Should the U.S. Be Helping Ukraine Defend Itself?

I’m always interested in speaking with my mom about politics, as it gives me a summary of what the Fox News talking points have been over the intervening days since our last conversation.

Last night it was Ukraine–the folly of helping Ukraine defend itself against the invading Russians.

Now, this one I don’t begin to understand.  If you want to argue for most of the right-wing viewpoints, at least you have a point to make, even if it’s flawed.  If you want to say that abortion is murder, or that all murderers deserve the death penalty, or that the attacks against Donald Trump are politically motivated, or that immigrants illegally crossing our southern border don’t deserve to be treated humanely, I can at least see where you’re coming from, even though I vehemently disagree.

But I can’t see any possible starting point for abandoning Ukraine and letting a murderous dictator take over a neighboring democracy.

Here are a few of the Fox lines of argument, along with my response:

 • Ukraine is corrupt.

I seriously doubt that any country on Earth is completely free of corruption, a belief I hold perhaps based on the fact that corruption here in the U.S. is rampant; some of it (lobbying) is legal, and God only knows how much is illegal, just carefully hidden from public view.

As one of 30 member countries in NATO, we’re supplying Ukraine with various tools for repelling the invasion, most of which are weaponry and training.   The total thus far is $54 billion, less than 7% of the annual military budget.

 • We have nothing in common with the Ukrainian people.  It’s shocking that anyone would go on camera and say something so cold-hearted and stupid.  They are people, after all, and Europeans as well, not that that should matter.

 • Tucker Carlson: “I’m rooting for Russia.” It’s hard to imagine anything more unAmerican.  Russia is an avowed enemy of the United States in specific, and of freedom and democracy in general.  We have hundreds of nuclear weapons aimed at each other–and you’re rooting for them?

Engagement in an aggressive war is an international war crime.  And speaking of which, every civilized person on this planet is hoping to see Putin pay a big price for having orchestrated an invasion in which thousands of innocent men, women, and children have been arrested, raped, tortured, and murdered.