by JURIS LAUCIS – WOMEN with plywood cut out rifles, preparing to resist 180,000 Russian troops and thousands of tanks, missiles and artillery amassed on the borders of Ukraine. The photo says it all.
All the while the West assists the beleaguered nation with condemnation and empty rhetoric.
- With weak deterrence strategies, the West has bowed to might is right.
- Right now, Putin has his boot on the throat of the world. All done in three easy stages.
- Putin can and will do whatever he likes, soccer championships be damned.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson went so far as to decree that Russia would never be allowed to host the soccer championship.
With the symbolic backing of China, which tested the waters with an aggressive stance against Taiwan together with the demonstrated lack of resolve of the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin has single-handedly neutralised the balance of power in the world order.
DETERRENCE
With weak deterrence strategies, the West has bowed to might is right.
Taking a leaf from Hitler’s playbook, when he invaded Poland in 1939 under the pretence of protecting ethnic Germans, Putin has set in motion, the realisation of his dream to reclaim the Russian Empire that disintegrated with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Ukraine will not be the final conquest for Russia.
It is a step-by-step reclamation of power lost. Belarus is already a puppet regime.
The three Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, with a total population of around five million, are in a precarious situation.
Forcibly taken over in 1941 with the pretext of necessity in fighting Germany.
These tiny countries, each with their own language and culture, regained independence in 1992.
But with a ravenous eye, Putin regards the Baltic States as Russian chattels, merely because they were once subjugated under the Czar.
CRIMEA
Right now, Putin has his boot on the throat of the world. All done in three easy stages.
Stage 1– the severance of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 under the guise of protecting ethnic Russians from the Ukrainians: those same Ukrainians Putin now claims are part of the Russian heritage.
On behalf of the West, President Obama responded with a wet lettuce leaf slap on the wrist.
Stage 2 – The election of Biden as US president in 2021. The opportunity of challenging a weak President beholden to an electorate weary of foreign wars was not lost on Putin.
Now was the time to act: Putin surrounded the hopelessly outclassed Ukraine with a ring of steel.
Stage 3 – Biden responded with strong language threatening Russia with sanctions.
By not mentioning a military response, Biden gave a clear indication that the US would not defend Ukraine on the ground.
A stupid move strategically: if Biden had kept Putin guessing what the US response would be, he may not have been emboldened to turn a grandstanding threat into reality.
In the meantime the world waits with bated breath – will he or won’t he? – knowing full well that Putin can and will do whatever he likes, soccer championships be damned.PC
The situation has changed. So far the Russians have lost about 11,000 troops, 46 planes, 68 helicopters, 3? generals, 290 tanks, 117 artillery pieces, over 900 armoured personnel carriers, 2 boats, 454 cars, 60 fuel tanks, and the list goes on. That’s fine when you’re defending your country, but not when you’re pursuing an unpopular war abroad, from which the bodybags are mounting.
The Ukrainians are counterpunching brilliantly off the ropes, and the greater the number of unsuccessful assassination attempts that the Russians mount to kill the Ukrainian President, the more of a legend that he becomes. Helping hackers have so far allegedly found and foiled the first 3. Worse still for the Russians, what happens if he becomes a martyr?
A Russian victory remains likely, but has ceased to be certain. Remember that Finland flogged Russia in 1939.
Finland and Sweden now intend to join NATO, and if Russia now tries to take the Baltic states and Poland where US troops are now based in numbers, then they’ll be at war with America. Putin longer term now looks like losing his mistresses and his money, and would not have attacked, had he had his time again. His best result is to be subsumed by a guerilla war, and worse still he might lose, so he’s now on a hiding to nothing.
The US Government and agencies have allowed much of this for years . The Democrats like war as it makes money for them . Vietnam Ring any bells ??? Putin is reclaiming Russian Land and ousting the Dictator that has controlled Ukraine and its natural resources .
Michael, I think your comment might be two years too late in coming. Zalinskiy is the corruption fighter – elected in 2019. Poroshenko (2014-19), I believe, was the problem you refer to.
The current president is two years into the job, is an anti-corruption campaigner and will probably die in the job.
Bit late for this to apply to Ukraine just now….but any OTHER country that is not a member of NATO (Finland, Sweden) should be considered neutral unless and until a further aggression perpetrated by Russia. Whereupon, they will immediately be deemed NATO members with all the rights and duties of military protection and engagement against an attack
The only ways by which Putin will be stopped – other than by military means – are by his assassination or his downfall as a result of a massive revolt by the Russian people against his brutal and unnecessary attack on Ukrainians who they clearly see as ‘family’. The real danger is that if either of these appears likely to happen, Putin will go to the next step of attacking NATO countries – possibly even with nuclear weapons. We need to be fully prepared for the latter and how we will respond to it.
Spot on Juris. Well stated.
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May God stand with Ukraine. Putin should leave them to determine how they wish to live.