Lincoln Chafee blames NATO expansion for provoking Putin’s war in Ukraine
“Isn’t it hypocritical to call Putin a war criminal, and not Bush?”
Ukraine Invasion:
PROVIDENCE — Former U.S. senator and Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee is now basically retired in Wyoming, so he was reluctant at first to even talk about what’s going on in Ukraine. But he feels strongly about Russia’s invasion. And he says he knows what led to it: The West ignoring Russian President Vladimir Putin’s concerns.
Those concerns, Chafee said, include NATO’s expansion and America’s misadventure in Iraq, which Putin outlined in a 2007 speech. The U.S. and its allies missed an opportunity to listen to those warnings, Chafee said. “Isn’t it hypocritical to call Putin a war criminal, and not Bush?” Chafee said. “What’s the difference? We invaded a sovereign country, under sham pretenses. At least he’s got a reason.”
That outlook differs significantly with the mood in Washington, Brussels and elsewhere around the world, which consider it an unprovoked invasion worthy of sanctions and condemnation. But Chafee is accustomed to going it alone, or mostly alone. In 2002, he was the only Republican senator to vote against the war in Iraq. He said he is right about this, too. “He’s looking out for the security of his country,” Chafee said of Putin. “And he felt threatened. And I say that’s understandable.”
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