Also regarding the FDR comparison, why the F is nobody talking about what Boris Johnson is doing to prevent Putin from shedding blood? Why is he getting a pass here? Churchill didn’t have NATO at the time and had like 3 Putin’s to deal with and he actually did things to protect Europe from fascism even before the US was involved. Britain might not be getting invaded in this situation but that doesn’t mean they don’t have just as much responsibility as Biden and the US have. Germany too is really failing as a leader for letting it get to this point where they are just sitting there letting Biden be the only person in the room standing up to the guy. Why isn’t this on Boris, Macron, and Olaf??
Stop asking what Putin wants and start asking what Ukrainians want As I watch the never-ending coverage of the current Russian military build-up around Ukraine, I am struck by the fact that, as presented by the international media, the situation seems to have little to do with Ukrainians. Ukraine is clearly at the heart of the story, but there is almost no discussion whatsoever about what the Ukrainians themselves actually want. Although the mantra “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” is repeated religiously by Western diplomats, the agency of Ukrainians, demonstrated so prominently during the 2014 Revolution of Dignity and the 2004 Orange Revolution, is now largely sidelined or ignored. In the context of the current crisis, it would seem that the opinions of more than 40 million Ukrainians simply don’t matter. Their territory certainly matters, because it is seen as the object of Great Power competition, but beyond the steady flow of human interest stories in the media designed to arouse pity for the victims of actual and potential war, the voice of ordinary Ukrainians remains unheard. While there is endless speculation over what Vladimir Putin may want or how the West should respond to the threat of a major European war, Ukraine has been reduced to the status of bystander in its own national drama. This is folly. Not only is it an obvious injustice, but it also prevents international audiences from appreciating the true nature of the present geopolitical confrontation. After all, Russian aggression is itself a reaction to Ukrainian agency. Putin’s war only makes sense when viewed in the context of Ukraine’s own efforts to embrace a democratic future as part of the Euro-Atlantic community, while the present invasion threat is a direct response to eight long years of Ukrainian defiance. In other words, a Ukrainian perspective is absolutely essential to any meaningful understanding of the current crisis. The first key point to emphasize is that Russian aggression against Ukraine is nothing new. While Western audiences may be shocked by Putin’s threats and saber-rattling, Ukrainians are not. They have been living with war for eight years and have seen around 14,000 countrymen lose their lives. Ukrainians across the country have welcomed more than a million people into their communities who have been uprooted by Putin’s war, integrating them into what is a sometimes chaotic but fundamentally free and tolerant society. Since 2014, Ukraine has passed the ultimate statehood test. Due to the Russian seizure of Crimea and subsequent invasion of eastern Ukraine, Moscow now occupies around seven percent of Ukrainian lands. Putin makes no secret of his ambitions to subjugate the entire country, while his regime works tirelessly to destabilize and divide. The fact that so much of Ukraine has remained unified and intact despite Russia’s insidious plans is testament to the valor of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and volunteer defenders, and to the fortitude of the entire nation. Ukrainians understand that Russian aggression is a long-term phenomenon. The current crisis is not about NATO expansion, as Ukraine’s membership of the alliance is not on the agenda and NATO activity in Ukraine remains extremely limited. In reality, the NATO issue is a smokescreen designed by the Kremlin to bring the US to the negotiating table and hopefully to induce Washington to accept Russian control over Ukraine. It is an attempt to legitimize Putin’s dream of recreating the Russian Empire. At this point it looks as though the US, UK and Canada are not falling for the ruse, although the same cannot be said for Germany and France. Regardless of short-term tactical diplomatic victories or losses, the strategic focus remains the same: Russia presents an existential threat to Ukraine that is not going to disappear any time soon. As long as Ukraine exists as a democratic state that is not directly controlled by Moscow, the country will be constantly under threat. For the foreseeable future, this will be the reality of life in Ukraine. International audiences need to understand that Russia’s designs on Ukraine will not be deterred by the prospect of economic sanctions alone. The Kremlin is motivated by ideology and the dream of restoring Russia’s greatness. This historic mission trumps any potential economic hardship that may be caused to Russia’s population or leadership by sanctions. Ukrainians understand this. They also understand that only Ukrainians will defend Ukraine. There is considerable gratitude for all military assistance provided by Ukraine’s international partners and for the diplomatic efforts to restrain Russia and stall Moscow’s invasion, but there is also recognition that continued conflict with Russia is inevitable. Putin will only be deterred by the prospect of losing. As far as the Kremlin leader is concerned, Ukraine cannot exist as a separate country because Ukrainians and Russians are “one people.” This narrative is deeply ingrained throughout the Russian population. The price to be paid for realizing this dream is not measurable in economic terms. Victory must be achieved regardless of cost. For the moment, decisions regarding Ukraine’s future are seemingly being made in Moscow, Geneva, Brussels and Washington. In current conditions, Ukrainians have little say, but that is a temporary pretense. Ultimately, the future of Ukraine will be decided by Ukrainians. Ukrainians have demonstrated over the past eight years that they are not prepared to cede their independence. At the same time, Vladimir Putin will never abandon his vision of a reconstituted Russian Empire that requires Ukraine as its centerpiece. In his eyes, Ukraine’s very existence as an independent European democracy is an intolerable provocation. The international community now needs to recognize that there is no convenient middle ground between the Russian and Ukrainian positions. In the words of Israel's Kyiv-born former Prime Minister Golda Meir, “To be or not to be is not a question of compromise.” Mychailo Wynnyckyj is an Associate Professor at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Thanks for the details. We are getting closer to a hundred year reset of prior events. While there isn't a mad dash to colonize the "uncivilized world", there is one to win the Next Age. Everyone of these powers debt levels is near or over their GDP. Alliances are fatigued and power dynamics of the Old Order are questioned. I suppose its 4th Turning esque, except all of the world powers involved are more likely to have soldiers with thinning hairs and potbellies...if they were more representive of their population. Anyhow, Biden seems to want to take the harder path, though whether he'll commit a resistant public, coupled with inflation over food and energy at home, is always going to spring an outcome no one will expect or like...expect an angry George Will Op/Ed soon...soon!! That ****er (and every con or "moderate" pundit) sure nailed the Iraq and Afghanistan disasters. That's just part of the Con con where they armchair Dem failures, slime away their failures "due to Dem Sabotage", then bum rush the American people into Trillions of unappropriated and unchecked spending. But I guess Biden needs a stimmy of some sorts with "multiplier effects". Watch the god awful cable and ever diminishing print media spin that bullshit if American soldiers ever hit some base in Europe. This is really the heart of the question. Maybe because this isn't their first rodeo. Crimea, Georgia, the first Ukraine annexation (I still don't know how that ended, if it did...). They know what they can do (little to nothing because they're broke negative interest rate deadbeats). They know what limits we can do. They also know what Putin can do. All this proxy war **** we're talking about now, we deliberately avoided doing in Middle East of all places. That's like the endless battlefield that paid for Tony Stark's college degree and all the classes it took to make him the genius he was. So now we, both Dem and Con, are all gonna pretend it's on like Donkey Kong in a theater much more personal to Russia? Oof, better hope Putin doesn't pull the trigger.
The note about the race for the New Age is important context. It’s a race for securing resources from world leaders knowing what is coming with climate change. There’s the Arctic shipping routes which will be the next Strait of Hormuz. All of these issues has that as a backdrop and a reason why Putin is so desperate because I’m sure he feels as though NATO wants him out so they can “install” a plant that’ll work on behalf of the billionaires of business in those counties. Putin is wrong in so many ways, but if you put yourself in his position (as a narsacistic murderer of course) and see what is coming, it makes more and more sense why he feels the desperation to act now. What I am afraid of mostly though is our media as you pointed out about how they promote war and American exceptionalism chest thumping. In what planet is a president leaving a forever war in Afghanistan seen as an existential failure???… enter our American media. Biden’s not going to be perfect with dealing with Putin here I’m sure, but I’m very concerned that our media will not be prepared to message during such an existential crisis like the one Putin might be attempting. Just imagine if JFK had to deal with our media and our opposition party right now with his crisis?? We would have had nukes fired I’m sure.
When Georgia made reforms to lead up to EU and NATO, Putin beat the **** out of them and broke them up into three pieces. And what did we do about it? Sure, this is a test whether we'll continue to look the other way with "Russia's Hegemon" since he like blowing USSR glory up his cash starved people's ass. But I really don't know if our military involvement is worth it. This isn't some mustachio'd strongman we can storm out in the dead of night and force him watch Real Housewives of Atlanta non-stop just to make that humiliating mugshot oh-so perfect. Dude's got nukes to wipe the world 100x over. Truth to Power don't mean **** to cockroaches. Merkel already knew that, so she tried to be his frenemy. Kinda worked, mostly didn't.
We ****ed up by not allowing Russia to join NATO - we could have brought them in, instead we made them fake enemies so we can keep the American public spending tax dollars on needless military weapons. DD
NATO was created by France and the UK in order to protect against Russia and Germany. Kind of defeats the purpose of the alliance if you let Russia in. Yes Germany is now part of the alliance so times change but the threat is really at its heart designed to curb large powerful countries from expanding their power via war. In a way, the US if we fell under dictatorial rule, could be exactly the type of threat NATO is trying to curb in principle. One could maybe even argue that the Iraq war and nation building exercise by Bush was a violation of our NATO guidelines. So no… Russia should not be allowed in NATO but neither should we in principle. The US, China, India, and Russia are four countries that probably shouldn’t be such an alliance. Our membership and leadership relies on our commitment to peace and democracy around the world. The moment we decide to elect someone like Trump or W we are a threat to that alliance and a threat to peace. Is it crazy to think if the US is run by a future Trump without the guardrails of Democracy violate Canada’s sovereignty in order to do the bidding for fossil fuel billionaires in an energy dispute?? It’s important that people really step back and understand the entire point of an alliance like this.
Russia has no place in NATO. Had we brought them in, we would have expansionist Putin in charge with no alliance to stand in his way.
Putin isn't crazy enough to use nuke. It's not worth US troops, but we are already involved with military aid. Georgia is an example of why there likely won't be any direct conflict between Russia, Europe, or the US. But unlike Georgia (a country with separatists' control of major portions of the country where Putin used the conflicts between them as the excuse to invade and "split" up Georgia), Ukraine is much more unified and already have support through military weapons, aids and sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and Europe since they last crossed over.
That is wrong, Russia has always had an inferiority complex, and has always wanted to be accepted by Europe, even so much as building St. Petersberg to be as European as posssible. It was short sighted to not allow them at least to be an axillary member of NATO - we would have had much better relations now. DD
Biden is smartly letting Europeans deal with a European issue. Odd the anti war folks aren’t in support of that.
That’s right. We aren’t committing our military to defend a non NATO member. We’ve been sending Ukraine aid and military hardware. Doing nothing, like you seem to want, would only send a signal that Ukraine can be invaded without any consequences.
I couldn’t disagree more and this is quite naive. Russia doesn’t want to be accepted by Europe. They (or people with Putin’s ideology) believe that the Baltic States are part of Russia that was taken away from them after WW2, and they need to reform the union. The old Soviets see Georgia, Finland, and especially Ukraine, as we see Arizona, Florida, and Texas. And again it wasn’t the US that didn’t allow Russia in. It was France and the UK. This is about expansionism. Not respect or inferiority or whatever. It’s extremely dangerous and exactly what got us into WW2 when Germany invaded Poland because of this same type of expansionist conquer by force ideology. The only difference is Putin has been less willing to use military force because of NATO and the US. We need these Alliances to make sure countries like this don’t have leaders who believe they are Alexander the Great. Russia should not be in NATO. Russia and China and India need separate treaties with the US or at least regional treaties. Russia needs a solid treaty with NATO separate from the US to normalize relations and set boundary’s and a healthy trade relationship like we have with Canada and Mexico. Russia being in NATO is as counterintuitive as Lebron playing for the Lakers but also serving as the GM for the Knicks.
That’s exactly right. America isn’t going to militarily defend a non NATO member but we will send aid against against an aggressive foe. What’s so hard to understand?
you seem to not understand that Joe is not staying out of it as you claim. You can't go hand out a ton of weapons then claim to be white gloves, hands off.
I never said he is completely staying out of it or “white gloves, hands off”. Biden understands that if Germany and other countries are going to continue to be reliant on Russian energy, it’s pointless to make big commitments or concessions. Europe is divided on what to do about Russia and Biden is shrewdly sending weapons to Ukraine while being noncommittal. Doing absolutely nothing is just impotent foreign policy.
