Opinion: Ukraine is worth US support despite what Republicans, Tucker Carlson are saying

Yes, Ukraine is worth our support! And as a staunch Republican I’m very worried that my party is giving in to a false “America First” idea that we should end our support unilaterally in Ukraine, as some in the Republican party are now advocating. Ronald Reagan, who was a great president and restored our standing in the world, always stood for aiding/supplying weapons to countries if they were on the side of freedom and they were willing to do all the fighting.

“Peace through Strength” was always Reagan’s approach and that meant aiding countries in weapons and aid money. Reagan rebuilt our military and that led the whole Soviet Empire to be dismantled, after Reagan’s total decisive victories in the Cold War. He gave support to Poland, Nicaragua and others in Latin America. Reagan confronted Russia with his famous “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down this [Berlin] Wall” speech!

The No. 1 responsibility of government is to provide security for its people and that includes having reliable allies that support us. Like it or not we are the No. 1 power in the world. We have many priorities to defend our own borders from the failed immigration policies of Joe Biden. But, we must also defend a strategic, very rich resource country like Ukraine that Russia wants to gobble up and will then continue on to other Eastern European countries like Poland and Finland. Our national security is built on our NATO Alliance of European Democratic Governments and all of our European NATO Allies are supporting Ukraine. NATO was formed and led by the United States to stop the Soviet Union from dominating Europe and it has been the cornerstone of our security.

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But powerful voices like Fox News' Tucker Carlson, are advocating stopping our support for Ukraine, and polling for Republicans shows support for Ukraine is declining. Let me also mention an important fact Tucker never mentions. Russia, Britain and the U.S. signed an agreement called the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 that the U.S., Great Britain and yes, Russia, signed it too. This agreement would guarantee the borders of Ukraine against Russia, if Ukraine would give up all their nuclear weapons. Ukraine agreed and gave up all these powerful nukes/missiles. But, if we stop supplying Ukraine in this war, where is America in honoring our pledge in this agreement? And, maybe Russia wouldn’t be doing this, if Ukraine had these nukes today? But, Ukraine trusted the U.S. to stop Russia and now we are going to break our pledge to defend Ukraine?

This is a total war of conquest, not a small “territorial dispute” as some want to call this, like Carlson and now DeSantis. Putin’s plan is to restore the Soviet Union and the power it used to have, before Poland, East Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, and of course Ukraine (and others) all broke away from the Soviet Union and Empire. The ruthless, murderous tactics of Putin/Russia including thousands of children abducted from their families and sent to Russia or how Russian military heavily targets civilians including apartments, schools and hospitals to win by terror and by destroying the power, water systems, etc.  

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But on the field of battle, the Russians are losing! And the valor of the Ukrainians to fight for their country, despite being outmanned and out-gunned, is inspiring. And Ukraine is winning because of their patriotism to fight for their freedom and the help we’ve given and from our NATO Allies. Russia’s army has proven to have poor generals and huge morale problems. Lies and distortions by Tucker Carlson/other talk show hosts about the war and Zelenskyy being a corrupt dictator and billions of support money stolen are simply not documented. Zelenskyy has proven to be a great leader with very high polling numbers in Ukraine and all of Europe, contrary to what Tucker has said.

Yes, Ronald Reagan put his “Peace through Strength” policies into action and was a realist that evil men are always out for conquest and power. I urge my country, and Republicans and Rep. Chuck Edwards in particular, to stand strong to support Ukraine. We cannot allow Russia to win by some drastic U.S. pullout that would for the long run put America last. China and Iran would see our weakness and, yes, the world would be facing far more violence and turmoil and threats of war, which means economic and trading declines for us if we turn our backs on Ukraine.

John Allen was a public high school history teacher, coach, and assistant dean in a 34-year career in suburban Chicago and lives in Hendersonville.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Ukraine is worth U.S. support despite Tucker Carlson opinions