Weaponized morality: Don't fall victim to leftist bully tactics on Ukraine

Do not be fooled: The left's favorite talking point about the Ukraine-Russia war is not designed to promote truth, justice, or morality. It's meant to silence you into submission.

For years, the left has accused President Trump of being an agent of Moscow, the puppet of Vladimir Putin. It's not true, of course, but Democrats never let the truth stand in the way of a good narrative. After Trump's Oval Office blow-up with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month, Trump's critics once again regurgitated this trite — and still false — accusation.

Assessing the morality of the war requires us to face reality.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) claimed that the White House under Trump is “an arm of the Kremlin.” Axios accused Trump of enacting a "string of Putin-friendly moves," while Vox claimed that “Trump’s embrace of Putin is different this time.” Democrat James Carville even suggested that Trump pushed for a ceasefire to help Putin “regroup.”

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

This accusation, however, isn't only directed at Trump; it's meant for any American who sees the Ukraine quagmire through the lens of reality.

If you don't enthusiastically support Ukraine, or you oppose continued American funding of the war, or question the dominant narrative about Ukraine, Russia, and Zelenskyy, you are labeled a "pro-Putin" apologist.

It's a leftist tactic — now used by bad-faith critics across the political spectrum — meant to bully you into silence for questioning the approved narrative.

Morality, weaponized

The cohort that demands total support for Ukraine wants you to believe the war is an existential battle between good and evil and for the preservation of freedom (i.e. "democracy").

Ironically, much of this cohort traditionally opposed American intervention in foreign wars. What changed?

Framing the Ukraine war as an existential battle that demands American support — if you are on the side of "good" and "democracy," anyway — is not proof of sudden trust in the U.S. war machine. Rather, it's a change in how moral authority is wielded. By their logic, anyone who does not give their complete support to Ukraine is an enemy of (their) progress.

Clearly, this "moral authority" is not fixed in objective reality. Instead, it's conveniently selective, and it perfectly aligns with the left's political objectives.

Moreover, framing support for Ukraine as a moral and existential issue — and declaring objectors to be pro-Kremlin authoritarian stooges — is an intellectually dishonest false binary.

It moves the goalposts and neglects the real and legitimate concerns about the war, including:

• The risk of escalating a proxy war with a nuclear-armed power.
• The financial cost to American taxpayers.
• The strategic benefit of prolonging a war that, currently, has no end in sight.
• The corruption and other anti-democratic allegations against Ukraine.
• The fact that American support for Ukraine, to this point, has not yielded a positive outcome.
• The human cost of prolonging the war.

The true moral cost of the war is counted in human lives. While the exact number of casualties remains a secret, the human toll of the war is likely calculated in hundreds of thousands of dead and injured soldiers. And if you consider refugees and other innocent displaced people, that figure rises into the millions.

If the pro-Ukrainian cohort were truly concerned about morality, they would demand an immediate end to the war and seek the most realistic path to stop the fighting — not cheer for it to continue under the guise of "justice" and "democracy."

Reality is complicated

Don't get me wrong: Russia is responsible for the war because it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But geopolitics do not happen in a vacuum.

Why this war happened at all is a complicated matter beyond my expertise, but the truth about the war and how to move forward is not found in the black-and-white narrative the media, Democrats, and the pro-Ukraine cohort have pushed for three years. To understand the war on its own terms requires acknowledgment that history in that part of the world is complicated and that neither the United States nor NATO are innocent.

The only way to bring the war to an end is to grapple with this complicated reality. Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to face the facts as they exist.

Russell Moore, editor of Christianity Today, frames support for Ukraine in highly biblical and moral terms, suggesting that not supporting Ukraine's continued resistance (i.e., prolonging the war) is akin to being the wicked King Ahab or Cain, the Bible's first murderer.

"Who would you rather be, Naboth or Ahab? Abel or Cain?" Moore recently wrote. "The answer to these questions might not solve the war in Europe, but it will reveal something about you."

Moore even argued that one of the "most dangerous" arguments about the war is "the suggestion that Ukraine is fated to lose."

This argument is a textbook example of emotional blackmail, one that refuses to grapple with truth.

But it's clear today, as it has been for several years now, that prolonged fighting is not going end the war. Assessing the morality of the war, therefore, requires us to face reality.

R.R. Reno, writing about the war as it stands today, said it best:

I return to the moral principles of just war. Among them is the following: It is immoral to unleash the violence of war when objectives cannot be achieved, however just those objectives may be. The Ukrainian army is unable to bring an end to hostilities by achieving victory. The nations of the West are unwilling to enter the fray with sufficient force and commitment. These seem to be indisputable facts. Moral reasoning must reckon with realities. Trump’s thinking is far removed from reflection on just war theory. But he is acknowledging reality and taking the steps necessary to put an end to a war that cannot be won.

Americans — and Christians, especially — should heed Reno's sobering analysis. Otherwise, America will continue to support a war that, at present, has no clear end in sight.

We must continue to question with boldness, not giving blind allegiance to the dominant narrative about the war. And we must refuse to be bullied into silence when we question that narrative.

Democrats, the media, and the pro-Ukrainian cohort can weaponize morality all they want — but they don't own it. Shaming Americans and Christians for asking questions or not accepting their narrative doesn't make them right. The truth is that wanting the war to end doesn't make you "pro-Putin." Such a desire only means you are facing reality as it exists on the ground.

This war must end. The killing must stop. And no amount of emotional blackmail and name-calling will change that.