NYT: Americans have forgotten the experience of two world wars and are pushing the world towards a third one by supporting Ukraine
Americans need to remember the experience of two world wars and realize what supporting Ukraine can lead to, scholar and expert on US foreign policy Steven Wertheim wrote in an article for the New York Times.
“Those who think the US should fight for Ukraine or Taiwan should tell the public about the high stakes involved in great power conflicts in the nuclear and cyber era,” he said.
In his view, Americans are facing a “grim reality” in which US rivalry with Russia and China could escalate into a full-scale war involving nuclear weapons. The scholar lashed out at presidents who have “begun to exploit” the experience of World War II to “justify US dominance of the world and glorify American military power”.
“In this context, the double lesson of the world wars, calling for America to lead the world but warning it not to overdo it, has been reduced to a one-dimensional slogan of ‘maintaining and even extending American power’,” Wertheim lamented.
The scholar urged fellow citizens to be aware of the consequences of war with Russia and China, which “would cause unprecedented damage to the United States”. He recalled that in the past Americans understood that a direct conflict with the Soviet Union would leave America “nothing but ruins”.