The stakes in Ukraine could not be higher. Threatening our plunge into a much darker rule-of-the-jungle world where might makes right. Empowering and emboldening an evil dictator murderously serving nothing but his own vainglory. The Western alliance, long a bulwark against all that, would likely unravel amid a firestorm of recrimination if Putin wins.
Yet many in that alliance are already losing their clarity of vision. Including, alas, in the U.S., where the Republican party blocks aid to Ukraine, serving Putin’s agenda. What he’s counted on to turn his folly into triumph. While the cost of saving Ukraine now would be dwarfed by what we’d have to spend on defense in the wake of Ukraine falling.
Ukraine’s heroic resistance has been inspiring, but the grim reality is that without powerful help, it will ultimately be ground down by Russia’s greater resources and willingness to waste lives. Putin doesn’t care because he’s staked everything on this war. Only making his victory impossible will deter him.
And don’t bother fantasizing his overthrow. A rational system might indeed throw him out. Russia has instead a gangster system. Coup plotters would know they’d likely wind up dead like Prigozhin.
As if the Ukraine war were not bad enough, now we’ve also got the Gaza war.* President Biden apparently calculated that by sticking with our ally Israel, indeed holding them in a tight embrace, we could moderate their savagery. That proved wrong.
Yes, Hamas committed a great crime, deserving annihilation. But that likely cannot be achieved, making Hamas actually almost an irrelevancy now to the human catastrophe being inflicted in Gaza, whose rationale has disappeared in all the carnage. Israel has so far killed twenty times as many as Hamas did. The claim of trying to avoid civilian harm is a cruel lie; it’s clear that Palestinian death and immiseration is intended. No need to quibble over “genocide” semantics. America actually sending weapons to Israel is now morally equivalent to sending Russia weapons to kill Ukrainians.
Netanyahu, like Putin, is fighting not for his country’s true interests but his own. In fact, for decades his Palestinian policy has been driving Israel toward the maelstrom; October 7 was a consequence, and the war now will make future October Sevenths more, not less, likely. It’s madness; electing him again in 2022 was madness. Israeli voters may repent that today, but the next election could be years away, and till then Netanyahu is secure as long as his coalition of extremist religious zealots holds firm. Mass slaughter of Palestinians is something they’re fine with.
This is not anti-semitism. Not saying Israel shouldn’t exist, nor denying its right to self-defense. Just saying Israel must be held to standards of humanity.
Meantime this war threatens to metastasize beyond Gaza, notably into Lebanon. And it has added to U.S. political divisions and pulled attention from Ukraine, making that somehow seem yesterday’s news. Even making some throw up their hands in fatalism.
And as if the Gaza war, and Ukraine war, were not enough, now we’ve also got China’s Taiwan war. Or may well soon. Well, why not invade Taiwan, taking advantage of a moment when the world is distracted by two other major conflicts? Getting along with its neighbor would better serve China’s true national interests; a war would be insanely ruinous. But China’s dictator Xi Jinping suffers from the same vainglorious derangement as Putin. However, perhaps he will wait one more year — when America may get a president who’ll throw Taiwan to the wolves.
America is, indeed, throwing itself to the wolves. Polls show voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on a whole range of issues. Not seeming to notice how Republicans are dishonest to the core, epitomized by the huge “stolen election lie,” showing they should not be trusted on anything. And what a total cock-up they’ve made when given control of the House of Representatives. Electing them was deranged.
And while I do strongly disagree with Biden about Gaza, there’s no moral comparison with Trump. Will voters, fretting that Biden lacks energy for the job, elect instead a man with lots of energy — for evil? Culpable for the bloody violence of January 6 — part of his attempted coup, to retain power despite losing an election. Give him power again? Seriously?
His supporters love to call themselves “patriots.” I call them insane.
* Also a horrific one in Sudan (where a truly evil man is winning), not to mention Myanmar. But attention spans are limited.