Three decades ago, the newly independent country of Ukraine was briefly the third-largest nuclear power in the world. Thousands of nuclear arms had been left in Ukraine by Moscow after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Eventually, Ukraine made the decision to completely denuclearize. In exchange, the U.S., the U.K. and Russia would guarantee Ukraine’s security in the Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine was told at the time that the Western powers — certainly at least the United States and Great Britain — take their political commitments very seriously. This was a document signed at the highest level by the heads of state. The implication was Ukraine would not be left to stand alone to face a threat should it come under one. But treaties, agreements, promises, handshakes mean nothing to #47 (who never served): Those are for losers and suckers, even if their violation means destroying the underpinnings of an albeit imperfect world order that kept a modicum of peace, at least in the West. And we can always argue about who really started the war in Ukraine! Instead of a shining city on a hill for all the world to see, America is revealed as a fair-weather friend, never to be trusted again. Oh, and even if you think we’ve sacrificed enough of our “blood and treasure” for a bunch of ingrates, why would any country or state now engage in nuclear disarmament or not want to become a nuclear power?

Greg Davis

Salem