Churchill had a great line about the USA. “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, but only after exhausting all other alternatives.”
When I think of how it sometimes takes our Country a while to get things right, I remember how those who wanted to keep fighting in Vietnam would say, “If we don’t fight them in Saigon, we’re going to have to fight them in Seattle.” Meanwhile, the people we were fighting for, in Vietnam, couldn’t win an election in their own family and the guy we were fighting against was a national hero. The mistake of getting into the mess in the first place and staying too long cost the USA 58,220 dead soldiers. If you haven’t been to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, it’s worth the trip.
Then, there was the Iraq War of 2003. We were hit on 9/11 by people from Saudi Arabia but all the foreign policy “sophisticates” decided the cool thing to do was claim Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and bomb Iraq. A little-known State Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, thought the Iraq war was stupid, said so, and ended up winning two terms as President, each time winning over 51% of the Popular vote; which hadn’t been done since Eisenhower in the Fifties.
Now, we’re hanging on every word of a gentleman from Ukraine in a Green Tee-shirt who has gotten $100 Billion out of us, so far, and wants much, much more so he can “win” a war against nuclear armed Russia. The fact that he is Jewish and, on the record, as wanting to make Ukraine “more like Israel” makes him catnip for the Jewish owned press which includes the NYTimes, MSNBC, FOX, and CNN. To give the guy in the Tee-shirt a boost, our press has discovered “war crimes.” Committed by Russia, of course.
Investigating “war crimes” is a new gig for our press. They were oblivious to the concept when a Jewish idealist named Hagai El-Ad and his organization, B’Tselem, chronicled the names and ages of Gaza children killed by the Israeli Military in Operation Protective Edge, Gaza, 2014. If Israel lets the site operate you will be struck by the number of infants killed by the Israelis. Before the website was shut down, I saw the names of 27 infants, under the age of Twelve Months, killed by Israel listed on the B’Tselem website. That has to be a “war crime.”
Nobody has better contacts in Israel than CNN top dog, David Zaslav. He’s Jewish and a frequent traveler to Israel. Plus, he was a Biden Invitee to the recent State Dinner for France at the White House. He could get Israel to let the Jewish organization B’Tselem operate and publish its findings from 2014.
If he wanted to, that is. I mean fair is fair right?
Back to the here and now. What does Ukraine want from us and what are our standards as to who we help and who we don’t. Most people learn on the school yard that you fight for those who have fought for you. When we were hit on 9/11, thirty-one countries, NATO and NON-NATO, came to our assistance and shed blood with us in Afghanistan. Ukraine did not help us. So, we do not OWE Ukraine. We have helped them for a number of reasons, one of which is we benefit from an orderly world.
How about “competing interests.” Joe Biden is fond of saying “Show me your budget and I’ll know your values.” We’ve already given $100 Billion to Ukraine. We give to all of the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa combined a tiny fraction of that. To say one has nothing to do with the other makes sense if you’re getting the lion’s share. If you’re Joe Biden you’ve got no shot at re-election without a huge share of African American voters. If Biden signs on for another $100 Billion to Tee-shirt and continues to pay Sub-Saharan Africa and other interests through a pea-shooter, he doesn’t deserve to be re-elected. Ukraine should keep that in mind. Nothing is forever.
There is a solution to the Ukraine war on the table from one of the most respected individuals in the world, Henry Kissinger. He put a plan before the world at the recently concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It’s called a Ceasefire In Place. All parties keep what they have and stop shooting. China serves as a guarantor that Russia stops shooting and the USA serves as a guarantor that Ukraine stops shooting.
The parties meet and talk when they want, if they want. There are disputed pieces of land all over the world. Sometimes nothing happens for years, which beats stacking dead bodies by the thousands.
If TV ratings at CNN, FOX and MSNBC are negatively impacted by no war news, how can that be a bad thing?
Comments are welcome at tomc[at]wednesdayswars[dot]com. Comments will be addressed in subsequent posts.