Congressman Adam Smith: US won’t go to war with Russia over Ukraine

The chair of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee is adamant that the Ukraine standoff will not lead to a war between the United States and Russia.

U.S. Congressman Adam Smith (D-WA), who represents Washington’s 9th Congressional District, told KIRO Newsradio that sending U.S. troops to defend Ukraine would not be worth the devastation of a global war with Russia.

“No, we are not going to go to war with Russia over Ukraine. We’re not,” Smith said. “We are not going to send U.S. troops into Ukraine to fight the Russians and risk World War III.”

Instead, Smith said that diplomatic tactics must be used to achieve a peaceful end to the conflict. He is hopeful that the threat of economic sanctions that would financially cripple Russia will be enough for Russian President Vladimir Putin to relent.

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“[Putin] wants Russia to have greater influence in the world, … so if we can show him that by going into Ukraine, it’s actually going to have the opposite effect, it’s going to unite the world against him, … that’s going to undermine that objective,” Smith said.

Smith said Putin’s eventual goal would be to resurrect the Soviet Union.

“Putin is highly critical of the decisions that were made that broke up the Soviet empire, and I think he’d like nothing better than to reconstitute it, which would be very, very bad for Eastern Europe and, I think, for the world,” Smith said. “So if we can deter him from attempting that and avoid that military conflict, I think that’s good for everybody.”

Giving in to Putin now, Smith said, would set a dangerous precedent for the future — that it is OK for one country to take over another independent nation. He said it also could spell armed conflict for the United States at a future time.

“It undermines democracy, it undermines political and economic freedom, and ultimately it makes the world less peaceful and makes it more likely that at some point down the road, the U.S. would be dragged into a conflict that we could not avoid,” Smith said.

He compared it to the actions — or inactions — of world leaders in the years leading up to World War II.

“Back in the 1930s, Nazi Germany claimed they had historical rights to the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia, and then it was all of Czechoslovakia, and then it was Austria,” Smith said. “And the rest of the world looked at us and said, ‘Yeah, we really don’t want to confront this guy, so let’s just go ahead and act like he has a legitimate claim.'”

And while the United States does not want to confront Russia this time, Smith said it is also important not to let Putin pretend he has a claim to other nations.

This is why, Smith said, all U.S. citizens should be closely tuned in to what is happening in Ukraine, regardless of whether or not there are American boots on the ground.

“Autocracy has a way of spreading. If you are a dictator like Putin, it won’t stop with Ukraine,” Smith said. “And then you create greater conflict in the world, and that conflict could inevitably bleed over into us.”

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