In an article published in The American Conservative July 16, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) points to the failure of the recent July 9-11 NATO summit in Washington to take steps to move toward a negotiated settlement of the Ukraine-Russia war. Instead, in a policy “driven largely by the Biden administration,” NATO policy will “ensure the slaughter in Ukraine continues.”
What is the rationale of inviting Ukraine into NATO? Paul asks. Normally, countries are invited to join only when this would improve the security of current members. But inviting Ukraine into NATO will have the opposite effect, heightening “the risk of a direct NATO-Russia war.” The bottom line? It is not in America’s interest to fight a war against Russia “on behalf of Ukraine either now or in the future.” Dangling NATO membership to Ukraine is the “worst of both worlds.”
Since most wars end at the negotiating table, Paul notes, Ukraine’s best bargaining chip would be a commitment to forego its NATO aspirations and adopt a policy of neutrality. In fact, he adds, Moscow proposed such a policy of security guarantees before the war, including ruling out Ukraine’s accession to NATO, and just after the war broke out, a peace deal was negotiated in April of 2022, with Kiev pledging not to join NATO, before succumbing to “Western pressure.”
The NATO summit, Paul concludes, was a “prime opportunity for the alliance and Ukraine to work in tandem to develop a serious diplomatic proposal to end the war, rather than encourage further suffering, death and devastation.” Biden didn’t have the courage to lead the alliance to this conclusion, and now, “unfortunately, the meat grinder can be expected to continue.”