Fools Rush In

While it is difficult to grasp all that’s going on in our world today, there is this certainty: there’s a lot of evil going on.

I can’t even summarize well. But here’s the bare bones outline:

Putin threatened for a long time and finally invaded its neighbor Ukraine. Putin is not part of Western Civilization; we should not expect him to think the way we do.

map found here

Ukraine is one of the top ten most corrupt countries in the world. I don’t know if that includes their current elected leader, who was an entertainer, not a politician, and whose election seemed to surprise everyone. Is he part of the corruption, a puppet of it, or a hindrance to it? I don’t know. But he does seem to be inspiring his people to stand stronger than expected.

Our current president is deeply involved in Ukraine’s corruption (remember this); that should be considered in evaluating anything he or his administration says on the subject.

Putin may be an evil power monger, but he is also against the worldwide Great Reset cabal; he’s an interference in someone’s programs, and having an excuse to get rid of him might be part of their planning.

Parts of Ukraine are ethnically Russian. It appears the people in that region would like some level of independence or representation. I’m picturing as Quebec in Canada, or as any one of the United States. It does not follow that those people would prefer being under Putin’s dictatorial regime, simply because Putin is Russian.

It appears to me that neither Ukrainians nor Russians—the people, not the governments—want war. They are the ones suffering for decisions of leaders they cannot control.

Back in 2014, Russia invaded Crimea, without consequence. Those who allowed him to do that are the very ones saying how wrong he is to do this.

image found here

Our country’s leaders just very recently botched our exit from Afghanistan, for no reason beyond either their foolishness or their purposeful effort to weaken America and strengthen those who hate us. There are still abandoned Americans there. Such leaders should not be given any support in sending our troops and treasure to a far-off nation that is not a direct danger to us.

However, our country set up Ukraine for this situation. As J. D. Vance pointed out,

Our leaders foolishly pressured Ukraine to give up their nuclear arsenal in the 1990s, which stripped them of their leverage to deter an eventual Russian invasion. These supposed “experts” wrongly predicted that these moves would deter Russia instead of provoking them; on this, as with so much else, they were catastrophically wrong.

Putin cannot be threatened by a possible acceptance into NATO of Ukraine. NATO is strictly defensive, so it is no threat to him—unless he is on offense. Allowing Ukraine into NATO only binds us, the major component of NATO, to step in militarily, rather than helping in less kinetic ways.

US oil independence was a deterrent to Russia. We had that—until Biden got in, shut down the Keystone Pipeline, meanwhile greenlighting Russia’s Nord Stream 2 oil pipeline to Europe, and quickly made the US oil dependent again. Purposefully.

Meanwhile our own southern border is kept open, with record numbers of illegal aliens flooding in. We cannot seriously consider sending troops across the world to defend someone else’s border when we do not defend our own.

All of this is to say, I am only in the beginning stages of learning about this situation, and I have not reached any personal conclusion about how the Ukrainian people should be helped. They should be helped. Let us—our churches, our nonprofits, whatever resources we have—find ways to help the beleaguered people who are suffering.

image found here

But our nation’s resources and resolve are and must be limited while we have the current regime in power. Calls from either Democrats or Republicans (and both are calling) to rush in militarily are premature at best, and possibly intended to further weaken America.

Below I have collected some of the voices I’ve been reading and hearing—very little of any sort of mainstream news, which I have learned I cannot trust to tell the truth about anything, let alone something so momentous. I’m finding more and will continue. But these below I have found useful in gaining information, history, and perspective.

 

Written Resources

·         “J. D. Vance Issues Statement on Russia Invasion of Ukraine” full statement, February 24, 2022. 

·         “An Unserious People Confront a Serious Man” Erick Erickson column, February 24, 2022. 

·         “Ukraine: Putin's Misadventure Unites the West” Larry Elder column, March 2, 2022. 

·         “The War in Ukraine” Glenn Greenwald, February 24, 2022. 

 

Video Resources

·         “Ep. 102: Russia Invades Ukraine? Canada Off the Rails! Olympics & MORE!” Viva & Barnes livestream, February 27, 2022. 

·         “Ukraine: Why It Happened and Why It Matters |Dr. Kori Schake” We Hold These Truths podcast, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, March 1, 2022. 

·         “The ACTUAL State of Our Union: Wars & Rumors of Wars... | Glenn TV | Ep 175” Glenn Beck Special on The Blaze, March 2, 2022. 

·         “Is Putin Dying?” Mr. Reagan podcast, March 1, 2022. 

·         “Russia, Ukraine, and the West | Frederick Kagan| The JBP Podcast | #230” Jordan Peterson interviews Frederick Kagan on the Jordan Peterson podcast, February 28, 2022. 

·         “How Israel is THREATENED by Russia's Ukraine Invasion | Watchman Newscast” Erick Stakelbeck on The Watchman podcast, March 1, 2022. 

·         “What you don't know about the war in Ukraine” сФилином (translates from Russian as “with Owl”) podcast, February 25, 2022.  

·         “Ukraine-Russia PROPAGANDA Revealed in MEDIA as WHITE HOUSE Prepares for SOTU” Robert Gouveia podcast, February 28, 2022. 

·         “Putin's mind, is he mad?” Dr. John Campbell podcast, with Vlad Vexler, February 28, 2022. 

·         “Vladimir Putin: Body Language Reveals REAL Anger to Ukraine and USA” The Behavior Panel podcast, March 2, 2022. 

·         “Victor Davis Hanson | War in Ukraine” John Anderson podcast, March 2, 2022.