Fulcher must strongly support America’s side of the war in Ukraine

Representative Russ Fulcher has failed to grasp that his repeated failure to support Ukraine in defending against Russia’s genocidal war is extremely harmful to America’s national security interests. Ukraine’s valiant fighters are shedding their blood to protect the freedom of the Ukrainian people. But their dogged defense has the side effect of bleeding and degrading Vladimir Putin’s war machine, reducing its threat against the United States and our allies. If the Ukrainians win, we won’t face the possibility of future hostilities with Russia. If they lose, we are in for continued conflict with Putin’s regime.

Make no mistake, Putin is allying with China, North Korea and other totalitarian regimes to try to take down America and its allies. Russia began using North Korean ballistic missiles against Ukraine in December and more are in the pipeline. But this is not the first dangerous flirtation between the two countries that has endangered the United States. North Korea would not have a nuclear arsenal to threaten the U.S. and its Asian allies without the help of Russian scientists. 

Putin’s alliance with China and North Korea, called the Trilateral Imperialist Partnership, combines Russia’s nuclear arsenal, China’s economic and military power and North Korea’s lunacy into an extremely dangerous threat. A Russian win against Ukraine, would provide rocket fuel for this malevolent alliance. The stakes are exceedingly high.

Perhaps a short refresher course would be helpful for Rep. Fulcher. After the Second World War, Russia gobbled up practically every country on its borders and conglomerated them into a totalitarian state called the Soviet Union. It was our mortal enemy for decades. During the Vietnam War, where I served in 1968-69, the Soviets supplied weapons to the communists that killed thousands of U.S. troops. President Reagan correctly called it the “Evil Empire.” The Soviet empire fell apart in 1991 and its citizens had a brief respite from state terror. In 2005, Putin lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century. He began working feverishly to recreate it, to seize former satellite countries, to enslave his people and do everything possible to break up America’s alliances and power around the world. Putin began hostilities against Ukraine in 2014, leading to the present barbarous war.

Ukraine desperately needs massive military assistance from the U.S. and our NATO allies. We have a vital national interest in preventing Putin from winning his war of conquest. If he and his partners succeed, our NATO allies will be next in his sights and we will be obligated by treaty and our own vital security interests to join the war on their side. If Ukraine survives, it will provide a future NATO shield against Putin’s forces.

Russ Fulcher does not seem to grasp the fact that aiding Ukraine is essential to America’s safety and security. In a December interview with columnist Chuck Malloy, Fulcher gave a rather garbled answer as to whether he would vote for further aid for Ukraine. He seemed to say that unless the President clarifies the Ukraine mission and addresses our southern border, it is “a deal-breaker” and “show-stopper” for him. It’s kind of like Congress telling FDR that no funding for the Normandy Invasion would be forthcoming unless the President clarified the mission and addressed some unrelated domestic problems. That’s really not the best way to protect our national security.

If Fulcher needs clarity on the mission, he can bring up hundreds of news reports in which the President has outlined the mission and the drastic need for aid to achieve it by simply Googling “Biden calls for strong support for Ukraine.” Mention was made of the subject in two State of the Union speeches, which I assume Fulcher heard. Or, he could consult with Senator Jim Risch, who clearly understands the urgent need to help Ukraine, and protect the United States, in this critical moment.

Risch told Malloy, “Putin is not going to stop with Ukraine if he wins the war. If we end up in war with Russia, what we’re spending here is a drop in the bucket by comparison. If we abandon Ukraine … there will be major consequences … I believe it would set up the largest arms race that the planet has ever seen.” I’m hoping that with such high stakes, Fulcher can see the drastic need to support the American side of this ugly war.

Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served 8 years as Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and 12 years as a Justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). His columns are collected at JJCommonTater.com.