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Shame on the West for not defending Ukraine April 6, 2022
How much longer is the United States and its allies going to stand by and allow Russia to destroy Ukraine and its people?
Our government seems to be great at finding excuses for not helping. Ukraine is not a NATO member. Russia has nuclear weapons, and might use them if the U.S. provides military support. The Ukrainians are doing surprisingly well on their own. The World Court will charge Putin with war crimes: that will show him!
We should be providing whatever military aid necessary to kick the Russians out of Ukraine, and I don't just mean weapons and supplies. I mean U.S. Army troops, U.S. Air Force-piloted planes and U.S. Navy ships - whatever is necessary (short of nuclear weapons) to drive the Russians out and stop them from shooting at Ukraine from outside its borders.
We could have stopped this one-sided "war" before it started. 150,000 Russians troops on Ukraine's border was a sign something bad was going to happen. A clear statement two months ago that the West was going to use all force necessary to stop the invasion might have saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars. But we did nothing. Doing nothing to prevent genocide is almost as bad as the act itself.
The U.S. military is by far the strongest (or at least, the most expensive) in the world, yet we are not using it when the need is obvious. What are we waiting for? An attack on Pearl Harbor? If we must have selfish reasons, how about the 4 million displaced Ukrainians that must be taken care of? We are going to have to pick up part of the bill for that. And keep in mind that Ukraine had a healthy, productive economy that provided wheat and many other essential products to the West. We are going to miss them when they are gone.
Putin is not going to be hurt by sanctions. With all he has stolen from the Russian people, he is one of the richest men in the world. And he doesn't care if his people suffer. He doesn't care about them at all. If they complain, he'll have them killed or jailed. Russia is not a democracy.
Putin enjoys hurting and killing people. Several of his enemies have been poisoned. He provides military support to Syria's Assad in his continuing war on his own people. He hates the West and will do anything to harm us. U.S. State Department employees have been permanently injured by directed, pulsed microwaves, or what is known as the Havana Syndrome. He has created a cyber attack agency to disrupt government and industry in the European Union and the United States. The theft and release of emails from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign along with the 120 or so Facebook pages set up by Russia's Internet Research agency - which produced some 80,000 posts over the two years leading up to the 2016 election - might well have given Trump the presidency.
Putin has been trying to harm us for years, and our leaders haven't struck back with anything more severe than stern warnings.
The U.N. is busy collecting evidence of war crimes so that Russian perpetrators can be charged at some time in the future. War crimes? The war itself is a crime. Putin had no reason to invade Ukraine. Stepping over the border was a crime. And so is the West's failure to use all military means to force the Russians out.
Send comments, questions, and tips to stevenrharry@gmail.com or call or text me at 517-730-2638. If you'd like to be notified by email when I post a new story, let me know.
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