Anne Applebaum

If Canada invaded us, or if, I don't know, if China invaded us, we would, I think Americans would fight.

I don't think it's a, I don't think it's a problem of democracy.

I think it's a problem of why are we in this war?

And I have to say, I mean, it's interesting if you, I've had this conversation recently with a lot of Europeans, actually, about would Europeans fight Russia?

Yeah.

And many people say, no, they won't.

And people are always looking at surveys before the war that show, I don't know, I'm making this up.

Some large percentage of Spaniards won't fight for Spain and so on, or Germans won't fight for Germany.

If you had done those same kinds of surveys in Ukraine before the war, and I think they were done, it would have been similar.

You know, everything changes once the war begins, and it's in your country, and it's

threatening your life and your children and your way of, you know, your existence.

And that's the difference here, is that we're all fighting for different things.

I don't think the problem is our democracy, the problem, you know, or the fact that we're Democrats.

I think the problem is we're not fighting this war for very good reasons.

So as it happens, I was in Ukraine about 10 days ago and was having these conversations there, and I've just written something about it.

And

The real interesting part of this story is not so much that Ukraine has gone from defense to offense, is that Ukraine has changed completely the way this war is being fought.

And so what you have to understand about the Ukrainian frontline is that it's a kind of 20-mile-wide zone.

It's not like a line that people are fighting against.

It's a 20-mile-wide zone, which is now completely transparent.