Opinion: Being anti-war and excusing Putin are very different
SACRAMENTO – As a long-time critic of American military interventionism, I’ve been dismayed by the lack of moral clarity expressed by some libertarians and conservatives regarding Russia’s inexcusable attack on Ukraine. There’s a difference between opposing, say, direct American military interference with a nuclear-armed Russia and excusing its autocratic leader, Vladimir Putin.
For instance, former Reagan administration official Paul Craig Roberts made this argument in the, er, libertarian “anti-war” LewRockwell.com: “he chance of a wider war would be far less if the Kremlin had committed all of the invasion forces and used whatever conventional weapons necessary regardless of civilian casualties to quickly end the war, while refusing to be delayed and distracted by negotiations and Western bleating.
Former GOP presidential candidate Pat Buchanan even called Putin “a Russian nationalist, patriot, traditionalist and a cold and ruthless realist looking out to preserve Russia as the great and respected power it once was and he believes it can be again.” That’s high praise from the nationalist, traditionalist Buchanan. His columns have blamed the Russian invasion on the United States, and excused Putin’s seizing of Crimea: “Teddy Roosevelt stole Panama with similar remorse.
It’s actually not that hard to understand this fascination with Putin and similarly minded autocratic leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban. “See, this is the thing,” wrote American Conservative pundit Rod Dreher last year . “Putin, Orban, and all the illiberal leaders … are all completely clear and completely correct on the society-destroying nature of wokeness and postliberal leftism.” Well, the Italians were right about trains, but you know how that went.
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