Will we let Ukraine die?
🕑 3 minute read || Updated July 14, 2024 || by Daniel Norther
Written without AI
Some Westerners think the US and Europe should stay out of Putin’s way. They think Ukraine should be thrown to the dogs. They blame Ukraine for being raped.
Anything anti-Ukraine is pro-stupid. CIA agents in the 1980s would be chomping at the bit to arm Ukraine with every kind of weapon imaginable. It’s a wonderful proving ground for military technology, Western tactics, and demonstrates the United States’s continued desire to protect world peace. The War in Ukraine is a good chance to show America’s enemies that the curtains match the drapes, that what happens in Ukraine can be promised to every other despotic goon-squad.
(Image by Karl Oss Von Eeja)Speaker Mike Johnson was anti-Ukraine for a while. Then the CIA director showed him a powerpoint presentation and he wised up.
But why are so many of us Westerners still uncertain about Ukraine?
Well, let’s phrase it this way:
In his Art of War, Sun Tzu said that the superior army has “greater constancy both in reward and punishment”.
In American politics, we must desire constancy so that we establish wise standards. Our standard should be thus: “When a bully bullies, he is stopped, corrected, and monitored. Failing this, we arm the victims and let them dispense justice.”
We did not give Ukraine everything it needed on day 1. Our mistake. America failed the “stop, correct, and monitor” stage, but hopefully America will continue “arming the victim and letting them dispense justice.” Whether or not Trump is reelected and invokes his powers to hinder Ukraine aid, the House passed a $60 billion Ukraine Aid bill with 74% of the votes (311 yes to 112 no, April 24, 2024). That’s pretty close to the percentage of actual American citizens who support Ukraine aid, according to this Gallup poll: https://news.gallup.com/poll/643601/americans-say-not-helping-ukraine-enough.aspx
If congress votes similarly to how all Americans would vote, then the Republic is functional. We’re doing alright.
Who knows how much bloodshed could have been avoided if only we had given Ukraine all our power on day 1 of the 3-day special military operation (Putin’s old-school USSR cosplay-LARPing vanity war).
Now, all we can do is make sure the bullied kid gets to bloody the bully.
Nothing’s worse than a bully who never got punched back when he was a kid. A bully that gets his nose broken often spends the rest of his life thanking the person who taught him the error in his ways before it was too late.
Is America apathetic about Russia’s bullying?
America sometimes seems like a bully. We’ve done our share of foreign invasions. But no American invasion was ever done with evil intent. Since America is a democracy, the worst it could become is a two-headed ogre, with one head making sense while the other head spouts nonsense. The heads may take turns being the smart one, but the result is that half of what they say is useful.
That’s why America has not fractured, and never will. When two Americans disagree, both are stronger. Our philosophical tensions keep us nimble. America is the true double-headed eagle.
Russia symbolizes itself as a two-headed eagle, which makes no sense, since the current Russia is more like a hungry blob-monster made of oil.
Like our aid to Ukraine, our Love comes in spurts, and needs an outlet. Our Western democracies have outlets, and it’s why we’ll never sink into apathy. America loves the world, and Europe loves the world. Americans want to love humanity. Europeans, and all Westerners, including the Japanese and Koreans, want to love with all their heart. Our destiny is to win.
This is why Ukraine will endure. It is Ukraine’s destiny.
