While the two conflicts certainly aren’t the same, there are similarities after several years of fighting, but ironically, conservatives and progressives tend to take the opposite view of each.
Admittedly, I have been skeptical of our efforts to help Ukraine prevail against the Russian invasion while being generally supportive of Israel’s efforts against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. At least part of this divergence was due to my own political bias. Objectively speaking, Russia and Hamas were undoubtedly the aggressors in both cases, and Ukraine and Israel were morally justified in prosecuting their actions to repel or destroy their enemies to the fullest. At the same time, it seemed to me that the War in Ukraine would not have happened were it not for the manifest weakness of President Joe Biden and though there might have been an early opportunity for the Ukrainian army to repel Russia, the international community was far too slow to respond, resulting in a bloody stalemate that has cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives and continues to this day. From that perspective, it seemed to me the war was unwinnable and there was no point in continuing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to maintain a grinding, grueling conflict indefinitely. Israel, in contrast, had the military knowledge and equipment to prosecute its actions effectively, and though they too received funding from the United States, the scale was far from the same and I trusted that – despite President Biden attempting to have it both ways amid some morally repugnant inversions in his own party – they would prevail in reasonably short order. Close to three years later, however, and the war continues, complete with a new offensive mounted by Israel just last week, hostages still held whether dead or alive, and no end in sight. In other words, despite how I might have felt initially about both conflicts, those feelings are irrelevant to the reality that neither has anything resembling an actionable plan for victory or even a concrete objective that would constitute victory at this late date. Instead, they appear to be headed down the path of yet another 21st century forever war similar to Iraq and Afghanistan where lives keep getting lost and money keeps getting spent for no measurable outcome. We can see evidence of this in the ongoing diplomatic dances to secure either peace deals or cease fires between the respective parties. In the last couple of weeks alone, President Donald Trump has personally met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as key European leaders at the White House, but no framework has been agreed upon and no deal appears imminent. At least in the short term, the opposite is occurring as both sides ramp up their offensives. Likewise, I myself was bullish about a potential deal between Israel and Hamas after the ceasefire with Iran, but that has since been scuttled and though talks continue, there remains no workable framework that will bring a lasting peace. Though Hamas lacks the capability to mount an offense, Israel has increased their efforts in Gaza, making it analogous to the increased violence in Ukraine.
While I would never suggest the two conflicts are the same or should be viewed as such, much less that the ultimate resolutions should be the same by any means, clearly there are certain similarities after several years of fighting. In Ukraine, we speak about defeating Russia, but what does that really mean? Expelling them from the country including regions like Crimea that were taken more than a decade ago? Ensuring there is some type of restitution for the damage they have done and those they have killed? Admitting Ukraine into NATO? Forcing regime change? In Israel, the goal is purportedly the complete destruction of Hamas, but some members of Hamas are located outside of the Gaza Strip in Qatar and other places. Do they need to be eliminated as well? How will we even know Hamas is eliminated in the Strip itself when they’re an underground terrorist organization operating from cells rather than a traditional command structure? What happens to the existing government which is closely tied to Hamas? Is everyone involved to be removed from power and if that is the case, what is intended to replace it? Of course, these questions have no easy answers, but at a minimum one should at least hope they would form the basis of a debate between supporters and detractors of either conflict. Instead, rarely, are these matters discussed and far more frequently, both conflicts are viewed almost purely from a political perspective where, ironically, conservatives and progressives tend to take the opposite view of each. According to the average conservative, the conflict in Ukraine should be ended as soon as possible while the conflict in Gaza should persist until total victory is achieved. According to the average progressive, it’s the other way around. Ukraine is a just war and should be funded forever while Israel is committing genocide and must be stopped. Conservatives would likely argue their different positions are justified because the War in Ukraine cannot be won and we should not continue to fund an unwinnable effort while Israel is fully justified in defending themselves however they see fit. Either intentionally or unintentionally, conservatives would reach this conclusion by glossing over the fact that we are also funding the Israeli effort and after approaching three years, it’s not entirely clear the conflict is winnable, especially when the goals themselves remain at least somewhat unclear. Conversely, progressives would likely insist that Ukraine has a moral imperative to defend its territory against Russian aggression while Israel has chosen to prosecute what might have been a just effort at some point using unjust, punitive, out-of-control means that result in punishing an entire population. To do so, they would gloss over the long history between Ukraine and Russia, that most of the territory Russia occupies has been in dispute for decades, and that the Palestinian people bear at least some culpability for putting Hamas in power in the first place.
As my grandmother used to say, there are three sides to every story, the husband’s, the wife’s and the truth, and in this regard, there is at least some truth to all of these points, nor is my point today to focus on who’s right, who’s wrong, and to what extent. Instead, I want to focus on two things. First, however righteous a war may be when it begins, whether Ukraine valiantly defending their territory or Israel seeking justice for an unprovoked slaughter, righteousness alone should not be enough to justify prosecuting any military action indefinitely. Over the past three decades, we appear to have entered a new phase of forever war where a combination of poorly defined objectives, mission creep, and a failure to apply maximum force at the outset has extended operations indefinitely. While this began in Afghanistan and Iraq, it seems to be an unfortunate trend that needs to be confronted even if the end result of a conflict isn’t always ideal. The Korean War, for example, certainly could’ve been prosecuted further and indeed key generals like Douglas MacArthur believed it should have been (for that matter, some like General George S. Patton wanted to continue World War II straight into Russia), but it ended with a fragile armistice that has persisted since July 27, 1953. While this is not ideal, the alternative is continued bloodshed, death, destruction, plus endless resources and funding, and the ever present risk that a conflict which seems contained will spiral into something else. In that regard, we should all do well to remember that World War I began as a conflict between Austria and Serbian rebels that quickly spiraled into a global conflagration no one really wanted, and yet happened anyway, leaving millions upon millions dead. Second, while politics is an inevitable fact of life, it’s up to those who value honest and open debate to at least attempt a fair assessment of the current state of affairs and exhibit a willingness to revise their initial opinions when the facts prove them wrong. While I am far from the sort of expert on battlefield strategy that can assess whether Israel can achieve its initial goal of eradicating Hamas, it’s a question worth asking, the same way we should ask what is an acceptable end to the war in Ukraine. Otherwise, so long as the money flows to the military industrial complex and the politicians can use a situation to their perceived advantage, wars will never end and the dying will continue. This, I assure you, is not the kind of world we want to live in.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 