Comment: Support for Ukraine is U.S.’s best shot to stop Putin

By Mike Quigley / Chicago Tribune

We are running out of time and money for Ukraine.

Last week, the White House Office of Management and Budget made it clear that without the approval of additional funding, we will no longer be able to aid Ukraine.

If we fail to heed this warning, we risk derailing the progress Ukraine has made and handing Russian President Vladimir Putin a victory. We also risk sending a message to other autocrats that incursion into free democracies will go unopposed.

Putin’s war in Ukraine threatens the liberal world order that so many fought and died for in World War II. The domino effect of his victory would jeopardize the free world for generations to come.

In the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations far away.”

That is why we must act.

If we allow Putin to run roughshod over Ukraine, it is only a matter of time before we face the greatest conflict in Eastern Europe since World War II, requiring direct engagement by the United States to defend our NATO allies.

If Putin is successful in destroying Ukraine, he will seek to reconstitute the former Soviet Union. He would attempt to form a federation with Belarus and Ukraine by installing a puppet government and then target Moldova, the Baltics, Georgia and others. Those who suggest that Ukraine’s war is not our fight fail to remember that should Russia expand its attack and cross a border into one of these NATO countries, we are bound by Article 5 of the NATO charter to defend them.

Simultaneously, we must show leaders in Beijing and Tehran that we will not cower in the face of tyranny; that the values we fought for in World War II still matter. The Ukrainians’ fight is our fight. They are fighting for the same principles on which NATO and the United Nations were founded.

The decisions we make here in Congress about this conflict will affect not only the survival of Ukraine and its neighbors; they also will affect our own national security. To understand this, look to our history.

During World War II, Roosevelt championed the United States as an “arsenal of democracy” to describe our role in providing weapons to democracies fighting to defend themselves. This helped the Allied forces win the war, while kick-starting decades of manufacturing growth and the creation of 17 million new civilian jobs here at home.

The military aid we have appropriated for Ukraine is no different. It has delivered weapons to Ukraine and provided funding to replace that equipment for the Department of Defense, creating manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and improving our own military readiness.

Unfortunately, in recent months, Congress has repeatedly fumbled opportunities to send aid to Ukraine, bringing us to the do-or-die scenario we face today.

In September, a majority of Republicans voted against a $300 million aid package to Ukraine, and a few days later, leadership refused to include additional funding in the continuing resolution. With these actions, Republicans rejected the Reagan Doctrine, which states that we must stand by our democratic allies and defy Soviet aggression. Those values are now seemingly dead within the Republican Party.

To make matters worse, Republicans were mired in intraparty squabbles for three critical weeks, leaving Congress gridlocked.

There are those who have turned the issue of Ukraine funding into an unnecessary, unrealistic choice between Ukraine and Israel. But we do not have to choose.

In the words of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg: “We have the capability and the strength to address different challenges at the same time. We don’t have the luxury of choosing only one threat and one challenge.”

The conflict in Israel and the conflict in Ukraine are linked. After all, Hamas and Iranian representatives met with Putin in Moscow. Just as Iran is supporting Hamas’ attack on Israel, Iran is also believed to be assisting Putin in his invasion of Ukraine.

To defeat the terrorist threat in Israel, we must also help Ukraine defend itself from an evil autocrat.

As the White House made clear last week: Time is running out to act.

We owe it to the American people and to our allies to protect democracy at all costs. We owe it to future generations to prevent an expanded global crisis. Now is our chance; let’s take it.