Credit Where Credit Is Not Due
It may be too early to tell but it appears that Ukrainian forces are giving the Russian military all they can handle. Whatever original plan the Russians had to overtake Ukraine has pretty much failed. They mismanaged it from the beginning and even though they (like the West) had plenty of time to come up with a winning strategy. It may still happen and no matter what, the devastation that they have caused will have long lasting implications even after the dust has settled.
The Russians look bad in every conceivable way and that stems fro one man, Vladimir Putin. Tiger wrestler, Political genius, Wartime mastermind. He does it all.
Horribly. He has pushed Russia down a path that even his most ardent supporters had to have known would adversely impact Russia. The World, for the most part, has turned against Russia and are quickly working to find other sources of what Russia supplied to the World. Oil, no problem, we have it here. Nickel, not a problem either. Vodka, come on, Titos. Let’s be serious here. The impact of Russia being shut off from the rest of the World will be minimal. Sorry, CNN. They are not a great trading partner and pretty much everything they have can be replaced. Where the problem lies is not in the outside World, it is in Mother Russia herself. The Ruble is almost worthless. The disruption in their economy is unlike anything they have felt in decades and the Russian people will at some point turn totally against the present regime. Dissent is always from within and while the state apparatus is very strong, I think there will be cracks and the longer and harder it becomes for the Russian people the bigger those cracks become.
That’s the purpose of economic sanctions. Make it harder for the people and the will of the people should force the leadership to adjust policy or completely change policy. Do they ever actually work? No, but they can make things difficult and short of starting World War III, it looks like it really is the only thing the West can actually do.
What I do see from all of this is some sort of cease fire. The Russian diplomats and the Ukrainian diplomats will hammer out some peace accord in Turkey and whatever it looks like will be better than what is happening now. That is what happens with events like this. Russia sends and loses thousands of soldiers. the Ukrainian nation is partially destroyed and Vlad Putin walks away with the Donbas region as his prize.
No one wins.
Except the Biden Administration which will somehow take credit. “Those sanctions were the reason an accord was agreed upon. I rallied the West around the most stringent sanctions in history to force Russia to the bargaining table. To force Putin to agree to take his foot off the pedal and saved thousand and thousands of lives”.
Someone should stuff a sock in his mouth if he says anything closely resembling that. The only reason the Russians would leave Ukraine is because the Ukrainian people fought like Hell to get them out. That is it.
Yes, we supplied weapons to help. Yes, we didn’t send in the military and take that chance of starting World War III but even the most hawkish people in this country knew that wasn’t going to be a good strategy.
What can be said is that the brave people of Ukraine did what any nation should do, they defended their sovereignty. We may have helped them with sanctions and additional arms but that is as far as we should go after this is all over.
What America is great at is helping others rebuild and that is where we should be involved. Taking in refugees has really never been our strong suit but I believe we will work towards doing as much as we can to help these displaced people.
I know I know, all of this takes a lot of money and judging by the past year and a half, all we have is money, lots of it.