The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Listen to the Experts!

Posted on | February 27, 2022 | Comments Off on Listen to the Experts!

Far be it from me to say that Lyle Goldstein’s analysis is wrong.

Indeed, the possibility that Ukraine could become the site of an Iraq/Afghanistan-style “insurgency” does seem unlikely. But things that seem unlikely happen all the time, and we cannot rule anything out, just because the odds are daunting. Putin is rattling his nuclear saber now, and there is talk of negotiations, but the ground combat situation in Ukraine is still confused. Four days into the Russian invasion — it’s about 10 p.m. Sunday in Ukraine as I write this — Ukrainian resistance is still fierce and effective, and the Russians have failed to take Kyiv. On the other hand, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, the city is now “encircled” by Russian forces — i.e., the invaders control all the routes into the city. Kyiv is now besieged, in other words, and such affairs do not usually end well for the defenders. Western talk of sending military aid to Ukraine is thus rather belated, if there is no feasible way to deliver these materials to the Ukrainians now holed up in their capital.

We know that the Biden administration had intelligence warning of a Russian invasion weeks or months in advance, and the question is, what did the administration do about that warning, besides beg China to intercede with Putin? The Biden administration has made America helpless to deter aggression; the Afghanistan debacle demonstrated that we can’t even protect our own interests. What help can we offer Ukraine?

“Thoughts and prayers” — it’s all we’ve got left.

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Category: Joe Biden, Russia, Ukraine

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