Talking with a Friend

Generations

I had a conversation with a younger friend of mine the other day.  He asked very serious questions:  why should the United States get involved in a conflict, far away in Eastern Europe?  Why aren’t Russian concerns about being “encircled” by hostile alliances just as valid as our worries about the Caribbean or Central America?  Shouldn’t our European “friends” spend their treasure and blood to deal with Russia, instead of the US standing in as the “world’s policeman?”

Frankly, I am always ready to answer those questions.  I am a “Boomer”, the child of World War II veterans.  That label is an honor, not an insult. My generation was the “prize” that our parents earned with their sacrifice.  I was raised in memories of their world that tried to bargain with Fascism rather than stand up to its expansion.  My parents steeped me in the loss and sacrifice of their generation, of the friends who disappeared in the air or on the battlefields.  They understood that there was no turning away from that fight – it would still come and find you, ready or not.

Realization

But it was his next question that caught me unprepared.  He phrased it a little differently, but it basically went:  how can I trust a government who spent twenty years in Afghanistan to no avail, then simply turned and walked away?  The accusation in his tone wasn’t for the leaving, but for staying with no good result. 

 And today, I watched the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, lay out the case against Russia in the United Nations Security Council.  His words were persuasive, just as tellingly solid as the last time our highest foreign minister warned of impending war in that same body.  That was an even more respected Secretary of State:  General Colin Powell, laying out the case against Iraq.

Experience

And then I realized why my thirty-something friend was so adamant against war. In his lifetime, Americans went into Afghanistan after 9-11 with good cause, to punish the Taliban and destroy Al Qaeda.  But when we achieved both, we didn’t declare victory and leave. We instead stayed for two decades and tried, using George W Bush’s phrase, to “nation build”. My friend’s compatriots were the last to stand on the ridges of Helmand Province, fighting to no avail.  They are suffering today the devastating mental effects of that war.

 And in the midst of that, we determined to invade Iraq as well.  With all respect for General Powell, who was force-fed bad information at Presidential order: he lied about why we should invade the country.  And while getting rid of Saddam Hussein might have been a laudable goal, we opened up a world of conflict that his iron fist controlled.  The suffering in the region spread, from Iraq to Syria, and continues even today.

My friend has no experiential reason to “trust” that the United States is making a valid decision about Russia’s actions in Ukraine today.  “Where is OUR interest, so far away, in a nation where we couldn’t fight, even if we wanted to?”  He speaks with the authority of recent history, and a podcast fueled omniscience.  I get it.

Doomed to Repeat

But I look at a wider history than just the US military failures of the 21st Century.  In the 1930’s, there were two world powers; both authoritarian regimes, and both wanted to expand their hegemony in separate spheres.  They found alliance in their enemies.  One was recovering from an utter collapse at the end of World War I.  The other was seeking domination of Asia.  

The United States, embroiled in its own calamities, ignored both.  The European nations tried to negotiate with Germany, giving away chunks until there was no choice but to fight.  The United States then stood as the only power facing Japan.  We ended up fighting both, with the Greatest Generation bearing the brunt of the sacrifice.

Today’s crisis in Ukraine is not attempting to “democratize” tribal nations without foundation.  Ukraine is not Iraq or Afghanistan, it is a nation-state wishing to be autonomous from Russian control.  And if it falls, is it Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, next?   Then what? What about China expanding into Taiwan, the Sea of China, the “Pacific Sphere of Influence”?

History would have been different if we had backed Europe, standing up to Hitler at the Anschluss, or at Munich.  What if the world had stood against Japan in Korea, or Manchuria?  But even back then they said, “Where is OUR interest, so far away, in a nation where we couldn’t fight, even if we wanted to?”  OUR interest whether it’s Hitler and Tojo then, or Putin and Xi today: it is better to stand for democracy and against authoritarianism early.  

If not, then you surely will have to stand against it later.