TWO weeks ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an interesting speech at a press conference. One part, in particular, stood out: “The US will have to send their sons and daughters exactly the same way as we are sending their sons and daughters to war.”
CNN reported that the comment was taken out of context.
Okay, fair enough. But Zelensky was not wrong when he says Ukraine cannot win this war without the involvement of the United and/or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (US/NATO) involvement.
The West can send Ukraine all the weapons they want but they cannot win without US/NATO forces.
Of course, should the US deploy ground troops in Ukraine (and not just military advisors), that would mean death for the Biden Administration and a large portion of the American political elite as far as I can see.
Americans are presently sick of war. I think many of them still remember what happened in Afghanistan, which reminds some of them of Vietnam.
In the unlikely event Biden does deploy forces in Ukraine, it will mean a big win for isolationists and American Nationalists / Anti-Globalists (aside from World War 3). It would vindicate everything they are saying about DC and will further erode US institutions.
Worse still, I believe that a war against Russia will likely require the reinstitution of the draft as well as shift into a war-time economy, neither of which will likely be welcomed by an American populace who has little interest in the Russian-Ukraine war.
In short, Americans will have to be dragged kicking and screaming in order to fight a war against Russia, and regardless of how the war will end, may lead to the further deterioration of American institutions, particularly the military.
Thus, it’s very unlikely that the US will send “their sons and daughters” to war.
The war in Ukraine does not pose an existentialist threat to the US like it does with Russia. So the only way to get boots on the ground in Ukraine is by framing that the US has obligations higher than its own national interest, and it has to sacrifice its own safety for the sake of those obligations, as they have in previous secular humanist crusades.
Somehow, I doubt that will work this time./PN
