WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE?
After all, you're paying for it, along with the pensions and vacations of the Ukrainian Government.
In another forum, I asked the question:
“Looking at any conceivable US interest in Ukraine the war-mongering neo-cons in America might imagine up (I believe we have no such interest), are any such interests worth the risk of a nuclear war? WWIII?”
Another participant in that forum responded to say that, if we don’t keep up the fight, then “Russia wins”.
Here is my response:
In what you're-smoking-something scenario does Ukraine win? In your sanguine stupor, how do you imagine that Russia can lose? What do you imagine Russia losing would look like? Do you think Russia - vastly more powerful than Ukraine in every way - will or can be forced back to the borders that existed on the day they invaded? Do you think Russia will ever again abandon the ethnically Russian eastern territory of Ukraine they now have control over? Do you think they will ever allow the Crimea - their maritime access to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean - to be taken from them? Do you think Russia ever will - or rationally ever should be expected - to allow Ukraine to join NATO? - especially when they previously were given assurances this would never happen? Do you seriously think the Russians, who have both ethnic and vital strategic interests in eastern Ukraine and Crimea (the US has none) would ever let that happen? Do you delusionally think the Russians, if push came to shove, would not resort - as they have said they reserve the right to do - to the use of nuclear weapons in defense of what they see as their vital national interests?
I ask again, what possible interest in Ukraine does the US have that merits the risk of a nuclear war?
Why would the West want to push Russian up against that wall? And why do you suppose it is that the West has steadfastly refused and has obstructed every effort to start negotiations between Ukraine and Russia that might end the conflict? At the same time, the Russians have all along stated their willingness to negotiate. Where does such intransigence on the part of the West lead?
What is going on here?
Who are the real warmongers?
Now tell me, since this conflict cannot possibly continue indefinitely, how exactly do you envision it coming to an end? What will be the conditions on the ground when it does end? Do you really believe that by some magical means Russia can or will be militarily defeated? - that Russia will then concede everything and Ukraine nothing? Are you really that naive, that ignorant of history and the real world?
And finally, since it is the purported core concern that drives the US and Western Europe to continue to fuel and pay for this conflict - largely with your money - what exactly is the evidence that Vladimir Putin is Hitler reincarnate - lusting after territory and intending to hammer his way through Ukraine, invade Poland and roll on into Western Europe?
I believe there is absolutely no such evidence. Zippo. Nada. Rien. Zilch. Thus far - and admittedly there is always tomorrow (more to come on this in a later post) - Putin has acted within the narrow sphere of what can objectively be considered Russia’s critical national interest.
Putin recently told Tucker Carlson that "Russia seeks only what is hers." Any rational strategic and historical assessment of what Russian might reasonably consider "hers" would not unreasonably include the ethnic Russian populations of eastern Ukraine - heretofore mistreated by the Ukrainian government - and certainly Crimea - again, Russia’s strategic maritime access to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Without some rational consideration of these reasonable Russian interests on the part of the West, Russia is unlikely to back down in the war, and has vastly more staying power than Ukraine, whose resources, especially manpower, are already exhausted (with something like 500,000 young men already dead, the average age of a Ukrainian soldier today is 43).
When Donald Trump says he will shut down the Ukraine war in one day after he returns to office, what do you suppose the man who wrote "The Art of the Deal" is going to do? Demand that Russia return to pre-war borders and pay reparations to Ukraine, whose destruction, by means of an always unwinnable war, was indirectly funded by the West? As an Aussie might put it, “Not bruddy rikely, mate!”
If you'll put that reefer down for a minute and give it some rational thought, you'll see what's obvious. Any deal has to be win-win. Russia's interests, as well as Ukraine’s, must be addressed. Russia wins by keeping Crimea and the Ukrainian eastern ethnically Russian provinces it has taken and is given iron-clad assurances that Ukraine will never join NATO. In return, Ukraine wins by the cessation of the ongoing destruction of the country, by Russia’s abandoning any part of the country not inhabited by ethnic Russians and giving iron-clad guarantees for the security of the rest of Ukraine.
The rivers of blood cease to flow.
The meat grinder ceases to grind.
The war is over.
Right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, reality vs. fantasy, law vs. lawlessness, order vs. chaos, liberty vs. tyranny, patriotism vs. treason, light vs. darkness, good vs. evil, God vs. the Godless…
Time to choose…
If you can be fooled, you will be…
These are the times that try men’s souls…
Torquemada