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| Ruined bridge after the Battle of Bull Run, 1862 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) |
Friday, it will be one year since Vladimir Putin sent his Russian army crashing into Ukraine.
An unmitigated disaster all too familiar to most. An act of unprovoked aggression conducted to boost the massive ego of an autocrat, the invasion was supposed to be quick and easy. Instead, one year on, it has been terrible for Russia — 200,000 casualties, freedoms scuttled, their country turned into a pariah state.
Worse of course for Ukraine: thousands of civilians dead, cities ruined, economy wrecked. If the war ended now, it would take years to rebuild. Though there is no sign of the war ending now, or anytime soon. It could go on for years.
Are we ready for that? America and her NATO allies stepped up quickly and decisively in response to the assault, providing armament and expertise to the Ukrainians while managing to stay out of the war itself, so far. Joe Biden just made a daring trip to Kyiv this week to demonstrate American resolve to stem Russian aggression.
Good for now. What about the long haul? With Republican leaders like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis boosting Russia and the rest of the country’s famously short attention span, how do we keep focused on what will be an expensive, long-term commitment?
The way to do it is to do it, and I admire how veteran Chicago broadcaster Bob Sirott has woven Ukraine into his morning show on WGN AM 720.
“Let’s check in with Joseph Lindsley in Ukraine,” Sirott will say, handing his podium over to an American reporter who moved there in 2020, just in time for a ringside seat at the calamity.
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You saved the most chilling line for last, Mr. S. "If we don’t defend the freedom of others, we risk losing our own. "
ReplyDeleteAs a sixty-year student of WWII, I see ominous parallels. Ukraine today, Poland tomorrow, Germany the following week...and after that, who the hell knows? Still have memories of ninth-grade gym teachers (who were also our football coaches) trying to "toughen us up" (at 14) for war, during the earliest days of the Berlin Wall..."Get going with those push-ups! You're gonna look great with a Commie bayonet up your ass!"
Worse still, you could plausibly change that last line to: "While we defend the freedom of others, we risk losing our own." Even as you extinguish the fire that's destroying the house of the neighbor on your left, you are chewed to death by your own dogs...who attack you from the right. And, yes, you read that correctly. I wrote it that way on purpose.
I make this segment a habit. Really compelling & vivid reporting, making it hit home, keeping it hitting home. Great piece.
ReplyDeleteWhen I see or hear all of those appeasers that want us to get Ukraine to negotiate with Putin all I can think of is that appalling fool Neville Chamberlain returning from Munich & waving that damned piece of paper & saying he's getting peace in our time. I trust Putin as far as I can throw a grand piano! He's never met a treaty he can't break, as he did with the Minsk Accords, which guaranteed Ukrainian sovereignty!
ReplyDeleteYeah, that worked out great didn't Neville?
And I'm really sick of the fools claiming he bought Britain time to rearm, as they weren't ready to fight then. As Dunkirk proved just nine months after the start of the war, Britain & France weren't able to fight off the Nazis then & as Churchill stated in one speech, he was waiting "for our friends in the New World to help". It took the massive might of American industry to fight a two front war.
If you've watched Ken Burns's PBS documentary "The War", the final title card of the last episode is just: "In 1945, the United States produced 50% of the world's industrial output".
This is all about one sick bastard. I don’t believe there is anyone in Russia who supports Putin’s aggression. No one’s life is better for it. The oligarch’s certainly aren’t benefitting. Everyone is afraid of Putin not unlike everyone was afraid of Hitler.
ReplyDeleteWhat if Hitler had nukes?
He came within an eyelash. If Hitler hadn't dismissed nuclear physics as "Jewish physics"...and if the British commandos hadn't destroyed the heavy water facilities in occupied Norway, I wouldn't be here to type these lines, and this computer might not exist.
DeleteAs OOTT (One of the Tribe), my parents would have gone up an American chimney and become ashes, smoke, and soap...same as my grandmother's extended family in Russia. Or they'd have been worked to death after being shipped to a slave labor camp in Madagascar.
Most people who aren't history buffs don't realize how close we actually came to re-entering the Dark Ages in 1942.
Marjorie Taylor Greene and the "conservative" Republicans want to cut off aid to Ukraine. That's Putin's greatest dream. The enemy within.
ReplyDelete"The responsibility for fueling the Ukrainian conflict, for its escalation, for the number of victims ... lies completely with Western elites," Putin said......"Elites", now, where have I heard that term used?
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ReplyDeleteFor the life of me, I cannot see how this war will end. Even if Putin and Kerensky were somehow to arrive at perfect amity, restoring Ukraine's devastated infrastructure will take years and the issue of collaboration will remain to eat at the cohesiveness of Ukrainian life for decades.
DeleteHad the French attacked Germany as the Rape of Poland was underway, Europe could have been spared the worst. It would have been difficult. France had the men and weapons. If they'd have fought with the same vigor as they received later in Vietnam, the world would be a different place today. Poland and the Baltic states are in a similar position, perhaps their survival depends on remembering 1939.
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