With Russia’s invasion testing the boundaries of infamy on a daily basis, humanity cannot depend on anachronistic acronyms
By David E. Kaplan
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from EXTINCTION,” said former US President, Ronald Reagan. His warning resonates more than ever today.
“We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream,” he explained, and then cautioned, “It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same.”
If the world until very recently was troubled about democracy under threat and the loss of “freedom”, today it is not only our ‘freedom’ in peril but – if we listen to the warnings of western leaders – our very existence!
Russia has brought us – the world – to another low point in human history, where talk of “EXTINCTION” is now not the stuff of far-fetched movies but everyday political parlance. Listening to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby awkwardly squirm at the podium in his unenviable job of trying to furnish credible answers to tough but predictable questions, confirms our worst fears – that one miscalculation could lead to WWIII – to a nuclear war, or simply stated in one word – ARMEGEDDON!
Over the last two agonising weeks, the world has shifted from the 20th century paranoia of a “Brave New World” to the 21st century of a very “Scared New World”.
Irresistibly glued to our TVs, we are paralyzed in disbelief – and now fear – as corona abruptly overnight gave way to Ukraine as the daily horror show. Grappling for the right words to describe this uncomfortable phenomena, I feel I’m immersed in the irresistible observance of a ritual of mass human sacrifice and unable to stop it. Yes, we take some comfort – and pride – where individual people, governments and NGOs do what they can by rescuing refugees, providing humanitarian aid, providing some ‘defensive’ – heaven forbid ‘offensive’ weaponry – but cannot stop the exorable grind of continuous carnage.
There is a ‘red line’ we are told we cannot cross because any meaningful action will amount to being construed by Mr. Putin as “ESCALOTORY” – the new catchword of the millennium.
I don’t think I have ever used that word once in all my 70 years, and now I hear it all day by world leaders from Biden to Johnson to Macron and others.
Churchill, who understood the danger of appeasement, must be turning in his grave, which is precisely where the brave Jewish Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, will be re-located shortly, if this human tragedy continues to play out on the world stage.
All the once perceived mighty mechanisms conceived to prevent this tragic trajectory – the UN and NATO – are little more than anachronistic acronyms in stopping this daily carnage.
BREAKING NEWS
Horrific was the juxtaposition of two items of Breaking News last night – 9 March.
Like millions of others, I was battling to process a report of Russian forces having bombed a maternity and children’s hospital in the beleaguered port of Mariupol in southern Ukraine with pictures of a bleeding pregnant mother been rescued on a stretcher with the shelled hospital in the background.
How do you listen without tearing up when you hear the appeal from President Zelensky in his bunker calling for NATO to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine with these words:
“Children are under the wreckage. This is an atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice by ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity,”
All in vain. Maybe more effective might be the “No-Fry Zone” imposed by MacDonalds that are closing all its outlets in Russia.
POLES APART
With a world finding no traction to President Zelensky’s appeal for declaring a ‘no fly zone’ over Ukraine – not even a partial one for humanitarian purposes – the next item of Breaking News was the US dismissal of a Polish plan to provide fighter jets to be sent to Ukraine. The reasoning was, “Okay, if we can’t actively participate ourselves, we can at least send planes to the Ukrainians for them to defend themselves. We are already sending some defensive armaments, why not include planes?”
Oh no!
As reported in The Guardian,:
“Pentagon says plan for Poles to give Soviet-era jets to US ‘not tenable’”
Unable to effectively defend themselves, the Ukrainian people are now expected to die in slow motion before the eyes of the world, because to support them would be perceived by Mr. Putin as “ESCALOTORY”.
Its amazing how words – even a single word – can kill!
The man in Moscow is holding the gun to the world’s head; except this proverbial gun is a nuclear button!
Now that we understand the price we are forced to pay, including our own moral degradation when leaders with evil intent have nuclear weapons, can the world seriously continue with the dangerously absurd JCPOA and STOP Iran’s nuclear programme? Having imposed the severest of sanctions on Russia, is the world so crazy as to lift sanctions on a potentially nuclear Iran that strives for the destruction of the state of Israel!
Will the Jewish state of tomorrow, be like the Ukraine of today – EXPENDABLE?
The Putins and mad mullahs of the world cannot be appeased. They will not stop; they need to be stopped.
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From the time the Biden Administration was empowered, America was doomed. Many strange phenomena have arisen. Who ever could have envisaged the House including radical Islamist’s and Marxists as members. Even more that they would dominate policy. And then there are the billionaires who made their money from capitalism now seeking socialism or a derivative of communism. And now, we are told tat placing “foreign boots on the ground”, the only way to end Puten’s destruction is forbidden .Innocent civilians, children and women are having their lives mutilated because of the belief that interference would bring about WW3 without any concrete argument for this belief. I witnessed a youngster crying as he was struggling to walk in an effort to leave Ukraine.
Thanks for your outstanding exposure.