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What If Russia Wins?

What If Russia Wins?

It is a vital American interest that Russia be defeated.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that “of course” Ukraine “can win this. The proof is literally in the outcomes that you’re seeing everyday ... absolutely they can win.” Unfortunately, the other possibility must also be considered: Russia can win as well. And if it does, the consequences for the United States and the world could be catastrophic.

This fact has been obscured among dissidents from the Left’s agenda lately. Joe Biden, true to form, has been mishandling the whole thing with his characteristic narcissism and short-sightedness. Nobody wants to get us involved in World War III, especially with our Biden-era, catastrophically unprepared woke military, but Biden has managed simultaneously to ratchet up tensions while not helping the Ukrainians enough to enable them to win, only enough to take the credit if they do.

Meanwhile, even the little that Biden’s handlers have done is too much for many of his opponents. Tucker Carlson wrote on April 1: “So, you feel compassionate. On the other hand, you may have, at some point over the last month, asked yourself: ‘Why is the invasion of a faraway eastern European country suddenly the single biggest thing that ever happened in our country, in America?’ It’s kind of strange, especially given everything we’ve got going on in the U.S. right now and what is it with Biden’s response to this war? That’s weird, too.”

Carlson is certainly correct that we shouldn’t get into World War III over Hunter Biden’s cash cow, but in today’s world, his characterization of Ukraine as “a faraway” country ignores the fact that the world has become a small place. If World War III does begin, Russian missiles would take only minutes to reach targets inside the United States. And even if it doesn’t begin, a Russian victory in that faraway land would have incalculable negative consequences for American interests worldwide.

At the recent “Up From Chaos” conference in Washington, Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance declared: “Using American power to do the dirty work of Europe is a pretty bad idea.” Yes. Donald Trump was correct that the European countries were relying on the U.S. to pay for and provide their defense, instead of pulling their own weight and contributing to their own survival. But for better or worse, and however much it needs radical reform, the NATO alliance exists. Putin cited NATO’s expansion as a key reason for his invasion of Ukraine, and there is no doubt that if he won, the NATO member states that were part of the old Soviet Union, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, would be directly threatened. Other countries that Moscow has for centuries considered to be part of its sphere of influence, including Poland and Bulgaria, would be feeling the heat as well.

Nor would the threat be to Europe alone. Barack Obama stood by and let Putin gain the upper hand in the Middle East, and Obama’s third term, popularly known as the Biden administration, is continuing in the same vein. Biden’s handlers are concluding a new nuclear deal with Iran, negotiated by a Russian diplomat, that will enable Russia to cash in on a $10 billion contract to build nuclear sites in Iran. If a sane America-First administration returns to the White House in January 2025, it will find it all the more difficult to deal with a Russia that was not only aided and abetted by Biden’s short-sighted socialist internationalist foreign policy wonks, but is flush with victory in Ukraine. Moscow propagates anti-Americanism in Africa as well as the Middle East, and that would only accelerate with a victory in the present war. And all this is to say nothing of the growing closeness between Russia and Communist China, which could end up being the formidable challenge America faces for the balance of the century.

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Montana), speaking at the “Up From Chaos” conference, said he voted against bills directed against Russia because of the disarray Biden’s handlers have caused at home: “I could not support that at the exact same time we are seeing an invasion take place on our own southern border.” He added: “I have major concerns about a compromised president of the United States who is sending incredible support to a less-than-forthright president of the Ukraine.” Those points were well taken. As I wrote in my exchange with Joseph Puder here at FrontPage on March 10, “While strength is always to be preferred to appeasement of a tyrant, however, the current regime of socialist internationalists and spineless dreamers cannot be trusted to know what constitute a reasonable show of strength and what constitutes an unwarranted provocation.” Yet the consequences of a Russian victory cannot be idly dismissed.

Biden’s America-Last handlers are forcing us to pay for Putin’s war at the gas pump and planning to enrich Russia further with the disastrous new nuclear deal with the rogue mullahs of Tehran. We can only hope that with their reckless rhetoric and ill-considered actions, they don’t blunder us into World War III. At the same time, we must hope that there are at least some wiser heads in our government and military who are doing everything they can to forestall an overwhelming and total Russian victory, for which Americans would be paying for generations to come.