Dear President Trump, RE: Ukraine
(If I was advising President Trump, this is what I would say).
Dear Mr President,
Congratulations on your return to the White House. I realise it’s been a long journey for you, full of twists and turns, let alone attempted assassinations. May God uphold you in your work.
Like many people, one of my big hopes for your second presidency is a return to the relative world stability we had in your first term. The last four years of your predecessor have been quite chaotic: a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. The October 7 massacres. And, of course, the war in Ukraine. I’m hoping and praying you’ll help reduce the chaos and bring more order to our troubled world, such as the historic Abraham Accords you helped bring to fruition four years ago.
And yet.
Mr President, you came promising to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war. A war that has decimated Ukrainian cities. A war that has left a trail of widows and orphans. A war that has brought destruction into European soil we haven’t seen since World War 2.
We in the West are hoping it would be a fair and just peace, especially for Ukraine, which did not ask for this war, let alone start it.
But your recent words and actions make me nervous for Ukraine and world stability. While I applaud your desire to end this horrible war, you seem happy to do it at Ukrainian expense. I know Putin would probably end this war if you gave him much of what he wanted. Looking on, it seems you want peace at any cost – especially to Ukraine.
But, Mr President, the Bible says yes, there is a time for peace. But there’s also a time for war.
While we all yearn for peace, sometimes war is the only way to defeat evil and bring that just and lasting peace.
Your great nation knows this well. It was American soldiers who fought the war that pushed Hitler’s armies back to Berlin. It was American soldiers who fought the war that brought an end to the Japanese empire. If the world was to see peace, your nation knew that the early 1940s was a time for war. God knows where we would be now if they decided otherwise.
At other times, the mere threat of war can bring peace.
Whether it was President Clinton threatening force to bring a genocidal Bosnian Serb regime to the negotiating table in the mid-1990s. Or you threatening to bomb Putin in your first term if he invaded Ukraine. (Putin says that if you were President at the time he would not have invaded Ukraine). Or your threat of unleashing ‘all hell’ on Hamas if they didn’t return the hostages, which many Arab observers credit with helping bring Hamas to the negotiating table.
Sometimes, the threat of force, especially from you, is the only thing that the likes of Putin, Hamas, and many a dictator will heed.
And so, Mr President, I humbly believe you have options.
On the one hand, you could continue giving major concessions to Putin at Ukraine’s expense, Demanding little from him and much from Ukraine. Yes, It might end the war and bring peace - for a little while.
However, the testimony of history through events like Munich 1938 is that dictators like Putin become emboldened by such major concessions. They smell blood. They end up demanding more, not less. They see concession as weakness, not strength. And they feel confident to push the boundaries – if not immediately, then soon after. And we’ve yet to mention whether such a peace is just.
On the other hand, Mr President, you could do what you did before: threaten escalation. After all, it worked before with Putin, as you have said. Threaten to send a Naval carrier group or two to the Black Sea. Threaten to send a few squadrons of USAF fighters to control the skies of Ukraine on and off the battlefield. Russia can barely move forward against Ukraine (which has no control of its skies) despite a massive advantage in manpower. Could you imagine what Ukraine could do if American aircraft controlled the air?
(Russian Generals know it, and Putin knows it: such American air power would decimate Russian forces.)
Such threats of escalation would help bring de-escalation. The threat of war will help bring peace. It would send a signal to Putin and other regimes that America won’t tolerate her allies being invaded and abused.
You could help bring order to our chaotic world. You could help bring peace, through strength.
Mr President, there is a time for peace. But also a time for war.
I’ll be praying for your decision.