Ukraine Is Betting on the United States, but the Giant Is Seriously Ill

American society is split.

Recently, the second attempt to impeach Donald Trump failed. Despite all the over-the-top efforts of the Democrats to demonstrate clearly how close the United States came to an irretrievable tragedy on Jan. 6 this year, the nearsighted political logic, directed toward mobilizing and maintaining their voters at any cost, won out over the statesmanlike perspective.

The answer to why an overwhelming majority of Republican senators voted against impeachment despite the humiliating fear experienced recently and a real threat to the lives of at least some of them, is on the chart.

Never since the Civil War has America been so divided. And it is at the very beginning of the new president’s term, who scored a resounding triumph, gaining an unprecedented number of votes! It seems that the American disease of a divided society, which is constantly being radicalized, will only grow progressively worse in the future.

Unfortunately, tribalism is crowding patriotism out of American politics. It is not clear how to effectively run a country in which one-third of its population does not acknowledge you as a legitimate president and still believes that you stole your election victory.

It is an open-ended question whether American society will work up the wisdom to bridge the divide. But it is obvious that the Republicans led by Trump are still stimulating it in every possible way and will clearly continue to intensify it from now on.

It is a warning for those who make clear-cut bets on the United States in Ukraine; the giant is seriously ill now. Its foreign policy may become a hostage to domestic policy, while a foreign enemy is called upon to consolidate the American nation. Since the U.S. still does not have enough resources or enough allies to stop China, it is quite possible that Russia may be designated as such an enemy of the American people.

And it would be a good thing if national elites, who regard things in a sober light, understand national interests and are willing to stand up for them rigidly and pragmatically, held office in Ukraine. Then, together with the Americans, we would stand a chance of minimizing Russian influence in Ukraine and turn it into a modern success story — a kind of South Korea or Taiwan of the 21st century. But since it did not work out here with national elites, the U.S.-Russia confrontation may turn Ukraine into a battlefield: if not into another Afghanistan or Syria, then into another Nicaragua.

Ukraine is in urgent need of being injected with a geopolitical move away from ideology and toward a national pragmatism! This need is even much urgent than mass vaccination against COVID-19!

The author, Hennadii Druzenko, is a lawyer, volunteer, ATO veteran and co-founder of Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital (PFVMH).