Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Today's news: More American support

I love this photo, from this tweet.
Carefully and cautiously, the United States appears to be taking a larger and more direct role in the Russia Ukraine War. 
I'm not sure whether this will end up being a good thing for Biden and the world -- Jen Psaki has been very clear at the White House press podium that US voters didn't elect Joe Biden to make war on Russia, and of course there's that pesky risk of nuclear armageddon! -- but Biden and most western leaders now appear to be on the same page, agreeing that Ukraine is their line in the sand, that Putin cannot be allowed to win this war if Ukraine can prevent it, and that Ukraine actually will be able to prevent it if they get more military help. Tonight all over twitter and in articles across the internet, I'm seeing an increasing concensus on the crucial importance of timely military aid.
The US military is taking a more active role too: In The Atlantic, Eliot A Cohen writes this is the war's decisive moment: 
For those of us born after World War II, this is the most consequential war of our lifetime. Upon its outcome rests the future of European stability and prosperity. 
If Ukraine succeeds in preserving its freedom and territorial integrity, a diminished Russia will be contained; if it fails, the chances of war between NATO and Russia go up, as does the prospect of Russian intervention in other areas on its western and southern peripheries.... 
In most intense conflicts of this kind, armies engage in a kind of competitive collapse, victory going to the side that can hold out longer. The Ukrainians ... desperately need all that the arsenals of the West can provide them. 
The Russian military—revealed as inept at tactics, unimaginative in operational design, obtuse in strategy, and incompetent at basic logistics and maintenance—can do only two things well: vomit out massive amounts of firepower and brutalize civilians. It has been bloodied very badly indeed. 
 ...And so Putin will order offensives that, if confronted by a well-resourced Ukrainian foe, can effectively destroy his own army. The challenge for the West is to ensure that this is its fate. 
The use of chemical weapons opens up the path to the massacre of civilians on a scale that is indeed genocidal. If it happens, the free world must stop it. 
Upon what the United States and its allies do in the next few weeks hangs more than the American people realize. The evidence suggests that Russia’s armies can, if met by a well-equipped Ukrainian force, be thoroughly wrecked and defeated. While Russia itself will likely remain a paranoid and isolated dictatorship after this war, it can be defanged, even as its own folly reduces it to the ranks of a third-rate power. But war is war, and the future is always uncertain. All that is clear right now is that a failure to adequately support Ukraine will have terrible consequences, and not just for that heroic and suffering nation. 
Maruipol is still hanging on by a thread:

 And this is a wild one: The world is learning now about Russian behaviour in Ukraine: And the good news in areas where Russian invaders have left:
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