Ukraine: a cross that the United States must be prepared to bear

Every day, the 9,387 Americans present in Coleville-sur-Mer endure bad weather coming from the English Channel.

As we write this, November 22 is a pleasant day; temperatures are around 50F and there is a light wind. But they endure everything, from summer heat pierced by the laughter of children playing just yards away on Omaha Beach, to snow and ice. They are also there when it rains, because they have no choice.

The 9,387 men of Normandy American Cemetery stand near where they fell in what was perhaps the greatest American epic of all: the battle to liberate the European continent from the murderous grip of Nazism. The graves are arranged in a beautiful lawn landscape, in long, close rows, where our American warriors are, we must hope, at rest and peace. All around are memorials to 1,557 other people whose bodies were never found.

Their fight is over, but that of the living continues. THE “The Greatest Generation” left us the legacy of a free Europe, and we honor them not only by recognizing their sacrifice, but also by keeping it healthy and alive. As a British memorial to the dead of the Second World War says:

When you get home, tell them about us and say:
For your tomorrow, we gave our today.

We now see Ukraine fighting for its existence, for its very place on a map. Learning from Europe’s largest and most consequential war, the West must not abandon Ukraine.

During World War II, the United States lost 416,800 military personnel and spent unimaginable amounts of money to rid the planet of the dual threats of Germany and Imperial Japan.

To help Europe rebuild and recover, the money spent to ensure peace and prosperity on the European continent through the Marshall Plan invested $13.3 billion (about $150 billion in today’s dollars) for Western European countries. The plan was a bold move not only to rebuild a war-ravaged Europe (Allied bombing and intensive ground warfare had left vast wastelands littered with rubble) but also to ensure that the United States would win the peace as it did. had won the war.

New institutions were also built from scratch. The United Nations (UN) was a largely US-led creation designed to maintain international peace and security; the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the judicial organ of the UN, was established to promote and encourage respect for human rights; the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to ensure reconstruction and promote economic cooperation and international trade; and the World Bank. The United States and its European allies also created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and provided defense and military modernization for the continent against the Soviet threat.

The United States has responded to its commitments in agreement with the population. In 1989, at the end of the Cold War, there were approximately 250,000 American soldiers in Germany, the Soviet Union’s attempts to export its ideology by peaceful or warlike means were a failure. And it failed.

The hardliners might ask: “Yes, there is a lot of history, but what does our relationship with Europe mean in the 21st?”^st century? Asia is the economic power of the future.

It is true that Asia is essential to the future of the United States, but Europe remains a major source of economic and political importance. Our now rich and rebuilt allies are multiplying our forces and making our enemies tremble (if you doubt this, look at the enormous efforts made by Russia and China to separate Europe from the United States, both diplomatically and through disinformation campaigns.)

It’s huge and irreplaceable. According to the European Union (EU), the 27-member bloc and the United States combined represent the largest areas of trade and investment in the world.

• The United States exported $354 billion worth of services to the EU in 2022, a surplus of $96 billion.

• The EU exported $555 billion worth of goods to the United States in 2022, a surplus of $164 billion.

• The US and EU each have huge stocks of foreign direct investment, each amounting to around $2.75 trillion. US investment in Europe is four times higher than in Asia, even without taking into account additional investment in the UK. more than 1,000 billion dollars.

• Together, the United States and the EU “have the most significant bilateral trade and investment relationships and enjoy the most integrated economic relations in the world.”

Let’s be absolutely clear about the issues. The United States, more than any other country, has worked hard to support Ukraine since Russia’s war of all-out aggression began 21 months ago.

If it ends, as some would like, it is possible that despite its heroic efforts, Ukraine will be defeated or forced into peace on humiliating terms that involve its forcible dismemberment.

This would be a terrible outcome, because Russia cannot be trusted to keep its word. Russia’s aggressive acts over the past two decades demonstrate that its word cannot be taken. The attack on Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the subsequent war in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions were clear precursors to the full-scale invasion of February 2022.

Any settlement resembling a Putin victory would seriously harm transatlantic security and embolden dictators around the world. If we allow this to happen, we will certainly pay a higher cost in the future, as Russian armies camp on NATO’s borders.

The threat could not be clearer. Russia shows an established pattern of encroaching on other countries and most of Europe. If Russia wins this war in Ukraine, it will not stop. This appears to destabilize many of NATO’s current members and partners, including in the Balkans, the Baltics, Moldova, Poland, the Czech Republic and other countries that Russia considers the former Soviet Union or as members of the Eastern bloc. He openly declared his ambitions in Putin’s speech scary requests from December 2021.

Now is the time for determined American leadership. We must galvanize our allies and partners toward a decisive Ukrainian victory, asking the question: “What does Ukraine need and how can we get it done quickly?” This is a goal well within our reach.

Losing our investments by allowing the Kremlin to win would be a betrayal of all those who sacrificed their lives during World War II and of all those committed to establishing a democratic Europe, free of Nazism and Communism.

If we could ask the boys of Coleville-sur-Mer what they hoped for the future, we think most of them would have wanted the Europe we have today. Free, peaceful, a place where people can live a fulfilling and prosperous life. This is the legacy of the American struggle.

Should we renounce their sacrifice now, almost 80 years later? For me, that would be a terrible betrayal.

Lieutenant General (Ret.) Stephen Twitty is a Distinguished Fellow and member of the International Leadership Council of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). He is the founder of Twitty and Associates LLC. He held a series of command positions in the U.S. Army and received numerous awards, including the Silver Star Medal, the third highest award for valor in combat in Iraq.

Ivanna Kuz is a Senior Program Officer in the Transatlantic Defense and Security Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), where she works on Ukraine, Black Sea security, NATO and future of European security. Before joining CEPA, Ivanna worked at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.

At the edge of Europe is CEPA’s online journal covering critical foreign policy topics in Europe and North America. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or of the Center for European Policy Analysis.