- Joined
- Oct 18, 2011
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- Centrist
I recall how scared so many of us were in October of 1962 when President Kennedy confronted Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's attempted deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. Kennedy let the Soviets know with a naval "quarantine" against Cuba that under no circumstances would he allow the USSR to deploy nuclear warheads that close to Washington, D.C. Had Khrushchev not backed down, it would have meant war, likely nuclear war.
Today, President Putin saw the specter of likely soon-to-be NATO Ukraine harboring NATO forces, including nuclear and anti-nuclear missiles on their border with Russia, deployed way too close to Moscow. He warned Ukraine, but Ukrainian President Zelenskyy continued stating publicly that he wanted Ukraine to join NATO, which most of the country supported. President Putin was not going to wait for Ukraine to be part of NATO when any action he took against Ukraine to prevent missile deployment so visibly close to Moscow would require NATO nations to join in defense of Ukraine, in what would likely become an all-out nuclear war. So he took the only non-nuclear option he believed could deter NATO from accepting Ukraine: neutralize Ukraine's military so that NATO would not want to deploy missiles there, as without a Ukrainian military presence, there would be no security for the NATO missiles. Tragically, the ground war Putin was resigned to employ is destroying Ukraine, because unlike Khrushchev, Zelenskyy did not back down.
There are no good guys and bad guys here, despite what media conspiracy theory and propaganda may be telling us. There are just people, and their leaders, who do not want nuclear missiles positioned so visibly close to their capitols and their home, which perhaps implies nations still lack an adequate form of quick defense against a close proximity nuclear attack. In this long drawn out game of global chess, the thought of someone actually gaining a decisive advantage is terrifying, and greatly frowned upon by the world's "arbiters". Sadly, Russia's taking of Crimea in 2014 for the sake of a Black Sea naval base contributed to the consensus in Ukraine that they needed NATO for protection. And here we are.
I do not know how today's polemic conflict-oriented leaders are going to be able to restore even a tiny degree of peace and security now. Indeed, I find myself spending more time making peace with my Maker, apprehensive that I and all those I love might suddenly soon get vaporized. Russia will not let Ukraine have a military from this point forward. And though there are many screams of terror and allegations leveled at President Putin as being a monster and to withdraw from Ukraine immediately, I can hardly hear any calls for ending the causative nuclear missile standoff between the superpowers, to turn all nuclear weapons over to U.N. security control, dismantling them, keeping only enough to ward off a pending asteroid collision.
War, as they say, is hell. My heart goes out to all the people of Ukraine and to Russian military personnel and their families, the sacrificial Pawns in this horrific attempt to retain nuclear balance. But nuclear war would end all life, and reduce our entire planet to a cinder. To think such a balance can be maintained indefinitely is sheer folly. Thankfully the U.S. and NATO have kept ground personnel out of Ukraine, as Putin's threats to launch to prevent opposing pieces from getting too close to his King cannot be reasonably considered idle.
Let us all hope that we will learn a lesson from this conflict, that any escalation by either side will be tragically deadly for the entire world, that we must do all we can, not foolishly to maintain dynamic tension with each player's pieces poised to annihilate the other, but instead simply to do what we must do very soon before it's too late: wipe all the pieces off the board, and end this terrible, terrible game of mutual assured destruction.
Today, President Putin saw the specter of likely soon-to-be NATO Ukraine harboring NATO forces, including nuclear and anti-nuclear missiles on their border with Russia, deployed way too close to Moscow. He warned Ukraine, but Ukrainian President Zelenskyy continued stating publicly that he wanted Ukraine to join NATO, which most of the country supported. President Putin was not going to wait for Ukraine to be part of NATO when any action he took against Ukraine to prevent missile deployment so visibly close to Moscow would require NATO nations to join in defense of Ukraine, in what would likely become an all-out nuclear war. So he took the only non-nuclear option he believed could deter NATO from accepting Ukraine: neutralize Ukraine's military so that NATO would not want to deploy missiles there, as without a Ukrainian military presence, there would be no security for the NATO missiles. Tragically, the ground war Putin was resigned to employ is destroying Ukraine, because unlike Khrushchev, Zelenskyy did not back down.
There are no good guys and bad guys here, despite what media conspiracy theory and propaganda may be telling us. There are just people, and their leaders, who do not want nuclear missiles positioned so visibly close to their capitols and their home, which perhaps implies nations still lack an adequate form of quick defense against a close proximity nuclear attack. In this long drawn out game of global chess, the thought of someone actually gaining a decisive advantage is terrifying, and greatly frowned upon by the world's "arbiters". Sadly, Russia's taking of Crimea in 2014 for the sake of a Black Sea naval base contributed to the consensus in Ukraine that they needed NATO for protection. And here we are.
I do not know how today's polemic conflict-oriented leaders are going to be able to restore even a tiny degree of peace and security now. Indeed, I find myself spending more time making peace with my Maker, apprehensive that I and all those I love might suddenly soon get vaporized. Russia will not let Ukraine have a military from this point forward. And though there are many screams of terror and allegations leveled at President Putin as being a monster and to withdraw from Ukraine immediately, I can hardly hear any calls for ending the causative nuclear missile standoff between the superpowers, to turn all nuclear weapons over to U.N. security control, dismantling them, keeping only enough to ward off a pending asteroid collision.
War, as they say, is hell. My heart goes out to all the people of Ukraine and to Russian military personnel and their families, the sacrificial Pawns in this horrific attempt to retain nuclear balance. But nuclear war would end all life, and reduce our entire planet to a cinder. To think such a balance can be maintained indefinitely is sheer folly. Thankfully the U.S. and NATO have kept ground personnel out of Ukraine, as Putin's threats to launch to prevent opposing pieces from getting too close to his King cannot be reasonably considered idle.
Let us all hope that we will learn a lesson from this conflict, that any escalation by either side will be tragically deadly for the entire world, that we must do all we can, not foolishly to maintain dynamic tension with each player's pieces poised to annihilate the other, but instead simply to do what we must do very soon before it's too late: wipe all the pieces off the board, and end this terrible, terrible game of mutual assured destruction.
