Source: United States Senator for Kentucky Mitch McConnell
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, delivered opening remarks at a McCain Institute event “Highlighting Policy Recommendations for Post-War Russia.” Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:
It’s hard to think of a more appropriate home for the Task Force’s important work than the McCain Institute, or a more fitting ringleader than a proud McCain alumnus like Dan Twining.
My good friend, John McCain, was so unapologetic and clear-eyed about the scope of America’s interests. And he relished being the speck in Vladimir Putin’s eye through his solidarity with the free peoples of eastern Europe…
He supported the expansion of the greatest military alliance in the history of the world… And stood for the right of sovereign nations to choose their destiny.
When Putin called the fall of the Soviet Union the “greatest political catastrophe of the 20th century,” John understood that he meant it, and urged our colleagues to take Russia’s neo-Soviet ambitions seriously.
In the not-so-distant past, that sort of clarity – acknowledging that Russia still threatened America’s interests – could invite public scorn…
…Like the sort of sanctimonious condemnation a certain former colleague of mine received from President Obama during a prime-time debate.
We heard that Putin would moderate… That his ambitions were limited… And that anyone who suggested otherwise was a dusty Cold Warrior past his prime.
Well, to that I say: It is so good to be among friends!
***
Needless to say, the importance of grappling with Russia’s behavior and motivations can no longer be laughed away.
Wake-up call is perhaps the most tired phrase of the past three years.
And yet that’s exactly what Putin’s escalation in 2022 was: an urgent, overdue, uncomfortable, and undeniable alarm.
It was a reminder that the realities of geopolitics don’t care which region we’d rather prioritize or what we’d rather spend our treasure on. The bravery of Ukraine’s defenders and the suffering of its civilians press us to remember that our enemies get a vote.
There are, of course, promising signs that the West has managed to free itself from the delusion that hegemonic aggressors can be appeased.
Reports of our European allies’ rebuilding their military strength are not exaggerated.
Nearly all NATO members today are striving toward the Baltics’ example of investment and readiness… And those who are not should hear from all of us.
In the process, allies are making overdue sacrifices to stamp out dependency on Russian energy…
They’re placing enormous investments in cutting-edge American-made weapons…
And they’re proving willing to break domestic political china – even changing a Constitution or two – to unlock deeper and more sustained commitments to collective defense.
This transformation is real. It’s well underway. And it’ll be essential to securing America’s interests in the coming decades.
What about here at home? As friends of Ukraine, we may be tempted to dwell on the ways we drag behind this progress… and overlook the ways we underpin it.
We may rightly be frustrated by years of murky commitments, slow-walked assistance, fear of escalation, and confusion about who the aggressor is.
But I would suggest that, on this, America has much to be proud of.
Just consider the cascading benefits of U.S. assistance to Ukraine: a small fraction of our defense budget has helped Ukraine resist and degrade a more powerful military aggressor.
After years of talk and little action to address the shortcomings of our own arsenal and defense industrial base, we’ve spurred massive investments in replenishing stocks and producing deterrent capabilities faster.
By partnering with the world’s most experienced practitioners of drone warfare, we’ve tapped into a wealth of knowledge about the changing nature of the modern battlefield. Ukraine’s expertise is teaching America today what our forces will need to prevail tomorrow.
And as NATO’s biggest spender, America has encouraged much of our allies’ transformation.
***
Of course, I don’t mean to suggest that we’ve escaped the gravitational pull of complacency and short-sightedness for good. Our allies’ progress is not assured forever. European security – and trans-Atlantic security – is not some clock to be wound once and left alone.
Perhaps the biggest lesson of 2022 – even bigger than the need to invest urgently today – is the importance of long-term commitments, and steady, annual investments in defense.
And on this front, America must continue to lead by our example. We simply cannot expect allies to reach and sustain five percent if we’re only willing to spend three-and-a-half, ourselves.
A strategy to lead from behind is no strategy at all. And as the Task Force makes perfectly clear, this goes beyond spending targets – it’s about presence, too.
Even as our allies and partners build more lethal forces, there’s still no more credible deterrent than American commitment.
No wonder European allies generously support rotational deployments of U.S. troops and invest in state-of-the-art training ranges for joint exercises. These commitments improve our collective readiness and interoperability, and they’re worth sustaining.
The task of illustrating the strategic importance of Europe to America’s security interests is not ours, alone. In fact, for years now, there’s been no more effective communicator of what’s at stake in Ukraine – strategically and morally – than Putin, himself.
As he continues to throw a generation into the meat-grinder of combat and target Ukrainian mothers and children at will, Putin is sending a clear message.
And in the face of his brutal aggression and public revisionism, overwhelming majorities of Americans recognize Russia as our adversary… and see that the outcome of Putin’s war of conquest matters immensely to us.
Much to the dismay of restrainers and isolationists who thought they’d get to freelance American foreign policy, the President of the United States increasingly sees Putin’s signals for what they are.
The President has been right to recognize Putin’s play for time. He’s been right to entertain proposals for new, secondary sanctions. Most importantly, he’s been right to green-light further lethal assistance to Ukraine.
I’ve said this before: Stopping the killing is a noble goal, but the price of peace matters. And there will be no enduring peace unless Ukraine is equipped to credibly deter further aggression from Russia.
***
The appetite of neo-Soviet imperialism does not end with Ukraine. How do we know?
Because Putin’s predecessors subjugated far wider swaths of Europe…
Because he invaded Georgia…
And because, as we speak, his troops are in Moldova, too!
Nations that have spent centuries in Russia’s shadow do not stumble westward by accident.
Finland and Sweden did not join NATO out of symbolic solidarity with Ukraine.
They did it because they know that Putin wants more.
So the Task Force is right to take the long view and grapple seriously with what comes next.
What comes next for the trans-Atlantic alliance?
What comes next for the increasingly aligned authoritarians working to undermine U.S. interests and influence?
What comes next for America and our ability to defend these interests and preserve this influence?
As you put it, our deterrence is not divisible. And I would add: this is because our credibility is not divisible.
No U.S. ally in the Indo-Pacific has time to waste on the notion that the implications of deterrence in Europe are confined to a separate sphere of influence.
No ally in Europe can afford to miss the crystal-clear connection between Russian aggression and support from China, North Korea, and Iran.
The consequences of America’s strategic decisions still ripple across oceans and continents with equal speed.
And a headline that reads “Russia Wins, America Loses” will read as clearly in Beijing, Tehran, and Pyongyang as it does here in Washington.
Avoiding that outcome will take more work from all of us. Thank you for all you’re doing.