It’s been two years since Russia invaded Ukraine. Framing it that way, one would think that I’ve already made up my mind about the war. In fact, I haven’t. I’m one of those sappy types who says things like: “In war, the only real victims are the innocent civilians.” The generals and policymakers can go to hell, I say. For we flower-powers and fence-sitters, it’s easy to condemn everyone: Putin, Zelensky, and the Western Powers.
However, recent news and media clips have made me realize that I should have stronger thoughts about the war, as it might be the harbinger to another. That next war could be worldwide, leaving many of us as dust, and the remainder radioactive. A mushroom cloud can certainly put things into perspective.
In 2022, during a meeting between Putin and French president Macron, Putin said that if Ukraine were to become a member of NATO, that the rest of us would be “pulled into [a] conflict against [our] will.” That clip is now recycling on Elon’s platform. Fast forward to the 2-year anniversary, and we have the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, who assures us that Ukraine’s accession to NATO is inevitable. “It is not a question of ‘if,’” Stoltenberg says, “but of ‘when.’”
Then we have Zelensky, who, for the first time since the war started, gave a death total: 31,000 Ukrainians have lost their lives.
Googling up Russia’s death rate, we find conflicting figures. In December, a declassified U.S. estimate was that 315,000 Russians were “dead or injured.” The Ukrainian government puts out numbers regularly, possibly to tout their strength and resilience. According to them, as of March of 2024, 414,680 Russians have been killed. Somehow, there’s many more dead Russians than dead Ukrainians.
Finally, we have President Biden, giving his very last State of the Union Address before the election. “My message to Putin is simple,” Biden said. “We will not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not back down.”
History, the president assured, “is watching.” If that’s true, then history includes the 4 in 10 Americans who think the U.S. is “spending too much on aid to Ukraine,” so says a recent Associated Press poll. Those taxpayers will also remember that they’ll likely be disparaged as “Putin Puppets.”
All that money going to ukraine should be used here first. The money being sent there could be used here, such as mental health, for our veterans, homeless people. USA should come first.