Cowards

Cold War

I am a child of the Cold War.  Among my earliest memories is living in the suburbs of Detroit in 1962.   I was in first grade, and sometime during the Thirteen Days of October (the Cuban Missile Crisis), all of the students of Bloomfield Village Elementary school were lined up against the hallway wall.  We were told to sit facing it, put our heads between our legs, and our hands locked over the back of our necks.  It was all to protect us from some terrible force – Russian bombs.  And, with the clear logic of a first grader, I knew we kids would be OK, because we were tight against the wall, huddled in little balls.  But the teachers, including my favorite Miss Fox, all worried and standing behind us – they would be “zapped” by the bomb!

Years later, we moved to Dayton, Ohio.  Our house was on the top of “Big Hill” in the southern part of the city, dead-on the flight path of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.  At the time, Wright-Pat was a Strategic Air Command Base, with giant B-52 bombers constantly going in and out.  SAC’s job was to keep our nuclear deterrent, bombs, constantly in the air.  That way, Russian missiles couldn’t destroy our forces on the ground.  

It’s hard to imagine that those giant, eight-engine bombers, wide as a football field, roaring close over our house were “common place”, but they were.  So was the electric garage door going up and down as the bombers went overhead – they must have shared a frequency with some landing equipment.  And, looking back, it’s even harder to imagine that each of those bombers, screaming so close that they seemed “touchable”, contained multiple nuclear weapons capable of destroying dozens of Dayton’s in a single flash of light.  

Nuclear Lessons

A decade later, I was at Denison University, studying the complexities of nuclear deterrence theory.  I learned the differences between counterforce, destroying the enemies weapons; and countervalue, destroying their cities and their civilians.  We laughed at the darkly ironic jokes, gallows humor:  “Moscow in flames, bombs on the way, film at eleven”, as if anyone would be around at eleven to watch television.  And I learned about Russia, the communist revolution that placed ideology over people, the Stalinist strategy of World War II: trade civilians and distance, for time to prepare a defense from the Nazi invasion.  Millions of Russian casualties; anything to preserve the “Rodina”, the Motherland, against the invader.  

Communism was important, but nothing was more important that Mother Russia. After the war, the “Eastern Bloc”, the series of small occupied nations between Russia and Germany, were Russia’s line of defense against a potentially aggressive West.  That has been true since the Yalta Conference in 1945 (ironically, in Crimea, today contested territory between Ukraine and Russia).   

Here in the United States, for the decades since World War II, there has been a single view of US relations with Russia (or the Soviet Union).  We have been competitors, two of the three nations capable of destroying the world, and well aware of the dangers each represented to the other.  The “liberal” John F Kennedy was elected, in part, by the concept of a non-existent missile gap.  The Soviets supposedly had more, and we needed to catch up.  Democrats and Republicans alike were well aware of the dangers of Russia.

Russian Imperialism

What happened to that consensus?  Today, it is the Democratic Biden Administration that carries on the common sense balancing of Russian imperialism, changed only in words alone from Soviet expansionism. And the Party that stood up against Communism, that threatened the Nation with the “Red Scare” of the 1950’s, that stood so strong that only their most stalwart anti-communist, Richard Nixon, could dare go to China – what happened to them?

Many are now Putin apologists.  They somehow accept Putin’s logic that allows him to invade Ukraine (what’s next?).   They’ve even tied helping Ukraine with the most polarized issue in American politics, immigration, as if somehow Democrats care more about Ukraine than the Southern Border.

Russian President (for life) Vladimir Putin held a confident press conference yesterday.  He is secure in the knowledge that Ukrainian resistance will fold without assistance from NATO, led by the United States.  And he has every right to be confident.  It seems that the United States government, in spite of all the good intentions of the Biden Administration; is going to leave Ukraine “hanging”, without further assistance.  That’s because the goals of Putin and the twice impeached, former President of the United States are aligned.  Trump wants the Presidency, and Putin wants Ukraine.  And Republicans seem to be as afraid of Trump as Russians are of Putin. 

Fear Itself

It’s all about fear.  In Russia, if you cross Putin, your plane falls from the sky, or you find yourself launched from a five story window, or you get a first-hand experience in a penal colony.  If you’re a Republican politician in America, it’s not quite so physical.  Instead of actual suicide, crossing Trump is political suicide.  With a single phrase, MAGA world rises against you in a primary.  You become a bystander in politics, like Paul Ryan or Kevin McCarthy; a “commentator” on some obscure news channel.  

Trump hates Ukraine.  Their President, Zelenskyy, failed to give him the “dirt” to attack Biden in the first place, an unforgiveable sin.  And Biden has made defending Ukraine as a centerpiece of his foreign policy. Besides, Trump has consistently shown fealty to Putin.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise that Ukraine becomes the “throwaway” for Trump 2024, linked to the seemingly insolvable issue of immigration.   And the Republicans in the House and Senate aren’t “stupid”.  While most are too young to have my “Cold War” experience, they still know the truths of history.  But fear drives them, fear of defeat, fear of loss of power, fear of Trump’s strangle hold on the Republican base.

I stand for Ukraine, not just for the righteous fight of a Nation for its independence,  but also for the “real politik” of holding the line against Russian expansionism.  That’s as plain as the nose on Putin’s face.  To ignore those facts just to “stay in office” is nothing short of moral cowardice.  That is un-American.  But, that is the Republican Party.

Ukraine Crisis Essays

Author: Marty Dahlman

I'm Marty Dahlman. After forty years of teaching and coaching track and cross country, I've finally retired!!! I've also spent a lot of time in politics, working campaigns from local school elections to Presidential campaigns.