According to Connecticut U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, a Democrat, former President Donald Trump, a Republican, is guilty of "appeasement" because of his skepticism about the war between Ukraine and Russia. Himes says Trump is skeptical of the war "because he got impeached over Ukraine" and is more of an appeaser of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin than British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was of German dictator Adolf Hitler.

Really? Trump's motives are always fairly questioned, but Himes' speculation about them is just politically partisan distraction from the critical questions about the war. Indeed, Himes' disparagement of Trump is reminiscent of the disparagement of opponents of the Vietnam war in the 1960s and '70s. Back then anyone opposed to the war was likely to be called not just an appeaser but a communist, too.

Skepticism about the Vietnam war was expressed mainly by Democrats, who were mostly liberals. Skepticism about the war in Ukraine is expressed mainly by Republicans, who are mostly conservatives and who are being disparaged just as liberals were during the Vietnam era. Opposing stupid imperial wars still gets one's patriotism and motives questioned. One doesn't have to be Donald Trump.

Advocates of the war in Ukraine, like Himes, owe the country more than such disparagement. They owe the country good arguments and specific objectives for the war, and an opinion on how much war the country can afford.

Assertions that, if Ukraine doesn't win, Putin's Russia will reconquer eastern Europe aren't persuasive. Russia could have reconquered eastern Europe years ago, long before the war in Ukraine, and declined. Instead Russia wanted mainly to sell its oil and gas, not to subjugate people who still hate their former overlords.

Maybe it is no coincidence that the areas of Ukraine now occupied by Russia are ethnically Russian and Russian-speaking and seem largely content with Russian rule, maybe because the Ukrainian government tried to stamp out their language.

So what do Himes and other advocates of the war think United States objectives in the war should be? Should they include dislodging Russia from Crimea, annexed in 2014, and the other ethnically Russian parts of Ukraine?

What are the chances of achieving that without nuclear war?

Should the United States wage another "blank check" war? Should it be waged without regard to particular territory, mainly to bleed Russia, with Ukrainian casualties and property damage merely incidental?

Or would peace along the current lines of control be better?

Calling Trump an appeaser doesn't answer such questions. Indeed, calling Trump anything has little effect on his support, even when the disparagement is perfectly accurate, since he seems to have become the embodiment of many fair resentments about government and politics, some of which involve the disastrous failures and crazy policies of the national administration Himes would sustain.

Indeed, as long as Himes and other advocates of the war in Ukraine decline to specify war aims, the more they may deserve to be called warmongers.

Avoid the guilt trip

Yale University in New Haven has joined the country's new ritual abasement. The other day the university — named after a British colonialist and slave trader in India more than three centuries ago — formally apologized for that connection to slavery and others, published a book about them, and pledged to address racial disparities in its city.

It's all nice and politically correct but Yale is no more obliged to apologize for slavery than the rest of the country is — nor more than the rest of the world is. For slavery was not peculiar to the United States, and the world has often been built on atrocities and injustice, just as it still is being built on overcoming them.

History must be taught, especially since so many students graduate ignorant. But suggestions that guilt endures, like Yale's apology, are mistaken and politically opportunistic. Everyone's ancestors had faults and virtues. The lesson to be drawn isn't guilt but the duty to strive to continue what used to be called the ascent of man.

Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years. He can be reached at CPowell@cox.net.