Exactly two years ago, angered and dismayed by Putin's totally unwarranted and inexcusable invasion of Ukraine, I began writing this Substack Newsletter. I hoped to contribute to the stiffening of U. S. and Western support for Ukraine's brave and principled defense of its heartland. Ukraine's repulsing Russia's darting assaults on Kyiv gave me (and other better placed commentators) hope that Putin's entire venial attempted subjugation of Ukraine and the taking away of European as well as our own freedoms could be halted, and wanton killings stopped. But in those far off and still endangered days it appeared (as it still does) that the global contest between good and evil, won we thought definitively against Hitler and then after the Cold War, had resumed and that we must once again wrestle against the dystopian dangers that we had once confidently believed banished conclusively.
I entitled my first post in this series, now stretching to today's 244th, "World War III is Coming: It is Imperative to Stop it Now." Alas, sadly and frighteningly, that headline is still accurate and appropriate. We should all worry. Putin has hardly in 2024 been backed into a corner and, at this March moment Ukraine has become weaker than Russia thanks to Trumpish folly. Two handfuls of Republican know nothing Congresspersons led by the likes of Marjory Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz (imagine!!) are preventing their weak Speaker of the House and the entire Congress of these United States from funding aid to Ukraine. That means that the delivery of $60 billion worth of 155 mm. howitzer shells that Ukrainian troops along a 600-mile war front desperately need is needlessly being held up to support narrowly partisan electoral calculations decreed by the master artificer himself and accepted by his spineless acolytes. Have these United States really fallen on their knees? And for how long and with what entirely perfidious results?
World War III could still come. The headline is still reasonable. Two years ago, and often in the months since this Newsletter began, I (not alone) have urged President Biden's administration to "show muscle," that is, to stop fearing the "unleashing of an all-out conflict with an unhinged opponent." Putin still holds the nuclear threat behind his back, but by not providing equipment and financial support to Ukraine we embolden him. That is what I meant by not ceasing to use our muscle and refusing to press every potential advantage against Putin's marauding forces. A nuclear conflagration, I said two years ago and repeat now, can best be avoided by demonstrating that Washington and the West mean to remain tough, and to oppose Putin rigorously and steadfastly.
I wanted then and would welcome the U. S. giving air power to Ukraine so that President Volodymyr Zelensky and his generals can regain control of the skies, attack the missile launching sites in Crimea and in the Black Sea and regain the initiative -- forfeited in 2023 --against Russia. If the U.S. can provide long-range artillery (and ammunition) then German Chancellor Otto Schulz may be persuaded to let Ukraine use his long-distance howitzers as well.
I wrote two years ago and regard it is still relevant that unless we halt Putin in his tracks, Putin will win in Ukraine and open up a third world war that engulfs the Baltic States -- freed only thirty-three years ago from Soviet despotism -- and swallow Moldova. Poland could then be a target of Putin's imperial grasp. "This is the West's defining Churchillian moment," I wrote two years ago. And it still is. The Republicans are giving Putin a dangerously free ride; the recent fall of Avdiivka shows how much blame attaches to the Speaker and his co-conspirators. "To permit Putin and his army to roll through and over brave Ukrainian defenders," I wrote, "only breeds successively more depredations.' What are the Greenes and Gaetzes thinking (if they do think)?
I recalled that Hitler first took Sudetenland and Austria. Then he rolled into the Low Countries and France before the rest of Europe could mount a credible defense. President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved too deliberately (thanks to Republican rabble-rousing Isolationists) until Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor allowed the president to send our troops to war. Biden has similar constraints, all because of his orange-hued unprincipled political rival. Does Speaker Mike Johnson and his backers really want to be responsible for unleashing all of Putin's ambitions, and those, too, of Xi Jinping?
Only by saving the world can we save ourselves, and our nearly 250-year old freedoms.
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Thanks Robert, l believe you are exactly right and find it hard to believe that these Republican isolationist can bury their heads so deep in the sand. Now living in the UK ,l am glad the at least the UK is a more reliable ally also the resources we can provide are minimal compared with what the US has to offer
To these jaded and cynical eyes viewing from afar, Ukraine would be better served looking elsewhere for help in the immediate future. Probably closer to home in Europe, where the seriousness of the situation is realised and the traumas are still closely held family memories that are honoured annually nationwide in many of those countries.
Unfortunately the best hope for U.S. aid forthcoming to Ukraine seems to be on Nov. 5th with Democrats maintaining their majority in the Senate, winning one in the House, and gaining a second Biden/Harris term. That would allow a few days from Jan. 3, 2025 (when the 119th congress commences) until Jan. 5th (20th technically, but best get the bills passed in both chambers and signed by Biden before the certifcation to head off the repeat of any insurrectional shenanigans). But nine months is too long for Ukranians to wait and hope is no foundation to base a plan on.
All this because the American political system is being held hostage by a handful of members in one party, and the judiciary has been compromised and corrupted. The third clause of the fourteenth amendment to your constitution clearly states that the Republican Party's leading candidate for the presidential election, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, and several other members of congress have disqualified themselves from holding office. I repeat. Disqualified themselves. No further laws needed, nor any action in Congress. However the U.S. Supine Court has a majority consisting of justiciars. At least one of whom has been accepting bribes, several who lied under oath in order to gain their current positions. Add to that, you have an Attorny General who, for all intents and purposes, shares the same Alma Mata (being the Federalist Society) which seems to explain his tardiness in executing prosecutorial or even investigative duties towards one individual, and complete lack of whatsoever towards those peoples' representatives who "gave aid and comfort" at minimum if not personally participating in the Jan. 6th "conspiracy to" themselves.
*sigh* It's extremely difficult, observing this. Like watching a friend you care about going through a mental breakdown and self-harming.
*edits* sooo many typos