George Will’s latest Washington Post column, arguing for a more activist role for the U. S. vis-à-vis Ukraine can be summarized in two equations:
Russia 2025 = Germany 1938
Russia 2025 = Soviet Union 1945
He doesn’t actually present an argument but here are his major claims:
Putin is waging what Johns Hopkins scholar Hal Brands calls (in his new book, “The Eurasian Century”) “a quasi-genocidal war.” Barbarian regimes (see “‘Be Cruel’: Inside Russia’s Torture System for Ukrainian POWs,” the Wall Street Journal, Feb. 10) will be barbaric until stopped. But a revanchist and expansionist Russia worries Europeans more than it worries Donald Trump.
“Look,” he said on Feb. 3 regarding Europe, “we have an ocean in between. They don’t. It’s more important for them than it is for us.” But the ocean was there in 1941. And someone should explain to Trump the acronym “ICBM.”
I agree that Russia is revanchist. I don’t believe it is expansionist and I don’t believe either of the two equations above.
What I actually think is that Russia wants a materially demilitarized buffer between itself and countries that invaded Russia in the 20th century. To his discourse on 20th century history he might include that Germany, France, Britain, the United States, Poland, and even Italy invaded Russia in the 20th century.
I also think the following equations are false:
Europe 2025 = Europe 1918
Europe 2025 = Europe 1945
What I think our objective should be is to convince the Russians that they have no reason to fear invasion or even covert destabilizing activities from NATO countries. Is it even possible to do that with a country as paranoid from long experience as Russia? And do we actually want to do that?
