With regularity, Republicans blame the United States for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. They blame President Biden in particular. Speaking to the Republican convention this week, David Sacks said that Biden “provoked, yes, provoked, the Russians to invade Ukraine.”
Sacks is a South African tech investor and, apparently, a member of Donald Trump’s inner circle. Trump has the same mind-set that Sacks showed at the convention.
In October 2022, Trump gave an interview to Real America’s Voice (a media network). Listen to the former president — and probable future president — blame the United States for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine:
“They actually taunted him, if you really look at it. Our country, and our so-called leadership, taunted Putin. And, I would listen — I’d say, ‘You know, they’re almost forcing him to go in, with what they’re saying.’”
At least Trump thought to say “almost.”
Mike Lee is the senior senator from Utah, and a leading Republican. He tweets as “BasedMikeLee.” “Based,” as I understand it, means “cool,” roughly. This week, Lee tweeted straightforwardly that “Biden provoked Russia to invade Ukraine.”
It is very close to a party line. Indeed, I think we can say it is one, given this week’s convention, which is nominating Trump and J. D. Vance.
Some of us think back to another Republican convention, the one in 1984. On the rostrum was Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She was a Democrat at the time (and always had been). She would not switch her party registration to Republican until she left government the next year.
At the convention, she decried her fellow Democrats who blamed America for the world’s problems — problems that were the making of other people, chiefly the Kremlin.
Could she not give much the same speech this year, about Republicans?
The day after his speech, David Sacks tweeted,
Yesterday was rough for neocons and Ukraine stans. First JD Vance was picked for VP. Then I called out the warmongers for their provoked war. Cope and seethe, grifters.
This is almost a perfect statement of modern Republicanism — in its mendacity, in its lingo, in its sentiment.
Take “Ukraine stans.” What is a “stan”? According to Merriam-Webster, it is “slang, often disparaging,” meaning “an extremely or excessively enthusiastic and devoted fan.”
The Ukrainians are fighting for their lives — their independence, their sovereignty, their very right to exist — against a monstrous invader. Some of us support them and admire them. “Stans”? Really?
During World War II, would Sacks et al. have sneered at “Poland stans,” and “Denmark stans,” and “Britain stans,” and so on? I’m sure they would have. Their antecedents did.
A lot of us support the Israelis in their struggle against Hamas. Are we “Israel stans”?
Sacks tweeted, “I called out the warmongers for their provoked war.” The warmonger — the warmaker — is Vladimir Putin and his dictatorship and its allies: China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and so on.
Sacks reminds me of Senator Tommy Tuberville (R., Ala.), who earlier this year said that “Russia is open to a peace agreement, while it is DC warmongers who want to prolong the war.”
This is exactly how the useful idiots of the Left talked, decades ago. Jeane Kirkpatrick was revolted by them. Some of us now feel the same revulsion.
Like Reagan, Kirkpatrick felt that her party had left her. Some of us know exactly how she (and he) felt. It is one thing to favor bigger government, higher tariffs, and the rest. But to make these claims about America and war, America and the invasion, the rape, of Ukraine — disgusting. Just disgusting.