I wish that I had spoke up that this sort of thing was coming, given the absolute failure of Russian unit leadership in the field prior to all of this. At the very least, combat leaders have to reign in the worst impulses of their worst soldier. The most likely culprit that initiated this massacre is a low or mid level officer. It's unlikely that Putin ordered this, unless there's a benefit I'm not seeing, and it's even less likely that a chain of evidence would point to him. Morally, he is culpable, but legally he's a ghost.
US infantry units in My Lai experienced the same failures in '68. Desperate and frustrated soldiers in wartime are dangerous in the best of circumstances, and a Russian conscript army is a far cry from disciplined. I want to see the men responsible for this captured, but with Russia's relationship with the truth, this will either be blamed on Zelensky or the White Helmets somehow.
“I share Cristina’s sense that no matter how difficult it is—no matter how excruciating, how nauseating, how much it fills us with questions to which there isn’t and couldn’t never be an answer that satisfies—we owe it to these people—my God, these ordinary, poor people—to look at the photographs.” (Claire Berlinski)
I couldn’t agree more, but as we view the horrific images that Putin’s barbarity has wrought, we shouldn’t view them with a myopic lens. Sadly, that’s precisely what Claire and her fellow travelers on both the left and the right have done.
Waxing eloquent about the absurdly unrealistic prospect of seeing Putin in the dock at The Hague is nothing more than narcissistic preening that does nothing to help Ukrainians. A far more worthwhile effort would be to ask the difficult question of whether NATO, and more specifically the United States, could have done anything differently to prevent the the tragic deaths those pictures document.
Could we have done anything that would have mitigated the current calamity? To anyone with an ounce of sense, the answer is obviously that we could have.
Before the war, we could have made clear that Ukraine would forever be precluded from joining NATO. We could have discouraged Zelensky from pursuing a maximalist agenda. We could have been realistic about the necessity for alterations in Ukrainian borders and the utter absurdity of relying on reference to “international law” to declare those borders inviolate.
Biden did none of that. Instead, he was more interested in the strategic advantage that would accrue to NATO from a Ukraine militarily and economically tethered to the West. If Niall Ferguson is correct, the imbeciles running the Biden Administration thought a war in Ukraine could topple Putin. See,
Like an opium addict craving his fix, globalists never seem to learn that pursuing regime change never works. It’s like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya never happened.
Let’s not forget Biden’s secret weapon; sanctions. We know they almost never work so what made the President think they would deter Putin from invading or inspire him to capitulate after he invaded? If anything sanctions have made Putin more popular in Russia and have demonstrated that he was right all along about Europe’s energy dependence. The ruble has regained its strength, Russia is bringing in a $billion a day from oil, gas and coal and if Europe ever does get its energy act together, Russia has a waiting customer with an insatiable energy appetite in China.
Have our globalist friends ever taken a look at a map of Russia? Outside of Moscow do they think that Russians care if Ikea stops selling futons to Russia, McDonalds stops selling french fries or Disney stops showcasing Moana? How many hundreds of thousands of square miles of Russian territory lie in Asia? Does Biden think anyone residing in those areas cares about sanctions?
Who are the sanctions hurting as much or more than Russians? Well, there’s third world farmers who can’t afford fertilizer and middle class Americans and Europeans who can barely afford to heat their homes. In the end, the sanctions regime may come to resemble a man who places a gun to his head and says, “if you don’t relent, I’ll shoot.”
Here’s the reality that Claire and her globalist colleagues can’t bring themselves to admit. Biden and NATO could have enticed Zelensky to negotiate a reasonable compromise before hostilities started. They didn’t. To this day they could encourage negotiations leading to compromise. Apparently they aren’t. They are more interested in their fantasy of regime change and humiliating Putin than they are about saving the lives of innocent Ukrainians. Putin is the murderer. But at the very least, NATO is an accessory after the fact.
Bemoaning the unfolding tragedy accomplished nothing if there’s no attempt to make things better. Sadly, globalists have no strategy to accomplish that.
I wish that I had spoke up that this sort of thing was coming, given the absolute failure of Russian unit leadership in the field prior to all of this. At the very least, combat leaders have to reign in the worst impulses of their worst soldier. The most likely culprit that initiated this massacre is a low or mid level officer. It's unlikely that Putin ordered this, unless there's a benefit I'm not seeing, and it's even less likely that a chain of evidence would point to him. Morally, he is culpable, but legally he's a ghost.
US infantry units in My Lai experienced the same failures in '68. Desperate and frustrated soldiers in wartime are dangerous in the best of circumstances, and a Russian conscript army is a far cry from disciplined. I want to see the men responsible for this captured, but with Russia's relationship with the truth, this will either be blamed on Zelensky or the White Helmets somehow.
“I share Cristina’s sense that no matter how difficult it is—no matter how excruciating, how nauseating, how much it fills us with questions to which there isn’t and couldn’t never be an answer that satisfies—we owe it to these people—my God, these ordinary, poor people—to look at the photographs.” (Claire Berlinski)
I couldn’t agree more, but as we view the horrific images that Putin’s barbarity has wrought, we shouldn’t view them with a myopic lens. Sadly, that’s precisely what Claire and her fellow travelers on both the left and the right have done.
Waxing eloquent about the absurdly unrealistic prospect of seeing Putin in the dock at The Hague is nothing more than narcissistic preening that does nothing to help Ukrainians. A far more worthwhile effort would be to ask the difficult question of whether NATO, and more specifically the United States, could have done anything differently to prevent the the tragic deaths those pictures document.
Could we have done anything that would have mitigated the current calamity? To anyone with an ounce of sense, the answer is obviously that we could have.
Before the war, we could have made clear that Ukraine would forever be precluded from joining NATO. We could have discouraged Zelensky from pursuing a maximalist agenda. We could have been realistic about the necessity for alterations in Ukrainian borders and the utter absurdity of relying on reference to “international law” to declare those borders inviolate.
Biden did none of that. Instead, he was more interested in the strategic advantage that would accrue to NATO from a Ukraine militarily and economically tethered to the West. If Niall Ferguson is correct, the imbeciles running the Biden Administration thought a war in Ukraine could topple Putin. See,
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-03-22/niall-ferguson-putin-and-biden-misunderstand-history-in-ukraine-war
Like an opium addict craving his fix, globalists never seem to learn that pursuing regime change never works. It’s like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya never happened.
Let’s not forget Biden’s secret weapon; sanctions. We know they almost never work so what made the President think they would deter Putin from invading or inspire him to capitulate after he invaded? If anything sanctions have made Putin more popular in Russia and have demonstrated that he was right all along about Europe’s energy dependence. The ruble has regained its strength, Russia is bringing in a $billion a day from oil, gas and coal and if Europe ever does get its energy act together, Russia has a waiting customer with an insatiable energy appetite in China.
Have our globalist friends ever taken a look at a map of Russia? Outside of Moscow do they think that Russians care if Ikea stops selling futons to Russia, McDonalds stops selling french fries or Disney stops showcasing Moana? How many hundreds of thousands of square miles of Russian territory lie in Asia? Does Biden think anyone residing in those areas cares about sanctions?
Who are the sanctions hurting as much or more than Russians? Well, there’s third world farmers who can’t afford fertilizer and middle class Americans and Europeans who can barely afford to heat their homes. In the end, the sanctions regime may come to resemble a man who places a gun to his head and says, “if you don’t relent, I’ll shoot.”
Here’s the reality that Claire and her globalist colleagues can’t bring themselves to admit. Biden and NATO could have enticed Zelensky to negotiate a reasonable compromise before hostilities started. They didn’t. To this day they could encourage negotiations leading to compromise. Apparently they aren’t. They are more interested in their fantasy of regime change and humiliating Putin than they are about saving the lives of innocent Ukrainians. Putin is the murderer. But at the very least, NATO is an accessory after the fact.
Bemoaning the unfolding tragedy accomplished nothing if there’s no attempt to make things better. Sadly, globalists have no strategy to accomplish that.
I looked because you said it is important -- and you are right.