US politician and former senator Joseph Lieberman said that the current crisis in Eastern Europe is not only about the extent to which the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) can prevent Russia from invading Ukraine, despite the importance of this issue.

The crisis - according to Lieberman's article in the American magazine "The National Interest" - is also related to larger issues of personal freedom and opportunities, "which we Americans and Europeans cherish so much."

Lieberman, a former member of the Democratic Party and his candidate for Vice President of the United States in the 2000 election, wrote, "Modern history teaches us that if we allow an authoritarian ruler with an expansionist tendency like Russian President Vladimir Putin to impose his will by force on a country like Ukraine, the freedom and security of "Most of the remaining parts of Europe will eventually be at risk, and we will likely be dragged back into a bigger, deadlier and more costly war. That is why it is so important to prevent Putin from doing that now."

He added, "It is gratifying at this time - when our domestic politics suffers from emotional and blind partisanship - that the majority of bipartisan (Democratic and Republican) members of Congress understand those lessons from history for strong policies such as those that the administration of President Joe Biden has begun to introduce to remove Russian forces about Ukraine.

But there is a "cause of cacophony" of isolationists from the far left of the Democratic Party and the far right of the Republican Party who argue that it does not matter to the United States if Russia invades and takes control of Ukraine, as Lieberman puts it.

Those whom the author of the article describes as "progressives in Congress" are more concerned about offending Russia than they are about the freedom and sovereignty of the Ukrainian people.

"(Progressives) say that they seek a diplomatic solution through negotiations and settlements, and they warn that any new deployment of forces, the imposition of indiscriminate sanctions and the profusion of lethal weapons will only exacerbate tensions."

On the far right of the Republican Party, isolationists were most visible;

“We have no interest in fighting,” their Representative, Paul Gosar, says. Fox News host Tucker Carlson even goes so far as to ask, “Why should we side with Ukraine and not Russia? ?"

In Joseph Lieberman's view, the calls of bipartisan isolationists cannot be ignored, or else support for them will increase, pointing out that their defenders must be reminded of the lessons of history and confronted with the fact that the deep-rooted American values ​​of freedom and equal opportunities that they themselves embrace "with fervor" will be undermined strongly "if we do nothing and allow Russia to invade Ukraine."

And he added that some of the lessons of history might help in this matter, noting that some isolationists had previously abandoned their positions, including the former Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg - who voted in the thirties of the last century against any involvement of his country in the aggression that had begun in Europe and Asia at the time. - But he abandoned that position, after the air raid launched by Japan in December 1941 on the American fleet at its naval base in Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands.

Vandenberg asserted at that time that the isolationist tendency had died in every realistic person, and this is what prompted him to strongly support the participation of the United States in World War II.


Freedom values

The author of the article pointed out that former Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan did not defend the values ​​of freedom during the Cold War, and even Kennedy sent a direct message to Moscow in which he stated, "We will pay any price, bear any burden, face any difficulties, support any friend, and oppose any enemy." in order to ensure the survival and success of freedom.

As for Reagan, in a press conference in 1981, he denounced the leaders of the Soviet Union for their quest to establish a "one world communist socialist state," declaring - in a speech before the British Parliament - June 1982 that "the march for freedom and democracy will throw Marxism-Leninism into the dustbin of history, just as It threw other tyrants, for their suppression of freedoms and peoples."

Later Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil empire".

Lieberman goes on - in his article - that Russia under Putin's rule is no longer officially a communist state, but it practices political repression and its economy is controlled by the state, and this trend is expanding strategically, as was the case during the former Soviet Union.

Lieberman believes that President Biden was right when he said recently that Russia's invasion of Ukraine "would change the world."

And if the US president - with the support of the majority of members of Congress from both parties - is able to avert such an invasion without bowing to Russia, this will improve the world's view of him and America "which was weakened by the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, especially in Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang."