It's Easter Sunday, and all across what we used to call "Christendom" people are praying for peace on earth.
That, after all, is a promise of the resurrection. But it's a promise that's becoming more difficult to realize in this third decade of the 21st century.
There is war across the globe, but nowhere is war more likely to threaten the end of civilization and perhaps most life on this planet than in the country of Ukraine. It is there that the ambition of one man, Russian President Vladimir Putin, is threatening the peace of Europe.
Putin is intent on recreating the Empire of the Czars, inherited and expanded by Soviet Communists and lost when the United States won the Cold War. One of the biggest losses for Russia when the Soviet Empire fell was the fertile soil and resource-rich nation of Ukraine. Putin, the revanchist, thinks that Ukraine was Russian during the time of the Communists so it will now, always, and forever be Russian.
The Ukrainians beg to differ. They like being independent of Moscow and have always been more westward in their outlook than their Russian neighbors. They are fighting for something the United States has only had to fight for once in its history: its sovereignty.
Ukraine is fighting for self-determination. Yes, it's a very corrupt country run by oligarchs. And some of the democratic niceties are unknown.
But a blind man can see they're making a genuine effort to reform. More than that, the people are fighting. Really fighting. They've suffered enormous casualties and they still keep fighting.
Contrast that attitude with the Russian conscripts being sent to fight at the point of a bayonet.
These things should be celebrated and honored. But is Ukraine's independence worth going to war with Russia over? Is it worth risking nuclear war to save Ukraine?
Giving Russia a license to take Ukraine means that many of the smaller Eastern European countries are at risk. Is that worth risking a nuclear war?
Biden says he's fighting for the post-World War II international order. Is that worth fighting a nuclear war over?
I don't have the answers to those questions. Perhaps nothing is worth launching nukes against Russia, China, or any other nation, especially since it's folly to believe that any nation can fight a "limited nuclear war." Once the launch codes are given, there's no turning back.
I believe we'll have to seriously examine those questions about when and for what we might fight a nuclear war because Joe Biden is enabling a delusional Ukraine to believe that it can win an unwinnable war.
Let's establish that Ukraine can't win unless the U.S. and NATO intervene. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky would never come out and say it, but there may come a time in the next few months when Zelensky and Ukraine will have their backs against the wall and stare defeat in the face. At that point, does Zelensky allow Russia to win or does he beg Washington for help?
Zelensky said in the interview that no U.S. support means Ukraine has no air defense, Patriot missiles or jammers for electronic warfare, which meanis Kyiv's forces will have to "retreat, step by step."
He added that "if Ukraine falls, Putin will divide the world" into Russia's friends and enemies.
Ukrainian internal affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko shared the Zelensky interview on X, which he summarized and wrote: "It looks like the Great War is just beginning."
"The war will not be limited to the territory of Ukraine. It is already almost obvious that Western countries will join it, and Russia will have to fight on several fronts. Putin is not going to stop," Gerashchenko said.
"'Ukraine today and Taiwan tomorrow'? Is it possible for the U.S. to allow such a development?" asks Ukrainian internal affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko. Mr. Gerashchenko shared Zelensky's interview on X.
It looks like the Great War is just beginning.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) March 30, 2024
The war will not be limited to the territory of Ukraine. It is already almost obvious that Western countries will join it, and Russia will have to fight on several fronts.
Putin is not going to stop.
Western countries can still… https://t.co/xq82NVm7rG
It may very well come down to a choice between fighting today to head off a much larger war in the future. This is exactly the dilemma that was faced by Neville Chamberlain in 1938. He chose appeasement and surrender.
What will Biden choose?
