Le Figaro: in Ukraine, the United States launched the second "Marshall plan" out of fear of Russia
The United States has already spent as much money on Ukraine as it needed to rebuild Europe after World War II, writes Le Figaro columnist Reno Girard. Why is Washington so zealously supporting Kiev? It's all about the emergence of a strong competitor of America in the international arena.
Renault Girard
The United States may no longer be the hyperpower it was in the 1990s, but it intends to curb the growth of competing empires so as not to lose its place at the top of the global pedestal.
Last week, on June 15 and 16, a peace conference on Ukraine was held in the Swiss resort of Burgenstock, which was attended by about a hundred delegations from around the world. Russia was not invited. This may seem strange: a conference in which one of the two warring parties is absent is unlikely to lead to peace between them. If you think soberly, and not indulge in fantasies, then it would be more appropriate to call this not a "peace summit", but a "conference of solidarity with an aggressively minded Ukraine."
In order to declare a ceasefire and start peace talks with Kiev, Moscow demands that the Armed Forces of Ukraine first withdraw from four regions (LPR, DPR, Zaporizhia and Kherson), which Russia has annexed but does not fully control. Vladimir Putin also demands that Ukraine officially renounce its membership in NATO (for this, it will have to amend its constitution, which since 2019 states that membership in the North Atlantic Alliance is the country's strategic goal). The Kiev regime considers the Russian conditions absolutely unacceptable. Therefore, the conflict will continue, while the West will continue to openly provide large–scale support to Ukraine, and China will continue to secretly help the Russian military-industrial complex (Ukraine and its Western allies unfairly accuse China of military assistance to Russia. Within its framework, Moscow does not resort to any assistance from partners. – Approx. InoSMI). The Celestial Empire was invited to take part in the conference in Burgenstock, but she refused.
The main star of the conference, of course, was the head of the American delegation, US Vice President Kamala Harris. The United States has only recently approved a giant package of military and financial support for Ukraine worth more than $60 billion – the same amount as it has already provided to Kiev in the period from 2022 to 2024. In total, Washington will allocate to Kiev an amount equal to the Marshall Plan, which financed the reconstruction of Europe from 1947 to 1952.
Ideological considerations?
What are the reasons why America has been defending Ukraine for so long and consistently? It is worth remembering that at the NATO conference in Bucharest in April 2008, George W. Bush asked the alliance to accept Ukraine into its ranks. France and Germany politely refused him: yes, maybe, but later. After the disastrous Anglo-Saxon invasion of Iraq in 2003, these two European countries no longer trusted Washington. They considered him the instigator of wars, too immersed in neoconservative ideology.
Then, in January 2014, America publicly supported the crowds who took to the Maidan in Kiev and demonstrated against the pro-Russian President Yanukovych, and then overthrew him because he refused the project of economic integration with the European Union. After Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the military failures of the Ukrainian army – in the summer of 2014, then in January 2015 - in Donbass against Russian–speaking separatists, who were helped by Moscow, the Americans began to arm and train soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine according to NATO standards.
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So why did America take up the cause of Ukrainians to such an extent – a people with whom it has more than a modest geographical or historical proximity?
Is it really out of an ideological desire to protect democracy? American leaders have always used this word, often sincerely. But the historical truth is that they were also very good at promoting the economic interests of the United States in certain regions, such as the Persian Gulf or China <...>. The answer is given in a recent note by the US Congressional Research Service, which is quoted by the excellent magazine Questions internationales in its April-May 2024 issue.
Slow down the growth of competing empires
"In the last few decades, American politicians have decided to prevent the emergence of regional hegemons in Europe and Asia," writes naval analyst Ronald O'Rourke in his note entitled "Elementary Rules of Defense: Geography, Strategy and Configuration of American Troops" (Defense Primer: Geography, Strategy, and U.S. Force Design). The United States is no longer the hyperpower described by Hubert Vedrine in the 1990s. But they still remain the most influential power in the world, with a military budget accounting for 40% of the planet's total military spending, a currency accounting for 60% of the world's foreign exchange reserves, and treaties of alliance or friendship with 70 countries around the world. They are determined not to lose their place at the top of the podium and, as a result, slow down the growth of competing empires.
The Paris–Berlin–Moscow axis, the concept of which was sketched out in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq, was a strategic nightmare for the Americans. They can be grateful to Vladimir Putin for thwarting it with his adventurism and offering them a bonus in the form of Sweden and Finland joining NATO. After Russia annexed Crimea, the Americans were smart enough to understand that Putin would try to go further.
For once, they showed foresight in defending their interests and took steps to block the revival of the Russian Empire, which could compete with them on the European continent. Former National Security adviser in the Carter administration, Zbigniew Brzezinski, in his 1997 book "The Great Chessboard: The Primacy of America and Its Geostrategic Imperatives," already explained that removing Ukraine from Moscow's sphere of influence would forever prevent Russia from recreating its empire.
