-- By Tom Phillips
 |
| Newsweek Photos |
Russia will outlast any western
offensive partly because of its size, but mostly because it is a permanently
militarized fortress state. Government in Russia is inseparable from
defense. The Kremlin bears no resemblance to the White House or
Buckingham Palace. It stands at Moscow's highest
elevation, surrounded by a 10- to 20-foot-thick brick wall that rises to
62 feet. Inside the walls are treasures of Russian civilization, along
with vintage cannons and piles of cannonballs, symbols of Russian resistance
and resilience. Russian military tactics are ruthless, targeting soldiers and
civilians with little concern for optics or world opinion.
Russia has survived attacks from the
West going back to the Dark Ages -- Goths and Huns, Norse and Swedes and
Poles all came against them, and were turned back. In modern times the French and German Empires
--Napoleon, then Hitler -- attacked and were humiliated. NATO is next.
The West sees Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine as aggression, or imperialism, but to Russia it is defense of its own
territory. The word Ukraine in Russian means "borderland." Russia was formed a thousand years ago in the "Kievan Rus," now covered by parts of Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia. Russia's first capital was
Kyiv. One-third of people in Ukraine still speak Russian and identify as
Russian. Parallels are far-fetched -- but let us say
Ukraine is to the Kremlin what the North Atlantic Ocean is to the US and
Canada – a geographic barrier essential to national security.
If Russia is a fortress, NATO is more
like a parade, a show of flags. Originally a 12-nation alliance in Western
Europe, it now comprises 31 nations all over Europe, most of them far from the
North Atlantic, many of them militarily insignificant. Why would the United
States seek a mutual defense pact with Bulgaria, or Lithuania?
Historians Thomas Meaney and Grey Anderson argue
critically that the real reason for NATO’s multiplication since the 1990’s
has been to open markets for US business. Former deputy secretary of state Stephen A. Biegun seems to confirm
that line in a recent Washington Post column. He and Marc Thiessen argue
NATO membership for Ukraine would ensure peace, create confidence and encourage
investors. “A stable, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine will be a
customer and trading partner for America. An unstable Ukraine, under constant
threat from Russia, will be a continual drain on US resources,” they write.
Handing out NATO membership to potential
customers and trading partners has now stuck the US and its allies with responsibility for the
legitimate fears of tiny countries like Lithuania. It will hardly assuage
those fears by escalating an unwinnable war in Ukraine. Right now,
the US is sending cluster bombs to Ukraine that will kill and
maim Ukrainian civilians, including children, for years to come.
Meanwhile it is pressing Ukrainian troops to be more aggressive, to fight
to their deaths. This is a drain on Ukraine's resources – the most precious
of them -- far more than any sacrifice for us.
The US wants Ukraine to sacrifice
thousands more soldiers and civilians on a killing field strewn
with every conceivable kind of mine, and under relentless artillery
fire. For what? Battlefield reports make it clear that Russia has
clawed back its buffer in Ukraine, and nothing short of nuclear attack will dislodge
it.
Ukraine is already Biden's
Vietnam. It could be NATO's Waterloo.
-- Copyright 2023 by Tom Phillips
Very discerning and provocative. Thanks, Tom.
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