A Republican congressman representing deep red Nebraska took to the New York Times Monday in an effort to convince President Donald Trump to backtrack on current Ukraine policy.
Rep. Don Bacon urged Trump to resist capitulating to Russian President Vladimir Putin — and he delivered a history lesson in an attempt to persuade him.
“The United States must firmly oppose any approach that rewards Mr. Putin for his ruthless aggression,” Bacon, a vocal Trump supporter, wrote in an opinion piece.
“In recent weeks, too many of my fellow Republicans — including Mr. Trump — have treated Russia with velvet gloves, shying away from calling out Mr. Putin’s flatly illegal war and even blaming Ukraine for starting it.
“As the White House works to end the fighting and forge a just and durable peace, my party must reaffirm our commitment to opposing Mr. Putin’s expansionism and to supporting Ukraine’s defense of its sovereignty.”
He then laid out a history of Russia’s brutal repression of Ukraine, the nation Putin invaded three years ago and in which a bloody war is still waging. Trump has signalled he’s willing to make a deal with Russia in an attempt to end it.
Bacon described the deaths of up to five million Ukrainians under Joseph Stalin’s rule in the 1930s, followed by a life “blighted by collectivization, disappearances, executions and gulags,” up to the fall of the Soviet Union.
He then detailed the 1994 pact that “extended explicit security guarantees for Ukraine — including a commitment by Russia to respect its borders — in return for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons.”
“The United States and the rest of Europe shamelessly abandoned these security commitments when Mr. Putin ordered the Russian military to annex and occupy the Crimean Peninsula,” Bacon wrote.
“ … This history makes clear that America has a moral obligation to continue providing aid to Ukraine until Russia commits to fair and just peace negotiations. That means including Ukraine in the conversation.”
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“As the war enters its fourth year, Americans understandably question why the United States should continue supporting Kyiv,” Bacon wrote.
“They ask whether we can afford it, whether it’s our fight or whether Ukraine’s fate truly matters to them.
"To me, the answer is simple: Supporting Ukraine in its struggle against Russian aggression is not only morally right. It is also in our national interest, because the future cost of abandoning Ukraine would vastly outweigh the investment we have made in rejecting Russia’s aggression.”
He concluded, “Peace won’t be easy, but we must reject the trap of making a false choice. It is possible to end the war for Ukraine, preserve our moral clarity by holding Russia accountable and advance America’s long-term national interests in the process. This is a Ronald Reagan moment.”