither NATO nor the U.S. is prepared to fight the Ukrainians' war for them.
When it comes to the fighting and dying, this is their war, not ours.
To shame NATO and the U.S. more fully and openly into his war, Zelenskyy is accusing reluctant Western nations of being appeasers cut from the same bolt of cloth as Neville Chamberlain at Munich.
What is Zelenskyy saying?
Our cause is Europe's cause. Our cause is NATO's cause. Our cause is democracy's cause. Our cause is the world's cause. If we go down, we will be only the first to fall to Vladimir Putin's empire. Others will follow.........
https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/patrick-j-buchanan/us-and-ukraine-goals-conflict
