By Jeffrey Blehar
Monday, February 24, 2025
In reaction to the United States’ shameful behavior today at the U.N., Noah Rothman asked a
fair and rather plaintive question: Do we have to lie on Russia’s behalf? I agree with the
moral spirit of his argument in all its particulars: We do not have to accede
to Putin’s propagandistic “reading” of recent European history or indulge in
outright falsehoods in order to bring the Ukrainian war to a conclusion, nor
should we.
But unfortunately the point seems moot; it sure looks
like that’s what America’s going to do regardless of whether we like it
or not. Notice that I write “America,” and not “Trump.” If the United States’
recent seeming attempts to posture itself toward an alliance with Russian
interests in Ukraine is a product solely of Trump’s private obsessions, its
repercussions are not limited to him. This is an act of Trump’s caprice, yes,
but for every other nation in the world it transcends Trump’s ephemeral
personality; this is an act of United States policy.
That is why I have to wonder what the diplomatic
consequences of this sort of rhetoric will be, not just while Trump holds
office but long after he is gone. I’m not qualified to answer this question
myself — which is why this is a brief late-night Corner musing and not one of
my typically lengthy essays — but I certainly am qualified to ask it, given
that the last 75 years of American foreign policy orientation threatens to flip
its polarity without warning in the first month of Donald Trump’s second presidency.
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