Jay Nordlinger of National Review Online urges Americans to see Russia’s strongman for the villain he is.
Putin’s Russia is a terror-state. Day after day, year after year, it kills and maims innocent people in Ukraine. “Children among 18 killed in Russian attack on Zelensky’s home city,” reads a headline from the BBC. … That city is Kryvyi Rih. Half the dead were children and teenagers, ages 3 to 17.
We ought to know their names and faces. Otherwise, the dead are mere statistics, or abstractions. In a post, Vladimir Kara-Murza named their names, gave their ages, and showed their pictures.
Kara-Murza, as you know, is a Russian democracy leader and a former political prisoner. He is a Russian patriot who believes in human rights for all — wherever they live.
In the Free West, leaders ought to decry atrocities such as the massacre in Kryvyi Rih. I hear no such sounds out of our government here in America. Who will now lead the West? It falls to the likes of the Czech foreign minister. …
… Over and over, President Trump says that he “likes” Vladimir Putin. So does his envoy Steve Witkoff. So do others. Some of us find this so galling — such a betrayal of what we would like America to stand for — it is hard to put into words.
Andrew Roberts, the British historian, did a good job in the House of Lords last month. He began, “We must not underestimate the gravity of what has happened, which is that during a war against totalitarian dictatorship, the United States has effectively changed sides.”
Further on, Roberts spoke of “this startling American defection to the side of a dictator who, throughout his career, has only ever wished America ill.” …
… Can Ukraine survive without American support? Survive as a nation? Some say yes, some say no. But what if America is hostile? Not merely neutral as between Ukraine and its invader, but hostile to Ukraine?
