Image: Mykhailo Shcherbyna / Dreamstime / Monument to Motherland with a sunset in the background. Kyiv, Ukraine.
One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: “As long as it takes” – Words we don’t want to hear.

Feb 24, 2023 | 5:00 AM

U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN made a daring and brave trip to Kyiv, Ukraine last weekend. A move to show Western Solidarity with a country ravaged by a terrorist dictator continually committing war crimes and killing innocent civilians.

Vladimir Putin has little support outside his own country, but he continues to try and bully Ukraine into submission. It’s been a much tougher battle than Putin expected. He has lost billions in equipment, his military leaders have made mistake after mistake, but he continues to press on, using his sheer superiority in numbers.

The West has provided hundreds of billions of dollars in aid, in the form of tanks, missile detectors, howitzers, and the like, as well as humanitarian aid.

This battle is a critical one. Ukraine is literally fighting for its life. The West is fighting, not only to keep democracy alive but in a kind of greedy sense to keep gas and grain flowing to the West and not the East.

But I get worried when Biden and other leaders make statements they cannot promise to live up to. Biden has said, on at least two occasions, the U.S. will stick by Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”

While it’s a great gesture, the West cannot possibly do this forever. Even the U.S., let alone smaller countries like Canada, cannot continue to pour these billions of dollars into a war that could go on ad infinitum.

We won’t put troops on the ground because we don’t want Putin to start using nuclear weapons. And that’s a real danger when dealing with a man obviously capable of doing just that.

How many years did the U.S. spend trying to win the Vietnam war? And came home with their tails between their legs. All the napalm in the world couldn’t defeat a determined Viet Cong.

We spent two decades in Afghanistan trying to do the same thing. Again, little success against a determined foe. Both times we promised to be there until the war was won. And then we walked away.

Ukraine is a little different situation. We’re not facing an enemy radicalized to the point of sacrificing at all costs. And in this battle, it has been the Russians who have suffered disillusion in the ranks, who have lost faith in their leadership, and billions of dollars worth of equipment in the battlefield.

Putin obviously misjudged things. But how long will the West hold out before countries determine they have higher priorities at home? I think what we’re looking at is a staring match to see who blinks first. And if we blink first, we walk away again after another empty promise.

Don’t say“as long as it takes.” Please.

If there is no endgame in sight, and there doesn’t appear to be, we will get tired eventually and we will wind up like we did in Vietnam and Afghanistan, leaving the Ukrainians on their own.

If we’re not going to give jets and other high-end military equipment to Ukraine, then let’s stop the hollow talk. The prospects of another drawn-out conflict will inflict far more damage on Ukraine than Russia ever will.

I’m Doug Collins and that’s One Man’s Opinion.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.