The struggle between commerce and morality is not a surprise to any of us, I am sure. The problem now is, the moralists are trying to pretend that they are on the right side.
The failure wasn't so much not to see the need to stop Putin sooner rather than later (any secondary school child who'd done European History I could have predicted it), as it was not to respond the way history clearly shows is futile: an exercise in denial until circumstances make further denial impossible - and then puts the deniers on the back foot when, at last, they have to scramble to undo the damage done by waiting too long.
The difference between now and 1939 isn't nuclear weapons, but the fact that Hitler used the time between 1933 and 1939 to create a ferocious war machine whilst the rest of Europe sat on its jacksie and ignored the warnings of people like Churchill. Small wonder by June 1940 the BEF on the beaches at Dunkirk were the last man standing, with that machine having rolled over Poland, Belgium, The Netherlands, France , , ,
Putin, however, was over-confident and his war machine, whilst huge and still quite capable of crushing Ukraine over the next year, wasn't not honed the way Hitler's forces were.
This is the West's opportunity. Putin put it between a rock and a hard place: we know now that sanctions will not stop the atrocities - Putin is a sociopath and doesn't care.
Either we are who we say we are, or we aren't. And if we aren't, then Putin and China and India and Pakistan and Africa all have the answer they were hoping for.
It isn't worth it to the West any longer to pretend it's really in our best interests NOT to fight.
Escalation on the part of the West now is not only the moral choice, it's the sagacious, long-term geopolitical choice.
Putin must be fatally wounded so that China, India, Africa, and Pakistan can't count on him. Boris Johnson nailed it from the beginning: Putin cannot be allowed to succeed in this. This has to be shown to be overreach on Putin's part and stopped accordingly.
As for Turkey: Merkle let Erdogan put his hands around the EU's throat in 2016 to stop her political bleeding from the 2015 migrant crisis. He's little better than Putin.
When you lie down with dogs, Frau Merkel, you get up with fleas, and that's just what you've gotten for the EU from Erdogan.
Merkel did more damage to the EU in her last five years as Chancelloe than BREXIT did.
I'm trying, during Holy Week, to restrain the evil thoughts and rage that repossess me every time I open the news in the morning. I'm only doing fair to middling.
Wishing all of you who celebrate it a, well, spiritually fruitful Holy Week, and to our Jewish friends, a Happy Passover as it approaches. TC
I do so hope and pray you are right, EL! TC
The latest report claims that Putin objects to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, stating that NATO should not be allowed to expand...
The struggle between commerce and morality is not a surprise to any of us, I am sure. The problem now is, the moralists are trying to pretend that they are on the right side.
The failure wasn't so much not to see the need to stop Putin sooner rather than later (any secondary school child who'd done European History I could have predicted it), as it was not to respond the way history clearly shows is futile: an exercise in denial until circumstances make further denial impossible - and then puts the deniers on the back foot when, at last, they have to scramble to undo the damage done by waiting too long.
The difference between now and 1939 isn't nuclear weapons, but the fact that Hitler used the time between 1933 and 1939 to create a ferocious war machine whilst the rest of Europe sat on its jacksie and ignored the warnings of people like Churchill. Small wonder by June 1940 the BEF on the beaches at Dunkirk were the last man standing, with that machine having rolled over Poland, Belgium, The Netherlands, France , , ,
Putin, however, was over-confident and his war machine, whilst huge and still quite capable of crushing Ukraine over the next year, wasn't not honed the way Hitler's forces were.
This is the West's opportunity. Putin put it between a rock and a hard place: we know now that sanctions will not stop the atrocities - Putin is a sociopath and doesn't care.
Either we are who we say we are, or we aren't. And if we aren't, then Putin and China and India and Pakistan and Africa all have the answer they were hoping for.
It isn't worth it to the West any longer to pretend it's really in our best interests NOT to fight.
Escalation on the part of the West now is not only the moral choice, it's the sagacious, long-term geopolitical choice.
Putin must be fatally wounded so that China, India, Africa, and Pakistan can't count on him. Boris Johnson nailed it from the beginning: Putin cannot be allowed to succeed in this. This has to be shown to be overreach on Putin's part and stopped accordingly.
As for Turkey: Merkle let Erdogan put his hands around the EU's throat in 2016 to stop her political bleeding from the 2015 migrant crisis. He's little better than Putin.
When you lie down with dogs, Frau Merkel, you get up with fleas, and that's just what you've gotten for the EU from Erdogan.
Merkel did more damage to the EU in her last five years as Chancelloe than BREXIT did.
I'm trying, during Holy Week, to restrain the evil thoughts and rage that repossess me every time I open the news in the morning. I'm only doing fair to middling.
Wishing all of you who celebrate it a, well, spiritually fruitful Holy Week, and to our Jewish friends, a Happy Passover as it approaches. TC