Developing
Due to rapidly-breaking developments and in order to facilitate readers’ access to the latest dispatches, we are publishing this article as it is being written. please check back for updates and additions.
To see a list of previous articles, enter “Ukraine” in the Search Box on the upper right, on The Trenchant Observer web site, and you will see a list in chronological order.
Only force can stop Putin
See “Ukraine War, April 5, 2022 (II): Force must be used to stop Putin,” The Trenchant Observer, April 5, 2022.
Dispatches
1) Moisés Naím, “Putin: ¿Y ahora qué? Es difícil acostumbrarnos a pensar con los mismos criterios geopolíticos que prevalecían en el siglo XIX. La visión de que lo único que importa es el poder de fuego de cada bando resulta antigua y caduca,” El País, el 16 de abril 2022 (22:00 ET);
2) Henryk M. Broder, “Höchste Zeit, mit dieser Heuchelei aufzuhören,” Die Welt, den 17. April 2022.
Broder comments sardonicly on the upcoming April 19 commemoration of the heroism of the protagonists in the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising and the slogan “Never again!”, while the same thing is going on in Mariupol right now.
Commentary
Everything has been said.
Everything has been analyzed.
There is nothing left to do, to stop the Russian slaughter of Ukrainians, like shooting fish in a barrel, except for NATO to act.
First, NATO must put force back on the table as an option available to resist Russia’s invasion and slaughter of Ukrainians.
Second, NATO needs to seize the strategic initiative.
Let the Poles transfer their old Mig 29’s to Ukraine.
Make contingency plans for moving some NATO troops into Western Ukraine, to assume basically a defensive posture.
Make contingency plans for escorting and defending armored columns supplying weapons to the Ukrainian military.
Let Russia know, either privately or publicly, that these contingency plans are being made. Play on Putin’s fear of NATO.
Instead of worrying about what Putin might do, make Putin worry about what NATO might do.
NATO and the West cannot prevail following current policies
NATO and the West cannot prevail in their war against Russia and Putin by simply furnishing Ukraine with weapons and, standing on the sidelines, cheering Ukrainians on to fight the Russians down to the last Ukrainian soldier, and the last Ukrainian civilian.
If NATO leaders don’t understand by now that Putin is engaged in an all-out war against the West, against NATO and NATO countries, and against our entire civilizaton where individual lives matter, what will it take for them to grasp that hard reality?
How do they imagine the course of the war?
It is obvious that it cannot end by a negotiated settlement.
Ukraine and the West cannot accept a settlement that would upend the entire international legal order based on the United Nations Charter and international law.
It is equally obvious that Putin will not give up, not so long as he is unchecked by outside force.
How, then, do they expect that the war will end?
When will they act?
To defend the West, to defend NATO and EU countries, to defend our civilization against Russian barbarism? To defeat the new Russian fascism?
When will they act?
***
Now, on Easter Day, 2022, would be a good time for NATO, and citizens in NATO countries, to start acting.
Easter is a day on which we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, in the Western Christian tradition, following the day on the cross of the Cruxifixction.
Easter is a day of hope, of new beginnings, as the wondrous beauty of Spring blossoms forth.
Let it also be a day of resurrection of the spirit, and of the spirit of Western civilization, now spread throughout the world, though currently under assault in many quarters.
Let it be a day when humanity recalls the darkness through which it has passed, on its long journey to achieve civilization.
Civilization, a place in history where humanity’s deepest and truest values are honored and upheld.
Let us hope and pray that this resurrection of the spirit, of the spirit of humanity, may burst forth in the hearts of men and women throughout the world.
The Trenchant Observer
