Perhaps a Little Perspective is in Order

While most sane individuals from the Americas or Europe will decry the imperialistic invasion of Ukraine by Russia’s Putin, perhaps a bit of historical perspective is in order.  By no means is this an attempt to justify Putin’s war crimes nor give him shelter for his desire to prohibit a free nation to choose its own destiny.  History tells us that we should proceed with caution.  This will, however, be an attempt to calm down the warmongers among us that advocate a more aggressive response from the US.

Biden                       Putin                       Zelenskyy

In the realm of international relations, there is an idea that most nations will consider any nearby encroachment by an adversary to be a hostile act that may warrant a preemptive act.  In October of 1962, when Russia moved missiles into communist Cuba, the US brought us to the brink of WWIII before Russia backed down and removed their missiles and IL Bombers.  That’s what most Americans remember.  Perhaps forgotten in the retelling is that Russia also felt threatened because we had already placed our intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) in Turkey and Italy.  For some perspective, the northern coast of Turkey is about 1,000 miles from Moscow.

Most would agree that Ukraine should have the ability to join the EU or NATO if they choose, but we also must see this from Russia’s point of view as the encroachment of an adversary.  If you believe in democracy and in a free nation’s right to choose their own destiny, the fears of a kleptocracy are hard to fathom.  Russia is today a capitalist nation with socialist needs being run by a dictator and a group of oligarchs (capitalists) who seek status and personal gain at the expense of the governed.  Most democracies see this as an abomination, but it is currently the Russian way of life.

If we jump into our DeLorean and set the dial for 1823, we will find our own President James Monroe espousing a policy whereby he held that any interference in the political affairs of any of the Americas (New World), by any nation of the Old World, would be considered a hostile act against the US.  This so-called Monroe Doctrine was US policy for most of the 19^th and 20^th centuries.  We would reciprocate and stay out of the affairs of Europe.  This policy would be reinterpreted and revised as necessary to suit our needs at the moment.

Now we return to the present in our Tesla Model Y luxury EV and we find that Russia has decided that Ukraine was headed to become a pro-western democracy, a member of the EU, and quite possibly destined to join NATO.  Was this potential “threat” of a pro-western democracy on its borders justification to invade that country?  Certainly not from our perspective, but Putin has declared it to be a threat to Russian security.  Would Putin have invaded Ukraine to reunite the former USSR as previously set as a goal by him, quite probably?  Had Trump been successful in destroying NATO, perhaps this invasion would have been avoided and Putin would have had an easier time just installing a new puppet government.  In any case, we are beyond that now.

Russia invaded, has committed war crimes by targeting civilians, and Putin’s people are suffering.  His propaganda machine will keep the Russians calm for now, but that may end when the coffins start returning from the front.  You can declare victory for a while but the body count will dictate domestic sentiment.  What can the local populace do to topple Putin’s ambitions, probably not much as he is well protected?  He needs to protect his oligarchs however because if they suffer too much, he may run out of food tasters.