The Insanity of Russia Hawks

 

Farkas is proposing waging a war on Russia’s doorstep where they have virtually every advantage.

by Daniel Larison Posted onJanuary 12, 2022

Evelyn Farkas, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, goes full alarmist:

The world will watch our response. Any subsequent acceptance of Russian gains will spell the beginning of the end of the international order. If Europe, NATO, and its allies in Asia and elsewhere fail to defend the foundational United Nations principles of sanctity of borders and state sovereignty, no one will. Any appeasement will only beget future land grabs not only from Putin, but also from China in Taiwan and elsewhere. And if the world’s democracies lack the political will to stop them, the rules-based international order will collapse. The United Nations will go the way of the League of Nations. We will revert to spheres of global influence, unbridled military and economic competition, and ultimately, world war. 

A new Russian attack on Ukraine would be illegal and destructive, but we should be very wary of claims that it will have such massive effects. Major powers have waged illegal wars against other countries many times since the end of WWII, but somehow the international system did not come crashing down as a result. The “principles of sanctity of borders and state sovereignty” have been violated on many occasions over the decades, and in many cases our government was the one doing the violating, but the “rules-based international order” didn’t vanish because the rules have sometimes been broken. Hawks have to exaggerate the stakes like this, because if they didn’t they would never be able to sell their extreme policies.

Farkas’ warning has to be so extreme because she is calling for going to war against Russia:

The horrible possibility exists that Americans, with our European allies, must use our military to roll back Russians – even at risk of direct combat.

Read the rest of the article at Eunomia

Daniel Larison is a weekly columnist for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.

https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2022/01/12/the-insanity-of-russia-hawks/