Senator J. D. Vance took his ongoing campaign against the effort to bolster Ukraine’s defense to the New York Times opinion pages on Friday. There, he issued the latest of his evolving rationales for acquiescing to Moscow’s territorial demands in Europe. Because he’s one of the more articulate advocates for the restoration of anti-American spheres of influence around the globe, his argument deserves to be read — and rebutted – in full.
It is worth noting at the outset that Vance’s view that Ukraine’s cause is lost, with or without America’s support, is not a dispassionate conclusion arrived at following a careful review of the facts on the ground. No such analysis was possible on the very day Moscow embarked on its second invasion of Ukraine, which occasioned a statement from Vance advocating American neutrality, with denunciations of Ukraine itself — a “corrupt nation run by oligarchs” — the “Cheney Republicans” he dislikes, and the foreign-policy professionals who have “blundered” their way through crisis after crisis.
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