Bridget Brink served three years as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. While she respects President Trump’s right to determine U.S. foreign policy, Ambassador Brink wrote in her Detroit Free Press op-ed “Unfortunately, the policy since the beginning of the Trump administration has been to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia.”
A policy triggering Ambassador Brink’s resignation.
Last year when Ambassador Brink returned to Grand Rapids accepting the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan’s Vandenberg Prize, I asked her what was at stake?
“The consequences to our own security and prosperity, if Russia is to wipe a country of 40 million people off the map of Europe, are very severe. The cost will be much higher to us if that happens.”
Brink believes Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambition is restoring borders drawn during its imperial past. To allow it sends a message to other authoritarian regimes threatening the United States’ safety, security and prosperity. Brink points out Europe is the United States largest trading partner at $1.6 trillion annually.
Brink writes, “Peace at any price is not peace at all ― it is appeasement. And history has taught us time and again that appeasement does not lead to safety, security or prosperity. It leads to more war and suffering.”