DW PHILLIPS

JAN 27, 2025

One of the most impressive gifts President Ronald Reagan bequeathed to world was crystal clarity on the moral bankruptcy of the Soviet Union. 

Reagan was able to communicate charity, a sincere desire for peace, and an unbreakable opposition to evil at the same time. He categorically rejected the notion of moral equivalency between Russia and the United States. He described Russia as an “evil empire” which had become “the focus of evil in the modern world.”

When discussing peace treaties with Moscow, Reagan specifically warned against America adopting any position of moral equivalency:

Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness—pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world …. So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride—the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.

Reagan’s message was both ethical and practical. During his 1984 presidential debate, he made it clear that he “believe[d] that many of the things that they have done are evil in any concept of morality that we have.” But he “ also recognize[d] that as the two great superpowers in the world, we have to live with each other.”

Moral clarity and practicality. 

It was a message that played a crucial role facilitating the collapse of the Soviet Union. Americans heard it. Russians heard it. The world heard it. 

---

A Season of Moral Equivalency

In 2025, the present absence of moral clarity on the part of American leadership is our greatest impediment to peace in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. 

Ethical equivalency reduces American global leadership to the status of broker rather than a leadership advocate for freedom and champion of the oppressed. Moral equivalency guarantees that any temporary solution is prelude to future bloodshed.

If liberty and freedom are purely transactional, they can and will be bartered away at the expense of the oppressed when their freedom no longer serves an American partisan purpose. 

Ethical clarity, on the other hand, allows the United States to lead with integrity. It means we are behaving consistent with the intention of our own charter documents which define and defend freedom in the context of transcendent truth: “We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” Right and wrong exist. For this reason, our mission is to “establish justice,” “to provide for the common defense,” to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

Knowing the difference between right and wrong also allows for a better understanding of what actually influences aggressor nations to change direction. The goal is not just a “deal,” but a lasting solution. The goal is justice, freedom, peace, and a world in which aggressors are disincentivized to commit criminal acts. 

---

What Must America Communicate? 

What is the threshold? The bare minimum of ethical clarity on which any American action with Russia must be predicated?

First, the American position must be rooted in three historic foundations of Western justice:

1. Wars Must be Just. Unjust wars are criminal actions. An unjustified invasion is a moral crime against God and man. 

2. War Crimes are Evil. Those who commit them must be called out. Their actions must be described as evil. They must be opposed. Ultimately, there must be punishment. 

3. Agreements Must be Honored. Treaties, agreements, and commitments made by the United States, and to which other nations have relied to their detriment, must be upheld. 

How do these apply?

In the case of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, moral clarity means the United States must communicate the following:

1. Unjust War: Russia is the aggressor, the treaty breaker, and the criminal state which initiated and engaged in an unjust war of aggression by invading Ukraine, a sovereign nation. 

2. War Crimes: Russia continues to engage in war crimes in Ukraine at a scale not seen from a sovereign nation against another since World War II. These include (1) unjust war; (2) mass kidnapping and abduction of children in the tens of thousands; (3) execution of prisoners, (4) targeting of civilians for murder, torture and rape; (4) acts of “zachistka” (ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians); (5) the destruction of hospitals, schools, and religious institutions; and (6) the persecution of Christians and destruction of religious buildings outside of the KGB/FSB dominated Muscovite patriarchate. 

3. American Duty: In signing the Budapest Memorandum, America made a moral and legal commitment to stand with Ukraine in the event of any violation of her territorial integrity by Russia in exchange for Ukraine’s complete nuclear disarmament. Ukraine relied to her detriment on the American commitment. The United States has an ethical and legal duty to honor her word. Had the Budapest Memorandum never been signed by America, the United States as a global leader and advocate for freedom would still have an ethical obligation to condemn and oppose the unjust Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Positive Examples vs. Inconsistency and Ambiguity

A recent example of moral clarity emerged on January 24, 2025 as a top Republican used words reminiscent of Reagan to describe Putin’s war crimes. 

“Just evil” and “horrific” said Representative Michael McCaul of Moscow’s criminal kidnapping and enslavement of Ukrainian children. “More than 200,000 children have been abducted by Russia since the start of its invasion of Ukraine,” said McCaul, citing U.S. estimates.

In a Fox News report, McCaul, who is Chairman Emeritus of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, (R-Texas) described in detail the horror of a war where Russians are subjecting abducted Ukrainian children to emotional manipulation, preparing some to fight under the Russian flag against their homeland. 

As to American moral clarity, McCaul’s comments are helpful alternatives to silence. They reveal the troubling problem of American inconsistency. For example, there is a gross discrepancy in the public opposition of the presidential administration to Hamas abductions vs. Russian abductions. Concerning the former, there is moral clarity and vigorous denunciation. Concerning the latter, up to now there has been complete silence notwithstanding the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants in February 2023 for both Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, “for the war crime of unlawful deportation of [children] and that of unlawful transfer of [children] from occupied areas of Ukraine.”

“It’s just evil. I mean, any civilization that would capture— I mean, it’s one thing if you’re on the battlefield killing the enemy, from their point of view, but to capture children to re-indoctrinate them is sort of reminiscent of, you know, Mengele’s experiments on kids…And I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this in recent society.” Michael McCaul (R-Texas)

Next Steps

Forty years have passed since Reagan challenged the Soviet Union’s legacy of oppression and empire. Much has changed. Much has stayed the same. The same men who once propped up the “evil empire” have ensured that Russia is the issue once again. 

This time the American response is different. Years of bitter partisan infighting and effective Kremlin disinformation campaigns have corroded the ethical compass of many of the heirs of Reagan. 

Even the most obvious and uncomplicated question – “Is it criminal to invade a sovereign nation and rape and murder its civilian population?” often festers in a quagmire of “yeah but” responses. 

Can this be turned around? Of course it can. 

Advocates for freedom must be about the business of persuasion. As the negotiation process continues between America, Russia, and Ukraine, every effort must be taken to persuade the American administration and lawmakers that a fundamental to any peace agreement is moral clarity.

America is not the peacekeeper of every global crisis, but we must be a light to the world. Where we have obligations, we must act with integrity. Our brand is liberty, not deal making. Deals are great when they are informed and just, but those results presuppose a moral clarity presently absent from important public dialogue.

In the 250th anniversary year of our independence, it is appropriate that we rediscover our own American baptism in liberty. That means helping our leaders communicate the best of American intentions and ideals. It means reminding them that great leaders are not original. They draw from the best legacies of the past. The truths they share are objective, coming from above, not from within. Reagan explained: 

“I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn’t spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation—from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries. …[F]or me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery… of our values and our common sense.”

In this same speech he quoted the great Massachusetts governor John Winthrop:

“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.”

America can be a light, or we can be an international pariah. It all comes down to the moral clarity we project on the fundamentals of liberty. 

---

Ukraine is the Test

Rather than being a quagmire of ethical complications, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the scope of the war crimes committed by Moscow arguably provide the clearest examples of an unjust and criminal war prosecuted by a superpower since World War II. If we can’t describe the actions of Moscow against the people of Ukraine as “evil,” we have lost our moral compass. 

Importantly, those men and women of Ukraine who are proclaiming “give me liberty or give me death” in the face of Russian tyranny have provided an opportunity to rediscover our own American birthright. Their crisis opens the door for our own reexamination and resurrection:

Will we reduce the sovereignty and defense of a nation against a barbaric invader to conspiracy and political intrigue, or speak decisively to the criminality of such an act?

Will we stand with the victims of torture, rape, murder and abduction, or treat them as complications to brokering a deal? 

Will we honor the very agreements on which tens of millions relied for their very lives, or mortgage our integrity as a defender of freedom, for a moment of political expediency?

Will we follow in the great tradition of President Reagan who insisted on America’s global role as an advocate for liberty and justice for all, or will we sell our 1776 birthright for a mess of pottage, only to be known as a self indulgent nation which will “be made a story and a by-word through the world?”

Reagan provided a helpful clue for America’s path to moral clarity. Addressing the people of the United States from the Oval Office for the last time he explained: 

“[A]s long as we remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours.”

---

DW Phillips is a filmmaker, a constitutional attorney and a writer. He directs for Ukraine Story, an educational foundation for journalism and documentary reporting. He is presently filming Ukraine Story Anthology in Ukraine, Europe and United States. 

……………

Jan 27, 2025

NEVER AGAIN IS NOW

Dmytro Dovzhenko  

Sergeant UAMarines

How wonderful it is to see the principle of “Never Again”…
How horrifying it is to realize “Again and Right Now”…

Up to 300,000 children abducted…
Up to 200,000 women abducted…
Millions are refugees…
Hundreds of thousands killed…
Tens of thousands tortured…

Europe… 2025… the slogans of “Never Again”… the reality of “Right Now (but we fear escalation)”…

The Holocaust… terrifying… memory…

Ukraine… genocide… indifference…

Visiting monuments requires no courage… but what about preventing new monuments?

…….

Simona C.

Soc. e management sicurezza. Scienze Soc. Applicate HR. RSI-CSR. Comunicazione aziendale e istituzionale.

Grazie Ucraina