We didn't tell them that at at all. In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum the only thing we actually promised to do was to complain to the UN if Ukraine's territory was violated. Which we did. Also, Ukraine didn't have the codes to the Soviet nuclear weapons on Ukrainian soil, so the "but they gave up their nukes as part of the deal" doesn't mean nearly as much as it seems to on first glance.
What we need to do now is pour money, arms, and humanitarian supplies into Ukraine and feed them lots and lots of intelligence. For all the reasons Tom Nichols has ably laid out many times in the past couple of weeks we and NATO need to stay out of this war other than to "lend-lease" support Ukraine to the hilt.
And of course we need to work hard behind the scenes to hold the sanctions, etc. together. I'm desperately worried about the immoral "realists" (like Mearscheimer and his ilk) in the West getting the upper hand in a few months when the West gets bored.
We also told the Ukrainians we’d defend their borders. So much for our word, too.
We didn't tell them that at at all. In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum the only thing we actually promised to do was to complain to the UN if Ukraine's territory was violated. Which we did. Also, Ukraine didn't have the codes to the Soviet nuclear weapons on Ukrainian soil, so the "but they gave up their nukes as part of the deal" doesn't mean nearly as much as it seems to on first glance.
What we need to do now is pour money, arms, and humanitarian supplies into Ukraine and feed them lots and lots of intelligence. For all the reasons Tom Nichols has ably laid out many times in the past couple of weeks we and NATO need to stay out of this war other than to "lend-lease" support Ukraine to the hilt.
And of course we need to work hard behind the scenes to hold the sanctions, etc. together. I'm desperately worried about the immoral "realists" (like Mearscheimer and his ilk) in the West getting the upper hand in a few months when the West gets bored.