I have been dreading this article for years.
I remember exactly eight years ago. I was 13 years old, and in seventh grade, when a major crisis began to unfold in Eastern Europe. I remember the very morning I learned that Russia had invaded and annexed the Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula - meeting almost no resistance - and immediately triggering a violent insurgency in Ukraine's Donbass and Luhansk regions.
The West's response was - to put it mildly - insufficient. Aside from a few sanctions and some empty condemnations, nothing was done to counter Russia's aggressive behavior against Ukraine at the time or in the years afterwards as a proxy war raged on in the East.
After the Biden Administration's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan - a blunder of epic proportions that thoroughly revealed the utter inhumanity and immorality of non-interventionism - I knew that we had set a horrible precedent. Not only had the United States given the Taliban a major tactical and propaganda victory by withdrawing, but they had also sent the message that the US was no longer the invincible superpower that it once was. It sent the message that Americans - particularly in this day and age - were far more concerned about themselves than they were about the rest of the world.
When Russia began amassing hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the easter border of Ukraine last November, I immediately knew what was coming. Everyone did. And yet, even though we had months to prepare - or even deter - what was so obviously imminent, we did nothing. When Ukraine requested that we deploy troops to deter a Russian invasion, we said no. When Ukraine requested we provide air support, we said no. And when Ukraine requested we institute a no-fly zone, we said no.
And it doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened next.
Early on the morning of February 24th, 2022, the country of Ukraine - a free, sovereign, fledgling western democracy of over 40 million people - found itself the target of the largest and deadliest military invasion in Europe since World War II. Thousands of people have already been killed, and millions are being displaced from their homes.
I felt many things on February 24th, the day Russia began a relentless bombing campaign on major Ukrainian cities before sending hundreds of thousands of heavily armed soldiers on a brutal offensive towards the capital city of Kyiv. I felt fear, heartache, sadness, frustration, anger, and helplessness.
But one thing I didn't feel was surprise. In the sea of emotions that came over me that day, surprise was completely lacking. Because I saw this coming. Even eight years ago, I saw its shadow on the horizon.
Over the past decade, when it comes to US foreign policy, the voices of humanitarianism, interventionism, and internationalism have been drowned out by the incessant screeches, lies, false equivalencies, and cynical whining of populism, isolationism, non-interventionism, and nationalism.
Western commentators - on both the left and right - have spent years downplaying, deflecting, or denying Russian aggression in Europe and the Middle East. When the Russian-backed Assad regime in Syria perpetrated horrific chemical attacks on civilians, the anti-war movement dismissed it as a "hoax".
When Russia invaded Crimea and began a proxy war in the Donbass region, the western anti-war movement lamely tried to shift the blame to NATO and the United States, somehow blaming them for the actions of an authoritarian madman who has made clear his intent to reestablish the Soviet Union, crush western democracy, and destroy anyone and everyone who gets in his way.
Excuse after excuse after excuse after excuse. It was all they had. Conspiracy-minded western isolationists like Max Blumenthal, Jimmy Dore, Tucker Carlson, Benjamin Norton, Aaron Mate, Thomas Massie, Tulsi Gabbard, Alex Jones, Glenn Greenwald, Eva Bartlett, and Kyle Kulinski have spent year after year after year spreading baseless lies, shoddy, half-witted justifications, and pathetic whataboutisms seeking to absolve Russia of any wrongdoing and paint western democracy as the enemy. And their audience has lapped up their toxic soup like the obedient dogs they are.
These purveyors of isolationism have worked their way into positions of power and influence, and have thoroughly infested political discourse surrounding foreign policy in general and Russian aggression in particular. For years, they've spread their lethal propaganda under the guise of "progressivism", "socialism", "social justice", "anti-imperialism", and faux "patriotism". And for years we've allowed that lethal propaganda to fester and infiltrate our society - and this disaster is a direct result.
Ukraine is currently in the fight for its very existence. Hundreds of thousands of heroic men and women serving in the Ukrainian army and its volunteer battalions have taken up arms and fiercely resisted the Russian invasion, even in the face of overwhelming odds. Russia has suffered devastating losses and countless military setbacks - setbacks that not even Vladimir Putin had anticipated.
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has chosen to stay and fight alongside his people rather than flee to safety and has become an international hero. Even in the face of certain death, Ukraine's people have repeatedly shown themselves to be fierce, resilient, patriotic, and stoic. When Russian warships, for example, surrounded a vastly outnumbered Ukrainian garrison on the small island of Zmiinyi and demanded their surrender, they were met with a defiant response from the island's defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself!"
I pray for the safety of the Ukrainian people every day. I pray that they can withstand the wrath of one of the most powerful and most dangerous empires the world has ever seen. And so far they've shown impeccable courage and determination that will undoubtedly go down in history.
But I also cannot ignore the cold, hard truth. Ukraine is vastly outnumbered and outgunned against Russia, and Vladimir Putin has shown no compunction about unleashing the full fury of the Russian arsenal against innocent civilians. Since he took power in 2000, Putin has ruled - and conquered - through terror. In Syria, his warplanes have reduced entire cities to rubble with incendiary munitions and barrel bombs, killing tens of thousands of Syrian civilians. And it appears that, with his invasion meeting staunch resistance, Putin will unleash that same devastating fury on Ukraine.
The United States and the rest of the Western world, to their credit, have imposed crippling sanctions on Russia in response to the invasion. Russian assets have been frozen and millions of dollars in military equipment has been sent to arm Ukraine against the Russian invaders. But this can only do so much. Sanctions, in the end, don't stop tanks. They don't stop bullets. They don't stop warplanes. They don't stop missiles, barrel bombs, or thermobaric warheads. We have to do more, and we have to do it now.
I am convinced that as long as Putin remains in power, Europe will never be safe. Time and time again, Vladimir Putin has shown himself to be an authoritarian madman; a violent, thug who rules through oppression, terror, subjugation, and mass murder.
The only way - the ONLY way - to ensure the safety of Europe (and possibly the world) is for Putin's iron-fisted reign over Russia to end once and for all. Be it through a coup, an insurrection, or even a targeted strike, it absolutely has to be done.
Because if this goes on - if we continue to allow Putin to wreak destruction and terror upon millions of innocent people as we hide behind empty words and half-hearted actions - soon we will be the only ones in Putin's way.
And then nobody will be left to come to our aid.
Comments
Post a Comment