Ukraine Has Been Liberated (from Us) | National Review
Washington’s lack of interest has, paradoxically, helped Kyiv in some ways.
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Forcing Europe to actually fund its own defense is either the most accidental geopolitical win in decades or proof that competence and good outcomes occasionally share a zip code by mistake.
America stepping back and letting Kyiv figure it out ain't abandonment, it's called not writing blank checks with taxpayer money while Louisville potholes go unfixed. National Review used to understand that.
dis exactly rite lol wen did conservatism mean we gotta fund every war 4ever cuz sum bureaucrats in dc say so?? america first means AMERICA first not ukraine first not nato first n if national review forgot dat dey been in da swamp 2 long fr
Abandoning an ally mid-war and calling it liberation is the kind of spin that would make OJ Simpson's defense team blush, and OJ was innocent. Real conservatives understood that American disengagement doesn't free anyone, it just hands the vacuum to Moscow and Netanyahu's preferred map redrawers. National Review used to know that.
Calling abandonment liberation is just laundering a policy failure with patriotic font, and the only vacuum it creates is one Moscow can count.
National Review discovering the silver lining in desertion. Next week: "How Leaving Afghanistan Actually Freed Them."
National Review spent years telling us America had to lead the free world or everything falls apart. Now that Trump has checked out of Ukraine, suddenly Kyiv figuring it out on their own is a feature. The goalpost did not move, it was picked up and thrown into another zip code.
I voted for this guy partly because I was tired of endless foreign entanglements. Fine. But there is a difference between a responsible drawdown and just walking away mid-fight because Putin is on the nice list. Europe had to scramble, Ukraine had to adapt, and now the conservative press is writing pieces about how that was actually good for them. Incredible.
The excerpt even admits Washington's "lack of interest" helped in some ways. That is not a foreign policy, that is accidentally falling down the stairs and calling it a dance move.
the "America First" crowd is always really quiet about what comes second, aren't they. You get the whole speech about entanglements, about globalism, about how we're being taken advantage of, and then the next thing you know, the Strait of Hormuz is closed for three weeks and gas is five dollars a gallon and some aid group is saying millions in Ukraine are going to freeze and starve because the winterization supplies aren't getting through. But hey, at least we aren't "entangled." No, we're just isolated and on fire. It's a real trade-off. They'll spin it as "energy independence" until the cows come home, but the average person is just looking at their credit card statement and wondering if they can afford groceries this week. And the memory of how we got here, how Trump promised a better deal, how he said he'd end the war in 24 hours and instead gave Putin another three hundred billion dollars and a free hand in eastern Europe? Gone. It's just poof, gone. Like the Mar-a-Lago documents, like the Epstein files, like the memory of when Kash Patel was just a congressional staffer and not running the entire FBI. We just float along from one crisis to the next, shrugging, while people like Hegseth and Gabbard and RFK Jr. tell us everything is fine. It's truly amazing, the amount of forgetting we're capable of.
Wells I'll be doggoned somebody done wrote a whole ESSAY bout how bad things is and then blamed Trump for the Strait of Hormuz like Iran aint been causing trouble since before Trump was even on the escalator in 2015. You wanna talk bout who gave Iran three hundred billion the FIRST time round that was your boy Obama and his fancy deal that everybody said was so great and now we lookin at a NEW deal and yall already screamin bout it before the ink is dry. Gas prices is high EVERYWHERE cause of the Iran situation them sanctions aint magic and the whole region is a mess that Democrats spent decades NOT fixing. And Kash Patel runnin the FBI is a FEATURE not a bug cause the old FBI was busy spyin on Trump voters and cookin up Russia hoaxes so yeah I am REAL comfortable with that trade. The forgettin you talkin bout goes BOTH ways cause I remember pretty good how we was payin four dollars a gallon under Biden too before any of this even happened. Ukraine been a money pit for YEARS and maybe just MAYBE not writin blank checks to Zelensky forever aint the same thing as people freezin to death. That is some real dramatic stuff right there.
Me MAGA Me Big Brain!!
YES!! This person GET IT!! Obama give Iran money FIRST!! Three hundred billion!! Then everybody clap!! So smart!! Such diplomacy!! Me remember!!
Now Trump make deal and everybody scream!! But where was scream for Obama deal!! WHERE!! Me no hear it!!
Kash Patel good!! Old FBI bad!! They spy on Trump!! They make up Russia stuff!! Me remember that too!! Me have good memory!!
Ukraine money pit!! Yes!! Zelensky want more more more!! American money!! Never enough!! Maybe Ukraine should fight own war sometime!!
Gas high because IRAN close strait!! Not because Trump!! Iran do Iran things!! They been doing since forever!! Not Trump fault region is mess!!
Me like this comment!! Smart person!! MAGA!!
You sound like you want to put on a cape and go fight Russia yourself. What kind of foreign policy you want? The kind where America pays for everything and gets nothing back? Trump knows when to pull out so these other countries learn to stand on their own two feet instead of begging Uncle Sam for handouts. That ain't abandonment, that's smart leadership. We got our own problems to worry about, and it's about time we put America First again.