Editor’s note: This commentary was originally published in print on May 7 as part of a pro-con debate page. To read the counterpoint, clickLast year, I traveled to Kyiv with Speaker Nancy Pelosi as part of the first delegation of House members to visit the Ukrainian capital during the war.
Then, and since, I have marveled at the Ukrainian willingness to fight for their democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. In the United States, where our own democracy has been under a different kind of assault, we have another responsibility — to resist our own creeping authoritarianism, to continue the struggle for voting rights and equal rights, to defend our elections and the freedom of the press.
In addition to unleashing untold suffering on Ukraine, Putin has brought conflict to our NATO allies’ doorsteps, and generated fear of nuclear attacks with his belligerent rhetoric. He is challenging not just President Zelenskyy and the brave Ukrainian people, but the very international rules-based order that the U.S. has championed since WWII, and which has brought enormous benefit to the democratic world.
In a world in which democracies do not defend each other, China would be emboldened to impose its will on the democratic peoples of Taiwan. Azerbaijan may take further action to invade and occupy Armenia and Artsakh. Turkey, Iran and other nations will also take a fresh look at their territorial ambitions in a new global order in which there are no rules except might makes right.