The Ukrainian Boondoggle Must End

As with most international conflicts in which the United States has found itself over the past 20-plus years, we know that the U.S. has unclean hands. Without adjudicating the entire 2014 Maidan coup saga, suffice it to say, the U.S. helped set the stage for the tragic events that unfolded eight years later, as it pushed into a new decade of conflict.

But no matter what state propaganda one favors—whether one believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin drew a red line then crossed it himself, or that the U.S. and its NATO allies baited Russia by lining its border with NATO countries, and thus posing an existential threat—one should agree that it’s long past time to end this conflict.

That means no more U.S. arms or funding. It also means the U.S. security state must stop the censorship of Americans’ speech—to rid the internet of so-called disinformation and to disappear dissidents at the behest of Ukrainian intelligence apparatuses. And the U.S. must not allow another American-born journalist to die in a Ukrainian jail, as it did Gonzalo Lira.

If not for NATO and especially U.S. arms and military aid, and if not for U.S. taxpayers subsidizing Ukrainian bureaucrats, the war would have ended long ago. Now, after a long series of failed promises and claims that Ukraine stood a chance to regain territory, most U.S. taxpayers have apparently had enough—as if many hadn’t had enough from the outset.

Over 150,000 Ukrainian troops have been fed into the maw of death, with millions more Ukrainians displaced. No matter how long the conflict lasts, the result of the war will be the same—Russia will retain Crimea and hold control over the Donbass region.

But the war hasn’t only been fought in Ukraine. It’s been fought against the American people as well. An endless barrage of war propaganda has been levied at those exhorted and extorted to foot the bill. Meanwhile, the sanctions imposed on Russia have apparently hurt Western Europe, especially Germany, more than they have Russia.

Just as in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, the Ukrainian war project has not been what it’s cracked up to be. Only this time it has involved the U.S. in nuclear brinkmanship.

It’s time to stop enriching arms dealers while simultaneously portraying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as the singular lighthouse for democracy in the region. Since the conflict began, Zelensky has banned opposition political parties, consolidated the media into one state apparatus, stifled religious freedom, and attempted to blackmail the U.S. by forecasting a more expensive project should the United States cut off funding.

Funding and arming Ukraine, and providing intelligence services, has only emboldened Zelensky to conscript soldiers who never stood a chance to thwart Russia’s advances, or its defensive efforts to maintain its gains. It is no wonder that many conscripts have attempted to flee the country, only to be arrested.

The U.S. has a moral obligation to cut all funds and arms to Ukraine, not only to save lives, but also to relieve the economic pain of American taxpayers. And no, the enrichment of the military industrial complex to the tune of tens of billions of dollars does not improve the economy, as President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have suggested it does. This reasoning represents the broken window fallacy; spending money on “goods” destined to be destroyed does not lead to economic gain. Such spending only deprives the taxpayer of useful goods that could have been produced otherwise, and that could have helped drive down inflation.

It’s not incumbent upon the U.S. and its NATO allies to help negotiate a peace settlement, although they have escalated the conflict. The only remaining moral and political obligation is to stop the flow of arms and to cut the war’s funding sources.

Michael Rectenwald, PhD, is an author, presidential candidate, and retired NYU professor.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.