It was at the beginning the Ukraine war that I became a werewolf of warfare, with all my claws, fangs, and bloodlust. Most people share this gene to some degree. On this day it was shouting out from my eyes.
Remember that long, armored column? The long column of soldiers, artillery, and materiel that slogged its way towards Kyiv to cause destruction and slaughter was miles long. We watched it day after day as it creeped closer and closer to the city… until it just stopped.
Nobody could quite figure out why, and as Ukraine’s forces began picking it apart, it dawned on those observing that maybe the vaunted Russian military wasn’t quite up to the drill. Russian snow thwarted Napoleon and Hitler, while Russia was thwarted in this battle by Ukrainian roadmud and the misplaced optimism at the top command. Many lives were lost daily on both sides.
There the long column sat, and I could not help but think of the so-called “Highway of Death” in Iraq, when U.S. air power massacred Iraqi forces that were retreating from Kuwait down Highway 80. This was arguably a war crime, as those Iraqi forces were running away, and was a gruesome slaughter by any measure… but there, outside Kyiv, was an attacking armyThey are determined to destroy everything that isn’t in place. If they got unstuck, they’d likely rain hell down on a massive city.
One wing A-10 Warthogs, I whispered to myself around a mouthful of newly sharp teeth… I am no combat pilot by any stretch of the imagination, but I am certain every fighter jock who saw that column was thinking precisely the same thing. Warthogs were made to eat armor, and a Google search for “A10 Warthog Russian Column” proved I wasn’t the only one with the same idea (though it’s apparently not as easy as my lurid imagination would have it).
That traffic jam did not result in anything. The column was melted into the war’s larger maw, and I was left with the chilling fact that the caveman with a rock axe lurks behind me.
It is possible to argue that the failure of the convoy to be confronted and damaged was a tactical failure. But for one thing, NATO is the only entity in the theatre capable of such an assault. If NATO had done so, we would all be in full-fledged conflict with a nuclear-armed country under the control of an unbalanced dictator.
The term is “escalation,” also known as “mission creep,” and in the present circumstances, both are to be avoided to the greatest possible degree. Vladimir Putin has personal control of a nuclear arsenal capable of destroying entire cities or blocks of them depending on his mood. Since his invasion in Ukraine, he has used the West’s launch keys more than once. have been deployedSince before the invasion, the Baltic Sea has been around.
A disturbingly different kind of escalation has been occurring over the past few weeks. The official U.S. voices are becoming more gleeful about how our assistance to Ukraine has resulted in the deaths of a number of Russian generals as well as the sinking the Russian Naval flagship. Moskva.
“After reports in The New York TimesAnd NBC NewsAbout the intelligence, Mr. Biden called Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III; Avril Da. Haines (director of national intelligence); and William J. Burns (“C.I.A.”) director, to chastise them, according to a senior administration official,” reports The New York Times. “That seemed to be where Mr. Biden was drawing a line — providing Ukraine with guns to shoot Russian soldiers was OK, providing Ukraine with specific information to help them shoot Russians was best left secret and undisclosed to the public.”
Monday’s signing of the updated Lend-Lease Act by President Biden allowed the U.S. to provide more support for Europe’s beleaguered in the days preceding our involvement in World War II. He has also demanded that Congress pass $33 billion in further military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, “a package that congressional Democrats plan to increase by another $7 billion,” according to the Times.
This is a sign of how crucial this aid is for the Biden administration. separated the Ukraine fundsCOVID aid funds. Initial plans were to combine the two funds in one package for easier passage. But Republicans chose to be Republicans again and tossed up roadblocks regarding the COVID money. Biden has instead offered Ukraine funding, rather than enduring another protracted mudfight along these lines.
This slow bleed to open war is being experienced by some in our government. Only a heart of stone can see the horrors in Ukraine. SomethingIt is impossible to stop it (even if many feel that the urge is being misdirected towards military escalation).
Mission creep is a way to increase profits for the war-making section of the economy. But it is not for everyone.
We are at risk of a conflict that spirals out of control and could lead to nuclear confrontation. While Ukraine cannot be abandoned, maybe it’s time for those who should know better to stop bragging to the public prints. Remember that the Lend-Lease Act is the last step before WWII. It was a different era, and it is not the right time to repeat that past.
The werewolf is within all of us. It doesn’t mean that we have to let it go.
