The thing I don't understand fully (or I do but hate what I think is the answer and am hoping I am wrong...) about the situation is the shared sentiment in support but the lack of real action.
We all seem in support at a far but are letting the Ukrainians bleed alone.
Given that the Russian Federation is still a nuclear power (and given the justified hesitancy of any American leader to send American boys to die for someone else's liberty), I think all we can do is military aid, sanctions, and every other non-military intervention we can think of. Heck, I'd probably just embargo Russia, were I president.
But in the end, hard as we might be cheering for 'em, the Ukrainians will have to win their own war. We have no mutual defensive treaty with them, and we need to make the line between Ukraine and a NATO state very, very clear and bright.
I do hear you, but it doesn't change my mind. In the end, it makes a lot of the support ring pretty hollow to me. Same with the NATO membership argument since I don't buy we would be doing much more if they were a member. We are all too happy to not REALLY be involved. War like this isn't like sports. It doesn't support spectatorship. We are only passively supporting the sacrifices being made.
My point is we maybe shouldn't help directly because we are scared (maybe even rightly so) of the cost, but then we should recognize our own contribution to the problem and the privilege we are cheering from. It all just makes me ashamed for us that we are paralyzed and sad for the Ukrainians.
I should clarify what I meant by the "maybe" in "maybe even rightly so": I am not convinced we are going to avoid a direct conflict with Russia and Putin. So, if we are forced into a direct conflict in the near future, then our hesitation will have been meaningless. Maybe having contributed to escalation.
I am not saying it is inevitable or that I even have a way of guessing the odds, but we also can't be sure our inaction is saving us either. That is my point in the "maybe".
...nuts, I'm starting to think you're right that this whole "cheering for another country like it's a media-entertainment event" is bad for the souls of us in the crowd. This war doesn't really exist for me except on a screen.
I think we should -- and would -- go to bat for a NATO state, though. If Article V were triggered, I think we'd fully deploy in defense of Latvia (or whatever). So there is an (alarming) possibility we'll have skin in the game later.
Meanwhile, throwing the kitchen sink at Putin and making Ukraine as strong as possible is our best deterrent against that. Putin can't invade Latvia if his army is tied down in Ukraine getting ambushed by U.S.-supplied Javelins. But we could just do that without treating a major war like bout in the gladiators' arena.
This comment is not well-formed thoughts, but you've made me uncomfortable, so well done.
I believe you to be the good sort, so my goal wasn't to make you feel bad. Just that these pompoms seem too comfortable over other things. If our peeps were allowed to support them, we might not have the wherewithal to follow through. That makes our current attitudes sad to me...
I will quit beating this drum. Thanks for allowing me to vent and for the good read.
The Ghost of Kiev is based on a video game. Wars are weird.
The thing I don't understand fully (or I do but hate what I think is the answer and am hoping I am wrong...) about the situation is the shared sentiment in support but the lack of real action.
We all seem in support at a far but are letting the Ukrainians bleed alone.
It all seems sick to me.
Given that the Russian Federation is still a nuclear power (and given the justified hesitancy of any American leader to send American boys to die for someone else's liberty), I think all we can do is military aid, sanctions, and every other non-military intervention we can think of. Heck, I'd probably just embargo Russia, were I president.
But in the end, hard as we might be cheering for 'em, the Ukrainians will have to win their own war. We have no mutual defensive treaty with them, and we need to make the line between Ukraine and a NATO state very, very clear and bright.
I do hear you, but it doesn't change my mind. In the end, it makes a lot of the support ring pretty hollow to me. Same with the NATO membership argument since I don't buy we would be doing much more if they were a member. We are all too happy to not REALLY be involved. War like this isn't like sports. It doesn't support spectatorship. We are only passively supporting the sacrifices being made.
My point is we maybe shouldn't help directly because we are scared (maybe even rightly so) of the cost, but then we should recognize our own contribution to the problem and the privilege we are cheering from. It all just makes me ashamed for us that we are paralyzed and sad for the Ukrainians.
I should clarify what I meant by the "maybe" in "maybe even rightly so": I am not convinced we are going to avoid a direct conflict with Russia and Putin. So, if we are forced into a direct conflict in the near future, then our hesitation will have been meaningless. Maybe having contributed to escalation.
I am not saying it is inevitable or that I even have a way of guessing the odds, but we also can't be sure our inaction is saving us either. That is my point in the "maybe".
...nuts, I'm starting to think you're right that this whole "cheering for another country like it's a media-entertainment event" is bad for the souls of us in the crowd. This war doesn't really exist for me except on a screen.
I think we should -- and would -- go to bat for a NATO state, though. If Article V were triggered, I think we'd fully deploy in defense of Latvia (or whatever). So there is an (alarming) possibility we'll have skin in the game later.
Meanwhile, throwing the kitchen sink at Putin and making Ukraine as strong as possible is our best deterrent against that. Putin can't invade Latvia if his army is tied down in Ukraine getting ambushed by U.S.-supplied Javelins. But we could just do that without treating a major war like bout in the gladiators' arena.
This comment is not well-formed thoughts, but you've made me uncomfortable, so well done.
I believe you to be the good sort, so my goal wasn't to make you feel bad. Just that these pompoms seem too comfortable over other things. If our peeps were allowed to support them, we might not have the wherewithal to follow through. That makes our current attitudes sad to me...
I will quit beating this drum. Thanks for allowing me to vent and for the good read.
No, no, making me feel uncomfortable means I'm growing. Usually good.