Luckovich Ukraine cartoon fails the history test

 

Mike Luckovich gets a failing grade in history for his cartoon (April 26 Chicago Tribune). It criticizes Trump for telling Ukraine President Zelensky he must gift Russia with his kitchen, guest bedroom and den for breaking into his house and refusing to leave.

The metaphor ignores the decades long history of US/NATO provocations and encroachment against Russia that made the invasion, tho illegal and immoral, inevitable.

This is not just my take. Many wise historians, political scientists and retried diplomats repeatedly warned US presidents that their endless disregard of Russia’s red lines not to add Ukraine to NATO on Russia’s border would inevitably provoke a Russian response.

Besides expansion provocations, both supported Ukraine massing of 60,000 elite Ukrainian troops on the Donbas border to finish off the Russian leaning Ukraine separatists being abused by their Kyiv government. When Russia pleaded with the US in November 2021 to call a halt to Ukraine NATO membership and the Donbas operation, the Biden administration refused to even discuss Russia’s valid and serious security concerns. The US knew Russia would invade but believed foolishly, Ukraine could prevail.

That may eventually be viewed as the costliest military blunder in American history.

To raise his failing history grade to a B or even an A+, Luckovich needs to draft a cartoon using the long, sorrowful history of US, NATO machinations that resulted in the lost war destroying Ukraine.