Editorial rights purchased from iStock. Photo by palinchakjr.
We don’t know what Putin will do next. We don’t know how long it will take Russian forces to encircle the capital of Ukraine and assassinate President Zelenskyy. We don’t know the effect Russian propaganda in China will have on the West’s ability to convince China to help us negotiate with Putin.
But we do know that Putin will lie to us. We know he will continue to kill civilians. We know there is only one thing Putin respects and understands — and that is naked aggression.
Our desire to avoid WWIII is a pipe dream. Peace talks with Putin are a joke. Civilian evacuation routes are not honored and Putin is using propaganda to convince his people that Ukrainians are bombing themselves — or have hired “crisis actors” to play the part of bombing victims and murdered children.
Biden can say he doesn’t want to escalate this “conflict” but he only appears weak and indecisive to Putin — and Putin is still winning in his own eyes because the U.S fears him and is running from this fight.
The White House is warning the world that Putin may be planning chemical attacks. He’s already used illegal weapons in Ukraine. So now we have apparently decided to wait for Putin to torture the remaining brave fighters in Ukraine with a chemical weapon attack before we stop this madness. We are fools if we wait for this to happen.
We need to supply Ukraine with fighter jets and every other means of destroying the Russian Army. If you’re afraid this will aggravate Putin — he’s already aggravated.
We need a no-fly zone over Ukraine. If you fear Putin will view a no-fly zone as an act of war by the U.S. — he’s already called sanctions an act of war.
If you worry that Putin might threaten nuclear war — he’s already made that threat — and he’s counting on our fear of it to keep us from arming Ukrainians with the forces at our disposal to stop him.
Whatever Biden is planning to do if Putin uses chemical or nuclear weapons in Ukraine — Biden needs to do — NOW.
We may not want WWIII, but we have it. It’s not coming — it’s here.
The way to stop Putin is to stop Putin — with pure military strength. Nothing else will save what’s left of Ukraine.
The U.S. needs to face reality. We must be proactive, not reactive. Putin will continue his quest to level Ukraine if we don’t act now to supply Ukrainians with the airpower they need to wipe out the Russian forces in Ukraine and the Russian ships on Ukraine’s southern border.
We can’t afford to wait until Zelenskyy is dead and chemical or nuclear weapons have been unleashed on Ukraine.
Zelenskyy is right — we already have blood on our hands. If we don’t wish to be complicit in the murder of the rest of the brave Ukrainians still on the ground, fighting for their lives and democracy, we need to act now.
The time for wishful thinking is over.