John Hinderacker wrote a blogpost, “We Have Always Been at War with Eastasia,” which touched on the left’s efforts to tie conservatives to being supporters of Russia in their war with Ukraine. I have seen people argue why Russia feels the need to invade, but I have not seen any conservative of note rooting for Russian to prevail.
A reader named Tennhauser wrote a comment to that post that summed up my understanding of the situation very well (it also has 39 upvotes, which is the most I’ve seen for any comment on Power Line).
I am Ukrainian. My parent emigrated here. I have family in Ukraine and have visited them.
And let me just say, I feel a certain . . . discomfort with how many people are behaving. Just a lot of people jumping on a bandwagon and saying, “rah, rah, rah, let’s go to war!” I’m also not remotely hostile to people saying Ukraine is corrupt (it is) or there are issues there with fascist groups (there are). I’m fine with people pointing that out, and I don’t think they are “tools of Putin.” They are just reminding us of things we should remember. Ukraine isn’t perfect.
Good news is the Ukrainians can beat the Russians with minimal involvement from us—they need some money, some supplies, and some weapons. There are loads of countries supplying all that, so, while things are rough right now, I have zero doubt the Ukrainians will prevail.
What we can do is drill for oil and natural gas, reduce energy prices worldwide, and supply Europe with the energy so they can say goodbye to Russian oil and gas. I’d also repeal the renewable fuels standard, and free up as much corn as possible for export to keep food prices low. These actions benefit us as well as Ukraine and should be a no-brainer. And like I said, just keep supplying the Ukrainians with what they need to keep fighting—they’ll do the rest. Heck, 3–4 weeks Russia will give up and give in. They won’t have a choice—Russian losses are unsustainable.
To me, Tennhauser’s comment is a common sense, non-controversial take on the invasion.
