US,Ukraine. Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

"I love you, but I can't protect you." Anyone in love but with a sober mind could realize that this is not true love. In its love affair with Ukraine, the US does not even bother to pretend that it is a scumbag. In his latest column in the New York Times, American political commentator Thomas L. Friedman wrote that the US does not want to "let Ukraine turn itself into an American protectorate on the border of Russia." He asserted that the US could help Ukraine expel Russian forces as much as possible or negotiate for their withdrawal whenever Ukraine's leaders feel the time is right. Nonetheless, "falling in love with Ukraine" in ways that will get the US enmeshed there forever is "the height of folly."

Friedman just expressed the  thinking of the US toward the Ukraine crisis and exposed US interests are from US President Joe Biden's position. By saying what the Biden team is doing is to keep some distance between the US and Ukraine, Friedman was trying to assure those who believe the US would be foolish enough to join a war for Ukraine: Don't hold the naive illusion that the US would shed blood for it. There is no such a thing. What the US wants is to maximize its own interests when both Russia and Ukraine are bleeding.

With the help of NATO, the US is turning the Russia-Ukraine conflict into a proxy war. The US has sent Ukraine over 50 million rounds of ammunition for handguns, rifles and artillery, yet it does not want a direct war with Russia nor does it send its own troops to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has outlined his country's peace talk demand for Russia, and the two sides have engaged in several rounds of negotiations, while the US has remained a silent watcher from faraway. 

A prolonged war suits US interests best - it not only serves the US' long-term strategic goal of containing Russia, but also caters to the huge appetite of the military-industrial complex of the country. "Saving Ukraine" is the dramatic effect the US wants to create, but what it really wants is to stay behind and exploit the benefits. For the US, Ukraine is just a tool to meet its needs. 

As some US scholars pointed out, "The US and Europe continue to support Kiev, but not, it seems, to make peace. Rather, the allies are prepared to back the Zelensky government as long as it fights Moscow to the last Ukrainian." Even a Twitter user commented, "So long as the fight stays on Ukrainian soil, and the fighters in the air and on the ground remain Ukrainian, the moral calculus is simple." 

Shen Yi, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University, told the Global Times that Friedman had delivered the message clearly that Ukraine should serve US interests, not the other way round, and all those who want to latch on to the US and believe the US can be hijacked, be it today's Ukraine or the island of Taiwan in the future, are only having fond dreams.

"The US has no guts. It fans the flames, but dares not shoulder responsibilities. The US' strategic calculations in the Ukraine crisis shows that it is outwardly strong but inwardly weak," remarked Shen.

Ukraine should realize that it is the victim of the geopolitical game in which Washington is indulged. Ukraine is paving a bloody path for Washington's geopolitical interests at the cost of its own national development and people's livelihood, but wild-minded Washington is taking full advantage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It is spilling the conflict to the Indo-Pacific region and creating wars and chaos across the globe. Ukraine should wake up to this cruel reality.