At the U.N., We Cast Our Lot with North Korea, Syria, Eritrea, Hungary, Nicaragua
New York, N.Y. — In a maneuver as confounding as it is dispiriting, the United States has tethered its global standing to a cadre of nations whose reputations evoke not esteem but unease. On February 24, 2025—the third anniversary of Russia’s brazen invasion of Ukraine—the United Nations General Assembly voted on a resolution to denounce Moscow’s aggression and insist upon the restoration of Ukrainian territory.
Ninety-three nations, spearheaded by Europe’s resolute bloc, endorsed this call to justice.
Yet under Donald Trump’s nascent administration, America did not merely demur; it cast its vote alongside Russia and an unseemly cohort: North Korea, Syria, Eritrea, Hungary, and Nicaragua. This is not a fleeting lapse in judgment—it is a deliberate reorientation of American principle.
The company we now keep is a gallery of infamy.
North Korea, a dynastic prison where dissent is obliterated and hunger is wielded as policy. Syria, its landscape scarred by a regime sustained through savagery and Russian patronage.
Eritrea, a repressive outpost where liberty is a distant rumor, often likened to Pyongyang’s bleak model.
Hungary, where Viktor Orbán has artfully dismantled democratic norms under the guise of European legitimacy.
And Nicaragua, where Daniel Ortega’s iron rule has extinguished opposition with chilling efficiency.
These are not exemplars of virtue; they are studies in subjugation. Yet America, rather than standing apart in measured neutrality—as 65 nations, including China, chose to do—has aligned itself with this chorus of autocrats to shield Russia from accountability.
The resolution was unequivocal: a demand to designate Russia the aggressor, to uphold Ukraine’s sovereign borders. It was a litmus test of moral clarity, and the U.S. faltered—not through reticence, but through an active embrace of the indefensible.
Even the Wall Street Journal, a bastion of conservative thought, could not stomach this pivot. On Monday, its editorial board lambasted the Trump administration’s vote as a “regrettable moment,” a stinging rebuke from a voice not prone to liberal hand-wringing. America’s siding with Russia, they wrote, marked a lamentable departure from reason. When a stalwart of the right recoils, the depth of this misadventure becomes all the more apparent.
Trump’s cadre offers little to mitigate the stain.
We are told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a “dictator” ensnared by Russian deceit, that Ukraine’s NATO ambitions are the true provocation. Such assertions might buttress a pragmatic bid to broker peace, but they come at the cost of legitimizing conquest.
Vladimir Putin, one presumes, observes this spectacle with a wry smile, his gamble vindicated by an American ballot. Hungary’s vote mirrors Orbán’s cozy rapport with Moscow, a calculated affront to European unity.
Nicaragua’s stance is Ortega’s perennial jab at Washington’s shadow. Eritrea’s alignment is the rote fealty of a regime thriving in obscurity. North Korea and Syria, tethered to Putin by necessity and arms, scarcely merit elaboration. But America’s presence among them defies all logic—a nation once heralded as liberty’s vanguard now complicit in tyranny’s defense.
This vote transcends mere policy; it is a renunciation.
Of Ukraine, certainly, as it endures an existential struggle, but also of the ideals that have long defined American leadership. Trump’s champions may dress this in the garb of realpolitik, a daring stroke to end a grinding war. The Wall Street Journal’s dismay suggests otherwise, and I concur: what unfolds is not boldness but capitulation, a willingness to barter principle for the mirage of influence. The United States, once a beacon for those who dared to dream of freedom, now drifts in the orbit of despots and demagogues.
This is the visage of “America First” in 2025—not a clarion call to greatness, but a muted retreat from duty. The Stars and Stripes now ripple uneasily beside the ensigns of Pyongyang, Damascus, and Asmara. It is a tableau that should stir every citizen who ever held that our nation aspired to more than the sum of its concessions.
Discover more from The Stewardship Report
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
