Let me be clear: I support Ukraine and abhor what Russia has been doing. If I were physically able, I’d be on the first plane to Kiev to join the Ukrainians at the wire. Age and injury have reduced my ability to fight for what is right, but not my desire.
And yet…
There are an awful lot of people here who are demanding Biden, the US Military, NATO etc. should do more. Implement a no-fly zone. Bomb Russian positions in Russia or Belarus. Put boots on the ground in Kiev. Assassinate Putin. If it’s not done they say, they will no longer support Democrats, or Biden, or whoever they feel is responsible for ‘appeasement’. And no doubt they will continue shouting about western weakness in a way that will help Putin and weaken the west.
It breaks my brain. I thought liberals/progressives were the deep-thinking type and not the knee-jerk type. The not-so-bloodthirsty-type. The not-a-useful-idiot type.
I served in the Canadian Forces in the 1990s, so I have some knowledge of how the military works. I won’t claim to be an expert, but as someone who trained for combat against Russians, I’m not super gung ho about sending Western troops over the border to ‘stop’ Putin. It’s one thing for me to choose to join the fight, but another to demand our troops do so. We have a responsibility to use our volunteer soldiers intelligently and not waste their lives. I think that responsibility is much stronger than the one we have to the Ukrainians.
And that doesn’t even touch the nuclear holocaust aspect of escalating this war by entering on the side of Ukraine. Even removing the threat of nuclear weapons, if there is a Western intervention, all of the propaganda Putinists have pushed onto the Russian people about the West trying to crush Russia and kill her people and their spirit suddenly begins to ring true.
You don’t win hearts and minds by invading other countries. Both Bush and Putin fail to have realized that. Biden and NATO leaders shouldn’t miss the lesson.
Direct military action by the West may still occur if a NATO country (like Poland) is directly attacked (including violation of its airspace) and if that happens I am all for it—make no mistake I think Putin needs to go, and he needs to face an ICC trial on war crimes.
But there are a lot of not-Ukrainian people who will die if this escalates. If the US or NATO implement a no fly zone over Ukraine, how long will it be before Estonian or Polish (or Finnish) civilians start dying from Russian shells or missiles? How many lives is an immediate intervention and escalation worth?
Are there actual liberals/progressives on this site willing to state their math on this? Is it better to kill more ‘other’ people to reduce the toll on Ukrainians? What number of people do you believe are worth sacrificing to take out Putin?
Ukraine is asking for a no fly zone—of course it is. The Ukrainian government is supposed to care about keeping its citizens safe—that’s what good government is.
But the same calculus is at work with NATO. Each of its countries are working to protect their citizens while trying to save as many Ukrainians as they can.
That isn’t immoral—that’s what they were elected to do.
If you believe so strongly that Western citizens should die to protect Ukrainians, you can always join the International Brigades being sent to the war zone.
But don’t demand our citizens and soldiers face death just because it would be nice to blow up some shit and then kick Putin’s head around like a football. It wasn’t worth it in Iraq, and its not yet worth it here.
So yeah, let’s punch some Nazi’s domestically, but be smart about how we engage them overseas. This is one case where—for the moment—it’s better to fight them here, than fight them over there. That’s not appeasement, that’s responsible use of military force.