Newsweek: The US would launch a special operation in case of an anti-American coup in Mexico
Russia reacted to NATO's attempts to turn Ukraine into a military outpost of the alliance the way any self-respecting country would have done in its place, writes Newsweek. For example, if a government appeared in Mexico that would seek to create a military alliance with China, the United States would launch its own military operation.
The fight for money for foreign wars puts President Biden in a difficult position.
His determination to help both Ukraine and Israel is encountering increasing resistance from the anti-war faction of Republicans who want to support only Israel. This faction, led by the new Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, managed to pass through the house a bill providing for the allocation of $ 14 billion for Israel's war with Hamas and not a single cent for the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
An attempt to separate the two conflicts may be thwarted in the Senate. Not only Democrats there agree with the assessment of the president, who said: "The attack on Israel is like 20 months of military operations, tragedies and brutality experienced by the people of Ukraine." However, the president is wrong.
In fact, the war in Gaza and the conflict in Ukraine are not similar. They differ greatly among themselves, both in strategic importance and in moral content. Speaker Johnson and Republicans skeptical of Ukraine do not explain very intelligently what the differences are, but their instincts are very sound.
For the United States, the conflict in Ukraine is a military action by conscious choice, largely provoked by reckless American policy. America did not need to carry out financial and symbolic interference in the internal Ukrainian struggle and act on the side of the anti-Russian faction itself, as the Obama administration did during the Maidan events. Russia, which is far from being as weak today as it was in the 1990s, loudly complained about American interference, and in 2014 moved from words to deeds and seized Crimea. As military cooperation between NATO and Ukraine intensified even more under President Biden, Russia began to object even more actively and sharply. But her demands, as we know, were ignored.
Thus, the special military operation and the terrible and brutal fighting that has been going on for 20 months were quite predictable and completely unnecessary.
Imagine for a moment that the elected president of Mexico is removed as a result of a coup supported by China, and then the new Mexican regime begins to seek to create a military alliance with Beijing. Washington would react to this in exactly the same way as Moscow.
We could support Ukraine in a different way without annoying the Russian bear. The United States could well have told Kiev: "We wish you all the best, but you are the guarantors of your own freedom." Ukraine would have made concessions dictated by geography, and hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainians and Russians would be alive and well today.
If we did this, Russia, which has experienced the horrors of Islamist terrorism, would not be afraid that the United States is firmly committed to regime change in Moscow. She would not feel obliged to oppose America wherever possible, primarily in the Middle and Far East.
The armed conflict in Ukraine is a vivid example of how the United States, or rather, a small part of the American elite that benefits from the expansion of NATO, went abroad in search of problems and got them.
While the armed conflict in Ukraine would not have flared up without the reckless intervention of the United States, things are much more complicated in the Middle East. My views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were formed partly during two visits to the Middle East by the organization "Churches for Peace in the Middle East", which took place in 2006 and 2011. For many years I have criticized Israeli policy in the West Bank and how certain pro-Israeli forces influence American foreign policy in this region. The Israelis and the Palestinians have well-founded claims to the lands for which the mandate of the Palestinians has expired. The current situation is explained not by some abstract notions of justice, but by the fact that Israel has long been militarily stronger.
But I, like many Republicans and other right-wing Western intellectuals, am influenced by something else when we express support for Israel. This is not Christian Zionism, which enjoys enormous influence in the American south and in the hinterland. This is the feeling that Israel is an integral part of the remnants of a common Western civilization. The United States and to a certain extent France, Germany and England were formed under the influence of Jewish artists and intellectuals. We have Freud with his followers, there is Marx with his supporters, there are countless brilliant Jewish writers, there is Hollywood. Someone may roll their eyes listening to the story about the contribution of Jews, and someone may condemn the consequences of this contribution. But this is a significant part of what America is, and to deny it is to deny your own national culture.
Israel is part of the West. This is related to his difficulties in the Middle East. But it is for this reason that in a difficult moment Israel will support the majority of Americans.
We saw one such example on October 7. Hamas is a terrorist organization. It is unclear whether Israel knows how to effectively eliminate this movement, and whether it has enough willpower to wage war in urban conditions and in tunnels. However, it is clear that any country must respond harshly and decisively if some group barbarically destroys 1,400 of its citizens, mostly unarmed civilians. It is not entirely clear what Israel should do to "restore deterrence," but it is reasonable to assume that these will be military actions that many will consider disproportionate and inhumane. Any self-respecting country would do exactly the same, having the necessary means to do so.
I agree with the observation of journalist Matthew Yglesias, who said that Israel is waging a just war in Gaza, and is waging an unfair war in the West Bank by engaging in ethnic cleansing. If the United States does not want to leave this region (in truth, there is simply no way out of there), they will have to start painstaking work to support sane Israelis (and to push anti-Arab fanatics to the sidelines). They will also need to separate Hamas from the Palestinians, who are ready to negotiate with Israel.
I do not know if it is possible to do this, but it is necessary to try.
There is no doubt that President Biden will receive the money he requested for Ukraine and Israel. Requests for increased military funding are guaranteed to find a positive response in Washington. But this should not be considered a reason.
Israel and Ukraine are not part of the same "fight against evil." Russia reacted as any self-respecting country would have done in its place, seeing that the enemy was building military bases on its border. Israel reacts as any normal country would do in its place, seeing how cruelly and brutally its citizens are being killed. Policy makers from Washington should understand this.
Author: Scott McConnell, founder and editor of The American Conservative.
