In Kim Strassel’s interview with Robert Doar, president of AEI, she begins the discussion with the Ukraine battlefield, a place where Americans don’t hear about much in part because the administration has not made it a priority. Ms. Strassel’s perception is that Russia, although not losing, is not winning. Kim talks about the extraordinary innovation that has been prevalent in the Ukrainian military, in particular, the young officer corps, battlefield adjustments, and the use of drones. She asks Doar to sum up what the state of the war is in terms of winning, losing, et cetera.
To some extent, Doar acknowledges, it’s always been true that a defensive position is better to guard than an offensive one. In this new drone warfare, it’s even more true.
“Because of the use of drones, there’s this, I don’t know, 15, 20 miles of no-man’s land in between where if Russian soldiers decide they want to take additional land, they have to come out of the barriers and show themselves. And the minute they show themselves, the Ukrainians have learned how to attack them with drones quite effectively.
The Ukrainians hold a defensive position that is pretty solid confirms Doar. The Russians are stuck on the line; really have not moved at all. It’s a stalemate, Doar thinks, this being stuck can continue for a while, giving the Ukrainians a solid position. The Russians have been stuck on this line for years, and the stalemate can continue. It’s kind of the stuck situation where the Russians continues to send soldiers into it and the Ukrainians continue to pick them off. On the other hand, Ukraine is woefully short on patriot defensive missiles to keep the air raid bombs from stopping. And that is how Russia is fighting the war now. Russia, while not making gains, militarily is trying to terrorize the civilian population.
Doar sums up with how uneven and uncertain the US has been. This is the time when it’s needed most, he tells Kim, and because this is the time when you might be able to force a conclusion, but for some reason, President Trump has hesitated to put his foot down and say, “This has got to stop, and I’m going to support Ukraine until it does.”
Kim wonders if the US president’s comments this week at the G7 are an opening for there to be a renewed focus on Ukraine. Does Doar have any real hope for that?
Doar admits to not knowing, and that there are aspects of the war in Iran that were necessary and important and truly effective. Doar didn’t in any way contradict or challenge the United States’ policy while he was in Ukraine. There is hope that if things settle down in Iran, the US will be able to turn its attention to Ukraine. On the other hand, says Doar, there’s an element of this settlement in Iran, which is one of frustration with all of this and the worry that the Trump administration’s frustration will lead them to be less resolute in Iran and in Ukraine, which is unfortunate. Then it will really be up to Europe and Ukraine to see if they can force Putin to negotiate a reasonable settlement.
Kim picks up on, as Doar noted, how some Europeans are really stepping up Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Poland, some of the Baltic States, and Finland. It’s not just a willingness to step up and fill that breach to a certain extent, but they seem to be acknowledging that part of this is a result of their own mishandling of Russia over the years and mistakes they’ve made, in particular, pipelines, doing business with it, giving Russia the ability to hold Europe over a barrel. Kim asks Doar about his conversations. “What were your conversations like with European officials at this event?”
Doar tells Kim that the German ambassador to Ukraine was particularly strong in saying that we were hoodwinked by Russia into believing that they could be a reasonable partner in Europe.
“And everyone in Germany thinks now that Russia is an adversary and must be dealt with in a way that Angela Merkel did not deal with him, Russia. And so that I saw as very strong
… but I have to say there’s a long history in me and in others getting our hopes up for Europe and I don’t want to appear too naive, but when they say things that are like that, I want to say they said things like that so I can promote it a little bit and keep the snowball going, but they definitely have been exposed to the brutality of Putin, the ruthlessness of Putin and they don’t like it and they know they better stop it.”
One thing that particularly struck Doar is Moldova, a tiny country, and its president, Sandu, a remarkable woman leader who’s been elected now twice, put off a “really hard misinformation campaign by Russia to try to unseat her and she has her country behind her and they’re next and they want to stay in the Free World and they’re counting on Europe and Ukraine to do it because they certainly can’t on their own.” The coalition: the need of the strong to protect the weak.
Doar notes, I’m not sure Europe would have done as much if President Trump had not been so insistent that they do more. In that regard, there has been a movement. The investments in the defense industry are much greater in Germany and in Poland than they were before, and given the threat and what Russia is willing to do, I think that’s a good thing. The question is whether it’s enough.”
Kim notes how these on-the-ground reports make such a difference; how we need this constant reminder that this is still very much one of the big tests, I think, of the Western world. We’re going to have to see if we rise to the challenge.
Before Kim and Doar conclude their interview. Kim asks about AEI’s America 250 project, in which they produced eight volumes of six or seven essays per volume on various topics of the founding of our republic and the Declaration of Independence, the founding and the Constitution, the founding and religion, the founding and capitalism, led by our marvelous scholar. “Yuval Levin has edited all of these volumes and brought together thinkers from academia and across the country—on both the right and the left—to think about and reflect on these issues.”
The fact is, continues Doar, our founding is still present today.
“In order for us to succeed as a country, we have to follow some of the values and principles and lessons from our founding about the dignity of the individual, about the importance of protecting minorities and political engagements, the importance of checks and balances between Congress, the presidency and the court. And we need to be reminded of those. And I have to just say, Kim, I think that’s a better way to celebrate and recognize our founding. I mean, I’m as manly a man as there can be, but I don’t get how a fight on the lawn of the White House celebrates America’s founding.”
Kim Strassel tells her readers/listeners that she can’t recommend these essays enough. The set of essays Kim particularly loved are the volumes… You have a whole set of essays on capitalism. And I guess I’m a little biased, obviously. I work for the Wall Street Journal.
Kim Strassel also likes to remind readers/listeners and especially young people that this is a foundational aspect of this country because they just tend to think of it as this one economic system among many. But, of course, there were capitalist forces prior to our revolution.
Doar also reminds readers that “(capitalism) is the driver of our growth and prosperity, our enormous prosperity.”
“And you recognize that when you’re outside of the United States, how our vibrant capitalist economy is just driving so much growth and so much prosperity and is also, by the way, the distinctive feature of Ukraine versus Russia. There is actually a capitalist economy in Ukraine, not as much as I’d like it to be, but certainly different than whatever’s going on in Russia. So yeah, we are celebrating all the values of our founding in a way that is intended for us to be reminded of those values so we continue to live them in our current political world.”
Before their interview ends, Kim asks Mr. Doar what his favorites are, to take sides, which Doar is reluctant to take on.
“Well, there’s this sort of internal battle where I wanted to do a volume of the best of each and you’ve already said, too many hurt feelings in the academic world for that. I love the volume on religion. I thought that was very informative. I love the volume on the Declaration of Independence, but the ones I like best are the ones that remind us of certain values about how we interact with each other in a democracy in which where we try to resolve our differences sometimes through compromise, sometimes through taking it to the people and always through an interaction between the three branches of government. So I can’t pick one specific one out, but there are a lot of great ones.”
At this point, Kim mentions she attended the Bradley Prizes. One recipient was Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, who gave a wonderful speech making the argument that if you wanted to solve so many of today’s ongoing political problems, issues of polarization, racism that we see out there, the rise of antisemitism, that the answer is actually simply to make sure that our young people once again are understanding the founding of our country and its principles. Kim praises the recipient as having put it extremely well.
Mr. Doar feels we really have lost our way badly in the way we educate our young people on the benefits of being an American, about the benefits of being in a system that is governed by our Constitution and by our Declaration of Independence.
Young people today were not brought up in an environment that helped people learn patriotism and as a result, they are not as good citizens as they would be. And we at AEI through our young people programs and our interaction with colleges are trying to redress that. I think the reform of higher education that’s gone on in the last five years or so, much of it being pushed by the Trump administration, which I think is good, has led universities and colleges to face up to this. The K through 12 education is a much difficult, more hard entity to change. And I happen to think the answer is choice and greater opportunities to get out of the public education system. But really if you go to those programs that educate teachers to teach in K through 12 education, at least in the state that I’m from, there’s very little emphasis on the greatness of our history and almost the opposite. And I don’t think our culture helps either.
The Wall Street Journal being an exception, but our movies, our cinema, it’s always about what’s wrong with America and not enough about what’s great about America. And I think there’s a lot to be said for sending messages that convey the benefits of our system and our country as well as our weakness.
Kim ends the interview thanking Mr. Doar and AEI “existing as you do in the world of thought and ideas and helping to enlighten us all.”
