Whenever I have opined against the American intervention in Ukraine which I have opposed from the start, someone will tweet back at me something to the effect of, “We have to defend democracy” or calling me a Russian stooge. As hostility is where an incompetent goes to argue because he has nothing else, I don’t care. That said, I thought as we sit on the brink of nuclear war, Africa is sliding into its worst famine in modern times and perhaps ever, Europe is in a panicked frenzy buying up LNG as fast as they can to try and avoid an awful and cold winter ahead, China’s collapse is accelerating, and inflation continues unabated and perhaps accelerating, I would review where we would be had we followed my advice. All of what I just listed are the unintended side effects of this idiotic policy. So what if we had done nothing?
I postulate these to be the benefits of doing nothing:
Russia would likely have taken Kiev and the war ended in a week or two. Thousands now dead would still be alive.
Ukraine’s ports and infrastructure would be largely unharmed and operating normally.
The fall harvest would be now shipping to Africa and Europe primarily.
The shipments of natural nitrogen fertiliser would have been exported as usual, famine in Africa averted.
Natural gas supplies to Europe would remain uninterrupted and Nordstream 2 would be complete and operational as well as Nordstream 1 would not have been sabotaged.
Billions of dollars we are creating out of thin air would not have been injected into an already inflating world economy.
Look at this list and feel free to opine if you think any of it is incorrect. Here is my conclusion in summary of where we would be had we used an ounce of sense and stayed out of this border conflict between first cousins: The coming economic collapse would have been mitigated but not prevented. Nuclear war would be off the table. The world would be warmer, more prosperous, and peaceful. Ukraine would likely have a puppet government installed and once again a part of the Russian Empire as it has been for the past 400 years except the brief period of 2014 to date of independence. They would remain as the most corrupt western nation and life would go on.
I just cannot see why we did this. This is one of the most stupid and poorly thought out decisions in the history of American policy and that’s saying a lot. Even in Vietnam, we had some strategic interest as well as obligation to our French allies to intervene originally. In Ukraine, what was our reason? To protect democracy? Um, we are a republic to be clear, or were. Today we are the global hegemon, an empire in all but name. This was not the intention of our founders and for good reason. The path of history when a republic becomes an empire, as did Rome, is decline into decadence and ultimately annihilation.
We are on the same path.
Just saying.
It's such blatant pro-Putin propaganda to label Russia's Ukrainian invasion as "a border conflict between first cousins." It's actually an unprovoked invasion of a free, independent democracy by a dictatorship run by an evil dictator who is intent on seizing land and expanding his global influence. It is no surprise that people call you a Russian stooge when you try to frame the war as that. It makes me wonder if your essays come pre-written, emailed from a Eastern European internet domain.