Three Videos About Ukraine, Russia, and What the United States Can and Should Do.
Three Videos About Ukraine, Russia, and What the United States Can and Should Do.
Like most people, I desperately hope Ukraine repels Russia and I’m relieved to see European powers pushing back against Putin. It’s good to see France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and other countries doing the right thing. I wish the United States would commit to accepting refugees and aid resistance to Russia in a way that doesn’t drag us into a conflict that could escalate quickly and is outside of what I take to be the proper role of national defense.
I'm deeply disturbed by what I see as war fever sweeping America, as if we are dying for a "good war" to immerse ourselves in after 20 years of moral and military failures in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. Over the past week or so, I’ve worked with my Reason colleagues to produce three videos about Russia’s indefensible and illegal invasion of Ukraine. Together, they lay out my thinking on this specific matter but also the larger question of foreign policy.
On March 4, I released “Hot Takes Are Making the Ukraine Invasion Worse,” which was produced by my colleague Regan Taylor. Click below to watch, go here for full text and supporting links.
On March 5, I released “Ukraine Crisis: U.S. Must Use Restraint,” an in-depth interview with Will Ruger, the newly appointed president of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER). A veteran of the Afghanistan war, he holds a Ph.D. in foreign policy, served as vice president of research at the Charles Koch Institute, and was nominated to be ambassador to Afghanistan late in the Trump administration (his confirmation was never brought to a vote).
Ruger is a proponent of what he calls "libertarian realism" in foreign policy, meaning that America's interventions abroad should be focused on defending a narrowly defined national interest and that the use of military force should be strictly subjugated to diplomacy. He’s skeptical that the United States can or should play a leading role in defending Ukraine, and Ruger doesn’t think sanctions are likely to accomplish anything, especially in the short run. I find his analysis compelling, especially from a libertarian or classical liberal perspective. If I’m being honest, it’s also a bit grim because it accepts that we cannot reshape the world to fit our sense of justice and fairness.
You can watch below or go here to listen to a podcast version at Spotify.
And yesterday, March 10, I released, again with the help of Regan, “Why Sanctioning Russia Will Fail.” That’s not something I say glibly or happily at all. I wish that the United States could swiftly and non-violently bring the Russo-Ukraine War to and end. But the plain fact is that sanctions rarely work to achieve their intended outcomes.
Sanctions don't work because there are almost always workarounds, notes Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke. That's especially true in the current case, with China and India largely abstaining from the Western response. There’s also a moral issue: Why punish regular citizens, especially in autocratic regimes, for the crimes of their unelected leaders? Everyday Russians, thousands of whom have been imprisoned for protesting, are also victims of Putin's madness.
I write all this with a heavy heart. You can watch the video below or go here for full text and links.
I also want to share with you this tweet I sent out on Wednesday, March 9, after seeing a bizarre video put out by the Biden administration. It really can only be classified as propaganda. The response to my tweet has been off the charts: As of this writing, it has generated about 700,000 impressions, 85,000 engagements, and more than 209,000 views of the video.
You can read the tweet at Twitter and see the responses. For a summary of the spin being made by press secretary Jen Psaki, I recommend reading this thread from Drew Holden.
I’ll leave you with one more piece of media: Monday’s Reason Roundtable podcast, featuring my colleagues Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, Matt Welch, and me talking about Ukraine and related topics.
I really hope that the coming days and weeks will yield a humane resolution in Ukraine and that Americans will do everything we can to help without getting into a new foreign policy quagmire.