Leave it to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to somehow blame the United States for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
On February 26, the DSA released a statement “On Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine,” in which they demand the United States withdraw from NATO because “imperialist expansionism set the stage for this conflict.”
So, according to the DSA, the United States and NATO are to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Astonishingly, the DSA makes no mention of Vladimir Putin, the very man who ordered the invasion in the first place. Perhaps that is because Putin, a former lieutenant colonel in the KGB, has a soft spot for socialism.
Nevertheless, the DSA’s statement on the war in Ukraine also ignores the monumental role that energy is playing in this conflict. But that is almost assuredly because the DSA is all-in on the Green New Deal, which would further hamper U.S. production of natural gas and oil while increasing Russia’s stranglehold over Western Europe’s energy needs.
Instead of calling for international support of Ukraine via defensive weapons, the DSA is naively calling for “an immediate international antiwar response demanding de-escalation, international cooperation, and opposition to unilateral coercive measures, militarization, and other forms of economic and military brinkmanship that will only exacerbate the human toll of this conflict.”
If sanctions against Russia are off the table, and the delivery of defensive weapon systems to Ukraine is also a non-starter, how in the world would the West possibly deter Putin’s naked aggression?
What’s more, DSA states, “Much of the next ten years are coming into view through this attack. While the failures of neoliberal order are clear to everyone, the ruling class is trying to build a new world, through a dystopic transition grounded in militarism, imperialism, and war. Socialists have a duty to build an alternative.”
This simply shows how misguided the DSA’s position on this issue actually is. The so-called ruling class, especially elites in the United States and international institutions like NATO and the United Nations, have universally condemned Putin’s blatant land-grab in Eastern Europe. There is no evidence whatsoever that the ruling class desires to upend the post-WW II world order, in which invasions of sovereign nations is the new normal.
And, although DSA would like you to believe that socialism and war are antithetical, a brief glance at history proves otherwise.
In fitting fashion, demonstrating their true colors, the DSA statement ends with this ominous sentence: “No war but class war.” Karl Marx must be so proud…
Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is the editorial director and a research fellow at The Heartland Institute, as well as a researcher and contributing editor at StoppingSocialism.com.
