By Mike Gibbons

Guest Columnist

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is an act of unprovoked aggression and must not stand. The United States must immediately reimpose President Trump’s strong sanction regime against Russia and ensure that our NATO allies in Europe are prepared to respond to any further aggression.

However, the crisis in Ukraine is a rekindling of a thousand-year old dispute that involves ethnic, religious and language divides. As tough as it is to view the scenes from Ukraine, I am resolved: no American troops should be deployed to Ukraine. Our military has been stretched too thin over the past two decades, often in the cause of taking sides in other countries’ civil wars. This is not our fight. Ukraine is not a member of NATO. We are not committed by treaty to defend them. No American member of our military should die in defense of Ukraine.

For four years, under the leadership of President Trump, Russia was held in check. President Trump shut down Putin’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline while simultaneously expanding our own domestic oil and gas production to make American energy independent. Putin’s economy was in a choke hold, the price of gas and home heating fuel was low, and the expansionism of tyrants around the world was curtailed.

That changed in January 2021. On his first day in office, President Biden shut down the American Keystone XL pipeline — an infrastructure project critical to American energy independence. He removed Trump’s sanctions on Nord Stream 2 and President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer sent a message of weakness to bullies around the world.

We know from history that appeasement never works. What we’re seeing in Ukraine right now just underscores the point that a weak and indecisive America puts the world at risk. The world is a safer place when America is strong, resolved, and respected. Our allies need to be able to trust us. Our enemies need to fear us. Sadly, that is no longer the case.

I believe in an American foreign policy built along Ronald Reagan’s adage of “peace through strength.” That doesn’t mean we should be involved in civil wars and internal disputes around the world. Rather, it means we should project strength, speak clearly, commit troops to battle only in defense of the United States of America, and always fight to win. Sadly, the Biden Administration has turned its back on the Reagan approach, undermined the progress made during the Trump years, and emboldened our enemies.