ltlee1
2024-02-13 11:52:31 UTC
“I beg your pardon. Could you tell us what period? I’m losing track of where in history we are,” interrupted Tucker Carlson as Vladimir Putin rolled into minute 8 of an extended disquisition covering the last 1,100 years of Russian history.
For a handful of Americans across the country, what followed was a brief moment of redemption. For those pitiable souls who had plodded through years of Russian history and its mendacious Soviet retellings on their way to an otherwise marginally useful degree, this seemed to be a sudden call to action. Here was a man among America’s most hated drawing the world into a debate on the historical origins of the Russian Federation. He even added a classic Soviet KGB flourish by dropping a papka of archival documents upon his bewildered guest.
More than anything, Tucker’s brave interview should highlight one glaring reality to Americans: We, as a nation, are dangerously unfamiliar with Russia, and this ignorance is putting our own country at risk.
With the Senate now proposing to ship a further $61 billion of additional taxpayer money eastward to continue the war, and with the certain loss of further hundreds of thousands of more lives on both sides, we need to stop and take account. It is high time to ask: What is the U.S. really doing in Ukraine? How does our involvement serve our vital national interests? And what, exactly, is the desired end state for U.S. strategy?
Making America great again here at home also involves unmaking past mistakes abroad. It means avoiding them in the future by maintaining an abiding focus on our own national interests. The time for defending borders on the other side of the world while ignoring our own is over. There is too much on the line and real work to be done.
Americans deserve the answers to these questions and Congress must start demanding them.
How can it be that America’s vital national interest is so unquestionably intertwined with a non-ally nation 6,000 miles away? Why, if Ukraine is such a valuable strategic partner, did net U.S. direct investment there prior to Russia’s first 2014 invasion total to well under $1 billion, and today a negative $131 million?
What interests are we spending hundreds of times this amount to protect? Why is it worth taking on additional debt that we have no realistic possibility of ever repaying, but will become a permanent legacy liability for every future American generation? Is this really so no bureaucrat in Kiev will ever lose their job and all pensions will be paid in full and on time?"
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/americans-most-dangerous-blind-spot/
For a handful of Americans across the country, what followed was a brief moment of redemption. For those pitiable souls who had plodded through years of Russian history and its mendacious Soviet retellings on their way to an otherwise marginally useful degree, this seemed to be a sudden call to action. Here was a man among America’s most hated drawing the world into a debate on the historical origins of the Russian Federation. He even added a classic Soviet KGB flourish by dropping a papka of archival documents upon his bewildered guest.
More than anything, Tucker’s brave interview should highlight one glaring reality to Americans: We, as a nation, are dangerously unfamiliar with Russia, and this ignorance is putting our own country at risk.
With the Senate now proposing to ship a further $61 billion of additional taxpayer money eastward to continue the war, and with the certain loss of further hundreds of thousands of more lives on both sides, we need to stop and take account. It is high time to ask: What is the U.S. really doing in Ukraine? How does our involvement serve our vital national interests? And what, exactly, is the desired end state for U.S. strategy?
Making America great again here at home also involves unmaking past mistakes abroad. It means avoiding them in the future by maintaining an abiding focus on our own national interests. The time for defending borders on the other side of the world while ignoring our own is over. There is too much on the line and real work to be done.
Americans deserve the answers to these questions and Congress must start demanding them.
How can it be that America’s vital national interest is so unquestionably intertwined with a non-ally nation 6,000 miles away? Why, if Ukraine is such a valuable strategic partner, did net U.S. direct investment there prior to Russia’s first 2014 invasion total to well under $1 billion, and today a negative $131 million?
What interests are we spending hundreds of times this amount to protect? Why is it worth taking on additional debt that we have no realistic possibility of ever repaying, but will become a permanent legacy liability for every future American generation? Is this really so no bureaucrat in Kiev will ever lose their job and all pensions will be paid in full and on time?"
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/americans-most-dangerous-blind-spot/