Will We Be The 'Ugly Americans'?
We're all familiar with the 'ugly American' stereotype many foreigners hold. Americans are loud, uncultured, uneducated about the rest of the world, arrogant, nationally narcissistic and so on. This was originally applied to American tourists abroad but has become a more generalized international meme.
Many of us would say we're more worldly these days. That much of this is borne of foreign envy of the world's strongest superpower. That we've become more humble and self-critical. That we still hold to our moral core values, seeking liberty for all mankind. Well, words are cheap and don't really mean much. It's our actions that truly define us.
Right now there's a growing war weariness over the defense of Ukraine against the Russian invasion. "Endless wars!" they yell. That's odd because we're not at war. Not a single American soldier has been put in harm's way, much less killed. We've gone far, far out of our way to insure there's no direct combat between Russian and American or NATO troops. This is ‘America at war’?
There's a lot of wailing about the cost of aid to Ukraine. The total amount we've spent in over a year and a half is a little over 1% of our annual federal budget. And those figures are wrong because most of that is military surplus stuff that's wrongly overvalued by federal law at it's original purchase price; that we have to pay huge amounts to store and 'demil' for disposal. Meanwhile we ignore out out of control welfare state burning up 57% of our budget and growing. And 8% going just to pay the interest on our national debt. And so many more other far larger expenditures, ignored. But "Ukraine! Ukraine! Ukraine!" is the one and only cost that matters. It's all driven by emotion, not logic.
This doesn't really get to the point. The point is that what we do defines who we are. Let's look at what we might do about Ukraine going forward.
When Ukraine declared independence in 1991 they had a very large number of ex-Soviet nuclear weapons. We were rightly worried those could get into the wrong hands. Thus the U.S. made a deal with Ukraine. We help them get rid of their nukes and we'd guarantee their safety and sovereignty against their Russian neighbors. Both we and the Ukrainians signed that deal. Clearly we didn't exactly hold up our end of the bargain. Putin invaded because he knew we wouldn't directly intervene as promised. Our attitude on the Russians attacking and completely absorbing one of our allies? 'Oh, well.'
Fortunately Ukraine surprised everyone, survived, fought back with incredibly courage & innovation, and kicked the ass of the ‘second most powerful army in the world’. At that point we committed to supporting Ukraine in resisting the Russian invasion with weapons, training and financial aid. But now the voices demanding we renege on that commitment as well are getting louder and angrier. Representative Matt Gaetz introduced an amendment into the latest military spending bill banning all future aid to Ukraine, military or financial. It was voted down. This time.
Now comes the choice of who we will be. We can stand by Ukraine or abandon them to Putin's tender mercies. Those are the options. What America does will send a strong message to the entire world.
If we continue to stand by Ukraine we send the message that while we initially broke our promise to Ukraine, we're trying to make it right. We'd be sending the message to thuggish leaders worldwide that we won't back down from defending smaller, weaker nations from their aggression. We’d send the message that American values actually mean something. We'd send the message that maybe we can be trusted as an ally after all.
On the other hand, if we cut off aid to Ukraine we send the opposite message. We tell the world that we don't have the stomach to defend liberty beyond our shores. That they can get away with invading their neighbors to gain new territory and resources. That America is weak and vulnerable, and isn't to be feared. That all any bad actor has to do is wait us out for a little while until we “get tired" and our will to resist dissolves. That we don't have the moral fiber to stand by our commitments. That we can't be trusted as an ally by anyone. That we are in fact those arrogant, blowhard, duplicitous, selfish, backstabbing Americans they thought we were. China, Russia, North Korea and every terrorist group would say, 'see, we told you so!' And they'd be right.
We know full well what will happen if we stand back and let Russia take Ukraine. We've already seen the war crimes, torture, murder, mass kidnapping of children, Russia's new gulag arpeggio for dissident Ukrainians, entire cities razed to the ground and worse. Putin has made it clear that he'd erase the Ukrainian language and national identity, completing Stalin's culture genocide there. And we'd sit back and accept it. And the voices screaming to end Ukraine aid tell us this is the right and moral thing to do. We must be okay with all of this. Despite our grand promises, not our problem. 'It just isn't convenient right now. You'll just have to die as a nation and as a people. We're truly sorry.'
There it is. America can be America, standing up for our values. Standing with our allies. Keeping our solemn word. Or America can show the whole world we are in fact the 'ugly Americans', braying about our imagined virtue while betraying all as we sit back within our borders and watch the rest of the world burn. Until it's too late and it comes to our doorstep, anyways.
Who will we be? Who, indeed.