America's passionate attachment to Ukraine

George Washington, in his Farewell Address, gave his fellow citizens some wise advice:

<Blockquote>In the execution of such a plan 

nothing is more essential than that <b>permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations 

and passionate attachments for others should be excluded</b>

and that in place of them 

just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. 

The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness 

is in some degree a slave. 

It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, 

either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. 

...

So likewise, 

<B>a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.</b> 

Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, 

and infusing into one the enmities of the other, 

betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification.

</Blockquote>