McCann: America Mustn’t Be Drawn Into Eurasia’s Conflicts

“We need to remain rational not emotional, pray fervently for peace, and work hard to deescalate the violence in Eurasia.”

(Substack) A lot of Americans are reeling as they watch an actual “hot” war unfold before our eyes in Ukraine. I shake my head as I scroll my Instagram and see all the “pray for Ukraine” posts from influencers who voted for Joe Biden and are confirmed adherents to the secular religion of The Climate. The obvious causal connections between their politics and the growing instability around the globe is, apparently, wholly lost on them. I am praying for Ukraine.

I know everyone reading this Memo is praying for Ukraine, too. But I am also praying for America, because this war in Eurasia—which is no war of ours—could easily engulf the world in a terrible conflagration. It is imperative that we all keep our heads and support de-escalation.

This is Eurasia’s Conflict, Not Ours.

The West fundamentally misunderstands Russia (and China) because, as a society, we have bought into globalism, which disdains national sovereignty and embraces a form of “global governance” that can only work if all major powers are complacent and peaceful—i.e., it can only work in a fantasyland. Putin does not live in a fantasyland. Those of us who point this out are not idolizing Putin; we are stating a frightening reality. Nations that operate in fantasyland while their enemies operate in the real world will still face the real-world outcomes. We need to grapple with reality as quickly as possible to stop the conflict in Ukraine from spiraling the West into a kinetic world war and complete destruction.

Vladimir Putin opposes the West’s expansion east toward Russia. He does not want the countries on his periphery in the NATO alliance, which essentially makes them host-countries for the superpower he considers Russia’s rival (the United States). He also harbors expansionist dreams of his own. None of this is a secret. It is widely understood that Putin will never permit Ukraine to join NATO without war.

Western globalists, however, baselessly and recklessly encouraged Ukraine to think it could ultimately join the West and enter NATO. Ukraine is neither an ally nor a strategic priority for the United States. We have no business in that neck of the woods, and we should have always sought to deescalate tensions between Ukraine and Russia, not stoke them as Biden did in the last several months.

In December, Biden gave Ukraine further false hope when he suggested in a call with Zelensky that Ukraine might be able to join NATO. Predictably, this was met by pushback from Putin. Biden—who months earlier telegraphed his own feebleness by pulling out of Afghanistan, leaving American citizens at the mercy of the Taliban, and senselessly ceding the strategically-located Bagram to our enemies—blustered back at Russia using the tired platitudes of the Bush era. His bluster was reckless because not only are we not prepared to meet Russia with kinetic force (nor should we even tiptoe near such activity), but we are also not prepared to truly deter or punish Russia through financial avenues. Biden’s continued saber rattling in the last weeks leading up to this conflict was irresponsible to the point of derangement. With this invasion, Putin has called Biden’s bluff and placed the United States in a very precarious position.

To sum up, Ukraine was not going to join NATO, and we were never going to commit troops or bring the muscle necessary to defend Ukraine. Not only were we never going to put boots on the ground, thanks to Leftist policies, America and Western Europe are not in a strong position to peacefully deter Russia. There is a reason Putin has moved now, and it is because Europe is already prostrate at his feet and, critically, the United States has precipitously declined in power in the short but calamitous first year of the Biden administration.

Green Energy Has Debilitated the West.

Western European countries are committed to green energy policies that are destroying them. Consumed by their obsession with climate change, they have been pursuing incredibly destructive energy policies for years and shutting down their own national energy supplies to chase after renewables. But green energy still doesn’t cut it in the real world. With eyes wide open, Europe crippled itself and now must import a significant percentage of its gas from Russia. This has enriched Russia and has handed Russia devastating leverage over the West. In 2020, 40% of natural gas imports to the EU were from Russia. As the WSJ noted, “[t]he foundation of Russian power today is the energy industry, which funds Russia’s foreign policy, including its formidable armed forces. Russia is an energy superpower in no small part because European consumers buy Russian gas.”

Read the rest at Molly McCann’s SubStack.

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