Ultimate Choices, Nearly Impossible, about Ukraine

photo by Yehor Milohrodskyi on @unsplash

Last night on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow asked the crucial question: is there any country willing to jump in and stand with the Ukrainians against the Russian aggression?   General Barry McCaffrey (Ret), explained that anything the US and NATO did to directly confront and fight with the Russians could provoke Putin, already clearly unhinged, to bring nuclear weapons into an expanding worldwide fight.

Of course, no one wants any kind of nuclear war.  And a nuclear war between the US and Russia could well be the end of our civilization across the planet.

Avoidance of nuclear war therefore has been a cardinal objective ever since the end of World War II.  We're here today, flourishing across the Earth, with all our problems, because, beginning with the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, we succeeded in keeping that world-destroying demon in the bottle.

So, McCaffrey's analysis makes sense.  But, what then, for Ukraine?  What are we supposed to do?  Continue to massively arm Ukraine and hope that that will be enough for them to stop the Russians? Hope that President Xi of China puts pressure on Putin to pull back?  Ukraine has heroically done far far better against the Russians than anyone thought they would.  But Russia nonetheless has overwhelmingly superior resources to replenish its soldiers and supplies.   Most knowledgeable observers, including McCaffrey, think it's just a matter of time before Ukraine succumbs.

So, what are we -- the United States, NATO, the free world -- supposed to do?  Stand by and watch Ukraine fall, curse Putin and his moral dementia, a month or more from now, as the overwhelming military numbers of Russia even with their blundering eventually succeed in their vile mission?  Stand by because the icey logic of at all costs avoiding a nuclear war demands that?   Yesterday afternoon a woman in Ukraine on MSNBC remarked that whatever we in the United States do, Putin's use of nuclear weapons is unpredictable.  He could see fit to launch them for whatever reason even if we hold back and Ukraine is obliged to counter the savage attack with just their own limited number of freedom-loving people.

But the implacable need to avoid a nuclear war between Russia and the West says yes, that's what we must  do.  But ... the prospect of watching Ukraine go down, when we and our allies have the military power to stop that, makes me sick to my stomach.  No, it makes me sick to my soul.

Had I the power, I'd put in place a no-fly zone over Ukraine to stop the Russian attempt to annihilate Ukraine.