What do we do about the Ukraine situation?

• A little more consistency from the war-hawks please, along with an actual strategy that doesn’t turn the situation into a nuclear holocaust.
• Putin is a lying dog-faced pony soldier, that is clear, but it is also clear that any number of despots are as well, including those that run China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, . . .
• How much less dictator tolerant are the Ukrainians as compared to Russians? — are they tweedle-dee and tweedle-dumer?*
• Russian atrocities?  Let’s presume they are as advertised by Ukraine leadership. Shall we then as a matter of consistency take the same measures the war hawks are calling for against Russia, say against China which is at least as guilty even if more sanitary?  
• Responding to Sean Hannity’s bombast following these comments and questions:

Note this commentary has been revised from previous iterations

I hope the Ukraines beat the Russians. However, as outlined in this Victor Davis Hanson (VDH) article, History Should Be Our Guide in Ukraine  a no fly zone (enforced by us or NATO) is not a good idea. His comments provide much important perspective.

The Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion is admirable and inspiring from what we know from reports.  I support both giving some and loaning the Ukraines material support of both a civilian and military nature. But Western Europe is who should be primarily responsible for the great majority of all aid. This is not a situation of a lack of affected regional wealth.  We have our own very serious border interests, the situation is a ticking time-bomb in many ways including current deaths from an illegal invasion.  Mothers here  also weep for their children lost to drugs and gangs in great numbers. What about our sovereignty.

As VDH implies, let’s not get too sentimental about the players and how things have come to pass. Articles abound about corruption in Ukraine that has been going on for decades.   Further, knowing the Russian Bear at his doorstep, Ukraine’s Zelensky has made some “impolitic” statements intended to agitate Putin and this knowing that a compromised NATO and Biden are largely paper tigers. Zelensky had to know that the peaceful breakup of the Soviet Union and reunification of Germany was predicated on “secret” assurances by the US and other NATO members that NATO would not expand. Otherwise Gorbachev would have been less forthcoming. Picking a fight even if your supposed backup gives you a wink and a nod is stupid knowing the vulnerabilities of NATO and the leadership of the US. Roping us into a conflagration (Putin’s military might get desperate) is not friendship.

Putin is guilty of invading a sovereign country and our response ought to be punishing. That said, the question for us is how much do we back the play of a rather manipulative semi-dictator himself (here and here) who did not play his cards well and kinda got his people into this mess exhibiting the indiscretions of poking the Bear . . . or whether we support whatever wink and nod our manipulative swamp denizens gave Ukraine without Senate approval?  One of our first responses should be to fire their butts.

But for our part we can’t just let Russia win without consequences — but how much is our cost/ benefit vs that of free Europe?  That calculus ought to involve a fractional coefficient for us compared to “freedom loving” countries on the continent.  The United Kingdom has Nukes.  France has Nukes.  If anyone is to rattle sabers shouldn’t it be them?  And frankly I do not have confidence in our military leadership to lead any fight, but more on that in a follow up to the previous post.

Speaking of rattling sabers of the nuclear kind, consider these comments from Sean Hannity who I have found distressingly inconsistent of late.  My annotations in red typeface, bold my emphasis.

SEAN HANNITY: Vladimir Putin’s invasion is not going as planned. Now many Western officials fear the worst, including potential biological and chemical weapons attacks. Vladimir Putin keeps making nuclear threats, chemical weapons threats, bioweapon threats. Joe Biden and all of our NATO allies need to stop cowering at the words of Vladimir Putin. He makes a threat and you bubble and fizz is like Alka-Seltzer in water. In other words you are being intimidated, you are allowing yourself to be intimidated. Acting and looking kind of gutless. Lead all of our allies, Joey, and strongly tell Putin that you and all of our allies are united

Biden is no leader, why would you call for that Sean, and our allies are compromised and intimidated.

If he does cross that line and there is a nuclear attack, he will be met with a response ten times worse for him. Do we want that? Of course, we don’t want that. His troops and Russia will then be in the crosshairs if he crosses that line where NATO nations are impacted. Whatever you say it, you need to do.

Vladimir Putin is backed in a corner, he’s been embarrassed on the world stage. He’s anxious, clearly paranoid, angry, God only knows what he’ll do next. He has had no problem killing innocent men, women and children. By the way, NATO – not only the U.S., not the U.S. alone – they need to spell out what the immediate consequences will be because those weapons of war would trigger article five of the NATO alliance.

Putin’s soldiers have already leveled entire towns, blown up women and children’s hospitals. They bombed playgrounds, schools, shot peaceful protesters in the light of day, shot Ukrainians waiting in a bread line and use cluster bombs and hypersonic weapons to show off to the world as well. The U.S. embassy in Kyiv is accusing Russia of kidnappings over 2,000 Ukrainian children and shipping them across the border into Russia. So ask yourself what is stopping Putin from escalating this war even further with chemical or biological weapons? I hope he doesn’t, but here’s the question. Is the West, is NATO, is Joe ready to respond if he does? Do you have confidence in Joe Biden’s ability to respond appropriately? Because I don’t. Then why did you just admonish him to take charge Sean?

Hannity continues as reported by several outlets:

“If Vladimir Putin wanted to negotiate, he would have done it a long time ago,” Hannity said. “He’s not willing to, and if he wants to use chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons, he’s got to know that his entire country is going to get blown off the face of the Earth.”

Hannity spoke of innocent Ukrainian children and other civilians being slaughtered. There are non-combatants and children in Russia, by his own standards of outrage Hannity advocates indiscriminate slaughter, total war.  And what of the hypersonic missiles Putin fires off toward Long Island and Florida where you have residences Sean? Cut the bombast please, this is not the time.

To say the least it is a delicate situation.  I have hope that economic sanctions by countries who appreciate their own sovereignty and the costs inflicted by Ukraine on Russia will cause Putin to back off. But it must be realized the matter is not over. There have been regrettable mixed messages sent by the Biden Administration regarding Chinese and Russian hegenomy.  There must be a commitment to serious overwhelming strategic military buildup unilaterally by us and hopefully by “freedom loving” Europeans.  That is a course to give Russia and China pause.      R Mall

Related reading:

This article at Townhall by Mike Vespa makes sobering points which we hope the Sean Hannity’s will chill with:

On Ukraine, We Have to Remember the One Rule When Discussing Genocide

Key points: Not all war crimes are genocide. Backing Putin into a corner such that he has nothing to lose may not be the brightest strategy. The war advocates are talking nuclear powers coming to total war.

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