Lessons of the Russian Aggression Against Ukraine that Left, Right and Center Failed to Understand, Except for True Conservatives

Post-Cold War Lack of Caution: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, there was general jubilation in the West that the Cold War had ended in a victory for the Free World over International Communism, with the exception of several remaining Communist States. Except for some of us true conservative Cold Warriors, including leading security, political, diplomatic and academic experts and especially center-right Russians, the excessive exuberance led to too much general support for post-Soviet Russian governments and for laying down our guard without any cauthion because of a lack of appreciation at least for the potential threat from Russia and a return of the Communists. But we conservatives never regarded the victory as complete because there had never been a de-Communization of Russia and some of the other former Soviet Republics like the de-Nazification of Germany after the Second World War, especially after the rise of ex-Soviet intelligence officer Vladimir Putin in the late 1990s and Russia retained thousands of nuclear missiles. I have warned since I started this blog that Russia is again effectively a Communist/fascist superpower hostile to the United States and the Free World. But many ignored the warnings, preferring to trade and spend money on other priorities or citing other threats, as if it meant that Russia was not a threat at all. The Far Left’s and Center-Left’s Errors: The Far Left was even sympathetic to Putin because of his anti-Americanism, while the center-left naïvely believed that there was no threat and that trade and diplomacy would be enough to counter any potential threat and mocked those of us who cited Putin’s increasing authoritarianism and Russian machinations while Putin lamented the breakup of the Soviet Union. It took Russian interference on behalf of their political opponents finally to admit their error. The Far Right and Unprincipled Conservatives’ Errors: Like those on the Far Left, the so-called “America First” isolationists on the Far Right have long turned a blind eye to every foreign threat and blamed America for every wrong in the world. But it has been especially disappointing to us true conservatives that many others on the right side of the political spectrum foolishly came to see the tyrannical Putin as an ally versus Islamists and for traditional values. It was outrageous that they then excused Russian interference in American politics, including winning Putin’s favored candidate, Donald Trump, both the Republican nomination and the presidential election, claiming variously that it showed Putin had done us a favor, or minimizing the “sweeping and systematic” Russian interference on Trump’s behalf the Republican Special Counsel found, or blaming the Democrats or the Ukrainians. They failed to understand that Putin backed Trump for Putin’s interest, which was to weaken, not to help, America, as Trump’s policy toward Putin proved, as did Trumpism’s, isolationism, protectionism, authoritarianism, corruption and deception. As with some on the Far Right in Europe, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused some of these unprincipled conservatives finally to recognize Putin for what he is, but, of course, they have to put the blame on the incumbent liberal Democratic President who has been tougher on Russia than Trump, in order to try to save face. And they have yet to repudiate their support for Putin’s candidate both in 2016 and 2020 and excusal of his intereference and think that all Trump’s appointments and policies should remain in place, even though they were the fruit of interference from a hostile foreign power, among other election fraud (deception, intimidation and illegal campaign activity). Acceptance of foreign interference only encourages more, which is why Russia interfered again in 2020, as Communist China, Islamist Iran and others do because of how successful Russian interference is, just like paying ransom to kidnappers or hackers encourages more kidnapping and hacking. General Lessons: In addition to understanding better the threat from Putin and a Russia and other former Soviet Republics, like Belarus, that were never de-Communized, there are a number of general lessons that all these erroneous people across the political spectrum ought to learn from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Among them are that trade alone does not liberate the people who live under the dictatorship that is being traded with, that diplomacy with an aggressive tyrant is not only futile, but it legitimizes him and gives him more time to gain strength and develop his plans, that weakness invites more aggression, and that, despite Western weakness, the North Atlantic Treaty organization is an effective alliance, as Putin’s fear of it suggests.