With the culmination of the initial Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the passage of the thirty-day mark since that invasion, I took a one-week pause on war commentary here at Armas. The press of events is important, and deserves coverage, but there is always a utility in pulling back for a moment and assessing what we got right, and what we got wrong.
One judgment that I think withstands the events of the past ninety days is the one rendered in the 23 January 2022 Armas, in which I argued that the United States possesses a direct interest in Ukraine’s defense. An interest in the prevention of war and the preservation of the American-led order in Europe — which in turn is a guarantor condition of the American way of life — commended a commitment to Ukraine’s defense before a Russian invasion, as a means of precluding it. Now that prevention of war, having been fundamentally untried, has failed, we retain the interest in the second condition: the preservation of the American-led order in Europe as a fundamental precondition of the American way of life.
This interest leads us to actions that we are undertaking, or ought to undertake.
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