Challenging the conventional wisdom that the NATO-Russia proxy conflict in Ukraine risks escalating into a full-on military conflict between Washington and Moscow, Nikki Haley has gone the other way, claiming that allowing Ukraine to lose could trigger such a conflict.
“This is bigger than Ukraine. This is a war about freedom, and it’s one we have to win,” Haley said, speaking at a televised GOP Town Hall Sunday. “Everybody wants to well how does this war end? It would end in a day if Russia pulls out. If Ukraine pulled out, then we’re all looking at a world war,” she said.
“What we have to understand is that a win for Ukraine is a win for all of us, because tyrants tell us exactly what they’re going to do. What we heard – China said they were gonna take Hong Kong, they did it. Russia said they were gonna invade Ukraine, we watched that happen. China says Taiwan’s next, we better believe them. Russia said Poland and the Baltics are next. If that happens, we’re looking at a world war. This is about preventing war,” the politician said.
Haley did not elaborate on how the 1997 agreement on the peaceful return of Hong Kong to Chinese jurisdiction by Britain constituted any sort of weakness before “tyrants.” Nor did she explain how China’s warnings to politicians in Taiwan threatening to unilaterally proclaim independence, or Russia’s special military operation to protect the Donbass, had anything to do with her comments. Russia has shown no indication of any plans to invade Poland or the Baltics, notwithstanding years of paranoid rhetoric by NATO officials to the contrary.
Haley suggested that if Ukraine “wins” the proxy war, “that sends a message to China with Taiwan, it sends a message to Iran that wants to build a bomb, it sends a message to North Korea testing ballistic missiles, and it sends a message to Russia that it’s over.” Haley went on to attack her old boss, Donald Trump, over his efforts to establish a close, personal relationship with Kim Jong-un, calling the latter a “thug” and saying the she didn’t think that the US “should congratulate dictators” and its “enemies.”
Haley is one of about half-a-dozen declared candidates seeking the Republican nomination ahead of the 2024 presidential election, which is set to be held about a year-and-a-half from now.
According to the latest polling, the former governor enjoys just 3 percent support, behind Donald Trump (57 percent), Ron DeSantis (20 percent) and former president Mike Pence (4 percent).
Haley was famously among the most prominent neoconservative hawks in the Trump administration, repeatedly and publicly contradicting the president – who called for improved relations with Russia, and demanding a tougher line.
Trump has welcomed a run against Haley, saying he was “glad” she’s in the race, and calling her out on her earlier commitment to “never run against who she called the greatest president of her lifetime.”
Haley has cast a decisively more hawkish line on policy toward Russia and Ukraine than Trump. The latter has repeatedly promised to call leaders in Moscow and Kiev on election night if he wins to try to secure a peace agreement. DeSantis has similarly called for a ceasefire, indicated that he does not consider Ukraine a “vital national interest,” and said that the Biden administration’s repeated hints at regime change in Russia threatens to escalate the Ukrainian crisis into a global war.