Ukraine's Strongest Supporters

As former Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, LEAD founder Mike Rogers understands the intricate nature of foreign policy. He says President Reagan’s Republican Party would not shy away from supporting Ukrainian self-defense. Read his full opinion in The Hill.

The world is better, and America is safer, when we continue to shine our bright beacon of hope into the dark shadows where tyrants cower waiting to strike.
– LEAD Founder Mike Rogers

Some in our party are succumbing to the false temptation that by turning our back on the world, the world’s problems will somehow ignore us and respect our borders. As we have had to learn time and time again from WWII to 9/11, they will not ignore us, and failing to act risks the freedoms and economic prosperity every American benefits from.

True leadership is about explaining our country’s role in the world and the importance of what happens beyond our borders to our citizens — Reagan knew this and was able to communicate the importance of contesting the Soviet Union at every turn.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-Fla.) attempt last week to frame Ukraine’s heroic struggle for freedom from Russian tyranny, one that has left thousands of Ukrainian men, women and children dead, and displaced nearly a third of the nation, as a “territorial dispute” is not only wrong it is the kind of dangerous rhetoric that sends a clear signal to Moscow (one which they will exploit) that they need only wait and steel their resolve before American attention wanes.

Our support to Ukraine is about America defending global peace and, thereby, ensuring our own freedom and economic prosperity. It is about ensuring the sovereignty of a democratic country in Europe today to avoid the cascade of conflict that would follow not just there but throughout the Indo-Pacific region as well. Reagan would recognize this truth, just as he saw the truth of the Soviet Union and its hollowness, and it is time that our Republican Party recognize it as well and explain it to the American people.

Having served on and chaired the House Intelligence Committee during some of our nation’s most perilous times, I can share without hesitation the knowledge that our enemies closely scrutinize every action and every word of our leaders looking for an opening. Beyond Moscow, Beijing too has its eye fixed squarely on Ukraine to gauge America’s willingness and ability to rally the world and our military allies in the defense of freedom.

This is an excerpt from LEAD Founder Mike Roger’s opinion piece in The Hill. For the full op-ed, click here.