In a recent Wall Street Journal piece on occupied Eastern Ukraine, a resident characterizes Luhansk as a place where there are “no prospects for the future.” Bombed-out buildings, art museums turned into torture centers — a liminal existence between chaos and fear. This is what life is like in Luhansk and Donetsk, the two pro-Russian enclave territories of Eastern Ukraine. Since 2014, Russia has destabilized and continued armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and has illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula. On top of this, Ukraine (including its breakaway territories) has been ravaged by COVID-19, compounding the chances of catastrophe. Knowing this, the progressive caucus’s response to the Biden administration’s plans to aid Ukraine in the latest flare-up of the eight-year-long Russian invasion of Ukraine is curious. Worse, it is utterly misguided in its aims. The statement represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, the impact of the American and European response to the 2014 invasion, and the horizons for American involvement in the current conflict. Diplomacy alone is not enough.
On Jan. 26, 2022, members of the progressive caucus released a statement written by Representatives PramilaJayapal and Barbara Lee. In the statement, the pair states, “We continue to watch Russia’s threatening behavior towards Ukraine with alarm. There is no military solution out of this crisis — diplomacy needs to be the focus.” At the end of the statement, they argue, “In past crises, where events are moving quickly and intelligence is unclear, vigorous, delicate diplomacy is essential to de-escalation.” The caucus also put forth a resolution that seeks to “outline a new framework for foreign policy” and calls for the US to use foreign policy to lessen the harms outlined earlier in the document. This is fascinating because among these issues are: The spread of infectious diseases, the proliferation of weapons, human rights violations, corruption, conflict and violence, and authoritarianism and distrust in democracy. All of these are combined in the current Ukraine–Russia crisis.
Yet, the day after, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doubled down on the progressive narrative. She alluded to the idea that the military-industrial complex would engage in armed conflict in Ukraine for profit. On top of that, she lamented the harm sanctions could do to Ukrainians because of some barely logical connection between pipelines and climate change. I’m still wondering how sanctions on Russia harm Ukrainians, or how Ukraine and the United States are pursuing a path to war rather than Russia. Perhaps Ben and Jerry’s can help me with that one.
WHAT THE PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS IS MISSING
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