The anniversary of the invasion is closing in.
And we have yet to stand up to Putin.
Yes we have sent weapons to Ukraine but not enough.
And they keep dying. Tens of thousands dead and many more wounded/maimed.
We have sent aid, true. America has sent the most.
But as we approach the first anniversary, talk is now growing about sitting down with the aggressor and negotiating.
Fans of Putin, like the Far Right in Italy, are loudly voicing their love for the beauty of Putin’s ways.
And more polls are saying that support for Ukraine’s war is declining.
As if to say to Ukraine, ‘we’ve done enough. We get that you have been courageous and we admire it, but you keep asking for more and we’re getting tired. We have inconvenienced ourselves enough.’
But shouldn’t we stand up to Putin?
‘We should not attempt regime change in Russia,’ says one leader, ‘Russia’s integrity needs guarantees,’ says another. ‘We’ve offered planes, but what we really mean is, we’ll get started on it, and it will take time, maybe years.’
And the hypocrisy keeps growing. The doublespeak, remembering Orwell.
‘We have to live with Russia, they’re part of Europe,’ says another leader.
Yes, by all means, let’s live with Russia! The real Russia. Not the zombies that support Putin!
Russia should be defeated and forced to retreat to behind their borders. And in due time, Russians will deal with Putin and Prigozhin and the Wagner group.
No one is talking extinction. Just get out of Ukraine.
Human beings embrace false beliefs all too easily. No country is spared.
In America, it’s only now that a significant percentage of the population is finally pulling away from the notion that Trump was good for us. Even though he was associated with the assault on Capitol Hill on January 6th 2021 in an effort to alter the results of the presidential election. Even though, he never hid he was a fan of Putin.
‘What is wrong with Putin having a little more of Ukraine than he had before? If that makes him comfortable, why not?’ cry the eager to compromise. Those who have no idea of what freedom is even though they live in the West.
‘Didn’t Germany live as a divided country from 1945 till 1991? History needs time,’ say those eager to accommodate, eager to surrender, those already comfortable living on their knees.
‘Let us not humiliate Putin,’ said Macron at one point and he has yet to apologize to the world for that ludicrous statement.
And still we have not stood up to Putin.
We haven’t because we have let that man send missile after missile to Ukraine and we have not said to him, ‘stop shooting missiles into Ukraine because we will give them missiles to shoot back into your territory!’
We haven’t done that because we’re scared of him.
With all our firepower, we’re still scared of Putin.
All of the West is.
And Putin knows it.
‘I will use my nuclear weapons, do you hear me!?’ cries the most refined human being Russia has ever produced, and the West cringes.
And seeing that the West does not stand up to him, Putin feels free to seek regime change in nearby Moldova, while we look at ourselves and say, ‘Sad situation. But they’re really not part of NATO, either. If they were we would do something about it, wouldn’t we?’ And all the big wigs and generals and diplomats will assent and take a sip from their mineral water. Add some extra butter to their croissant.
So Putin will increase his offensive because the tanks and artillery the West promised will not arrive in time and Ukraine will have to retreat. And he will push and push because the West cannot pull it together to confront him. And he will finally take Kyiv, so the great Russian can finally make his grand entrance as the conqueror of Ukraine.
President Zelensky will die defending his great land because he will not surrender, and if he is caught instead, he will be put on trial for treason and daring to defy the great man in Moscow. He will be sentenced to death by firing squad but to satisfy a western appeal for mercy he will get life in prison instead.
And all western leaders will look at each other and say, ‘well, we did offer him safe passage to the West, didn’t we?’
Oscar Valdes 