Progressives are grappling with the US response — and America’s role in the world.
The West’s response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been swift, unified, and wide-ranging, and brings military, economic, and political tools to bear. But during a global outpouring of support of Ukraine, scholars and activists on the left have pointed out what they see as a glaring inconsistency — the world doesn’t rise up in similar a collective rage every time other countries are attacked, invaded, or occupied. So, what are progressives for, in a moment when there are constant appeals for the West to do more to stop Putin’s war in Ukraine? People on the left are not just putting forward specific policies. They are calling on America to reckon with its conduct in recent wars. In short, to reevaluate its role in the world. Progressive members of Congress share a consensus that Putin has pursued an illegal and malicious war. They are pressing the Biden administration to support refugees and humanitarian aid. They want Biden to pursue diplomacy even if it seems impossible — and that Putin isn’t interested in diplomacy. “But that doesn’t mean you stop diplomacy, because you never stop diplomacy,” Matt Duss, a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), told me. Progressives are divided about the effects that sanctions could have on ordinary Russians, the long-term dangers of arming Ukrainians, and how the Ukraine war relates more broadly to the role of the US in the world. But those ideas around policy have been obscured by accusations of American duplicity. “There is no contradiction between standing with the people of Ukraine and against Russia’s heinous invasion and being honest about the hypocrisy, war crimes and militarism of the US and NATO,” Jeremy Scahill, editor-at-large and cofounder of the Intercept, tweeted last week. Though it seemed that for every person who affirmed his tweet, there was an accusation of whataboutism or an attack on Scahill’s credibility. “You should go to Ukraine,” retorted NPR reporter Frank Langfitt. This rejoinder taps into a bigger debate. Centrists and hawks have accused the left of moral relativism. Yet the conversations I’ve had with activists and policymakers on the left show that you can highlight Russian war crimes and find a nuanced way to explain that America is not a neutral party in the world. These dynamics are connected, many progressives say, and that thinking about conflicts comparatively can lead to a deeper understanding of how the US sees the world along with better policy solutions. As this geopolitical conflict tests the conventions and assumptions of US foreign policy since the beginning of the war on terrorism, the left is advocating for a new, consistent, and rights-based approach to global affairs. “A less stupid and possibly even smart conversation” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) says that the application of human rights across countries and conflicts — including in Ukraine — is central to how progressives see foreign policy. “The misconception of the center is that progressives somehow have a frame of moral relativism or appeasement, and the moral relativism here is in Saudi Arabia, and the catastrophe of what’s going on in Yemen,” he told me. “The moral relativism is the lack of recognition of human rights with Uighurs or in other parts of the world.” US President Joe Biden has framed the fight against Russia at last week’s State of the Union address as freedom against tyranny, yet US partners like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would fall into the latter category. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has regularly invoked international law, something we rarely hear mentioned when Palestinians face Israeli occupation. The tactics the Biden administration has implemented to counter Russia — boycotts, sanctions, and divestment ( BDS), naming war crimes, cooperating with the International Criminal Court — are not considered in other contexts. The plight of Ukrainians is a struggle on the side of human rights and, as one writer put it, “ solidarity with the oppressed.” Yet it is not an apologia for Putin’s viciousness to say that the US participates in shadow wars, and that those who die outside Europe, rarely get primetime coverage.
