George Will’s incoherent defense of the Ukraine war

I began reading George Will's columns back in the 1960s when I was in junior high school. My parents subscribed to Newsweek magazine, and every week, I would turn to the issue's last page to read George Will's commentary. His well-reasoned defense of conservative principles and use of historical references to buttress his arguments impressed me.

That was 50 years ago, but Mr. Will is still a powerful and persuasive political commentator. I was disheartened, however, by Will's recent column in support of American involvement in the Ukraine war.

Mr. Will’s arguments were based on two false premises. First, he said that Russia's war is an attempt to annihilate Ukraine. I don't think that's accurate. Russia's initial assault was a drive toward Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Putin may have thought his invasion would topple the Ukrainian government and bring Ukraine back into the orbit of Russian power.

However, it's evident that Russia is fighting a defensive war in Ukraine, and its territorial goals are modest. First, Russia is holding on to the Donbas, where Russian separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian army for seven years.

In addition, Russia is firmly entrenched in Crimea, where it has long maintained a substantial naval base. Surely everyone realizes that Russia has a legitimate strategic interest in the Black Sea and that its ability to protect it would be severely crippled if Russia lost Crimea.

Will's main argument for supporting the Ukraine war is the claim that the U.S. promotes Ukrainian nationalism and the concept of nationalism as a vibrant political idea. Will writes:

 Cosmopolitanism has its virtues. But so does nationalism Because the nation-state is essential for protecting self-government, and pride in one’s cultural inheritance impedes the blandness of cultural homogenization.

Mr. Will is wrong to say that American involvement in the Ukraine war is motivated by a desire to promote nationalism. On the contrary, President Biden's administration is pursuing a globalist agenda that seems intent on weakening the United States on the world stage and dismantling America's traditional national values, such as patriotism, the nuclear family, and self-reliance.

Moreover, Will's journalistic home, the Washington Post, and all the legacy media are globalists--not nationalists.  Like the Biden administration, the mainstream media seems intent on stamping out America's national and cultural identity. Indeed, patriotism is seldom mentioned by the progressive elites, and the patriotic impulse has been redefined as "Christian nationalism" or "white nationalism"--code words for fascism.

As I read George Will’s defense of America's Ukraine policy, I sensed his heart wasn't in it. Unlike most of his prose, this particular essay is incoherent and unpersuasive. Perhaps on an unconscious level, Will knows that the Ukraine adventure weakens the United States as a world power and that the prime beneficiary of this disaster is the defense industry.

America's Ukraine project is going to blow up in our faces. And when the autopsy is complete on the disaster that befell Ukraine, the fingerprints of the nation’s political and intellectual elites will be all over the body. 

Mr. Will has a fine mind and a keen sense of decency. He should think of his reputation before allowing himself to be branded as an apologist for the Ukraine disaster.

Europeans die while Americans get rich off the Ukraine war: Is this a great country or what?

 Bruce Catton, the great chronicler of the Civil War, began one of his books with a quote from a chaplain in the Union Army who was struck by the fact that the war was devastating the South while bringing prosperity to the North.

“What a marvel is here!” wrote the chaplain. “Something new under the sun! A nation, from internal resources alone, carrying on for over eighteen months the most gigantic war of modern times, ever increasing in its magnitude, yet all this while growing richer and more prosperous!”

Americans should likewise be astonished. The United States is funding an all-out war with Russia, a conflict that has left a half million Russians and Ukrainians either dead or wounded. And yet Americans are prospering under Bidenomics. It’s an economic miracle! And all this new wealth has been conjured up by President Joe Biden, a demented criminal!

Unfortunately, America's growing wealth hasn't been distributed equitably. I, for example, haven't made a dime off the Ukrainian ruckus in spite of the fact that I'm a registered Democrat. 

The defense contractors, however, are making out like bandits.  Rob Rooke, writing for a socialist online publication, points out that a third of the Defense budget goes to just five corporations: Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin. Undoubtedly, the Ukraine war has sent a lot of business their way.

Europeans are noticing that Americans are profiting from the Ukraine war while Europe suffers. As one senior European official put it: 

The fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the U.S. because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons. (As reported in The Economic Times)

 Is the defense industry sheepish or embarrassed about the money it's making off the war between Russia and Ukraine? Not at all. The Ukrainian embassy in DC recently hosted a reception celebrating the 31st anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian military. 

Who sponsored this gala event? The American defense industry! The logos of these four defense contractors appeared on the friggin’ invitation: Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Pratt & Whitney, and Lockheed Martin (as reported by Jonathan Guyer in Vox).

The defense industry and its lobbyists are significant contributors to our nation's elected politicians. Perhaps this explains why most of them support the Ukraine war--both Democrats and Republicans. 

I'm all in favor of people making money. After all, that's what this nation's all about. Nevertheless, I oppose American involvement in the senseless Ukraine war. Can't America's business sector make an honest buck that doesn't involve the slaughter or dismemberment of thousands of Europeans?

Photo credt: Vox

The Ukraine war. Do Americans know what's really going on?

The man who reads nothing at all," Thomas Jefferson observed,  "is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."

Jefferson's observation was accurate when he wrote it, and it's even more true today. I am interested in the war in Ukraine and try to learn more about it by reading online news stories.

As I skim through the online newspaper reports, it seems like they're all written by the same person. Day after day, I read stories about Russian rockets and drones that injure Ukrainian civilians. According to the news stories, few civilians are killed by these attacks, and most Russian missiles are shot down. The overall message of these newspaper accounts seems to be that the Russian attacks are a sign of Russian brutality but are no more than a nuisance for the civilian population. I'm skeptical.

Today, I read that Ukrainians have introduced amissile with a range of 400 miles. Did the Ukrainians invent this new menace on their own? Again, I'm skeptical. Surely, most of these innovations were developed with American assistance.

Almost daily, the legacy media refers to Russia's "illegal” occupation of Crimea. Illegal in what sense? After all, the Crimeans voted on annexation and overwhelmingly said they wanted to be part of Russia. It's possible that the voting was rigged by the Putin government and that the people living in Crimea don't want to be part of Russia.

Again, I'm skeptical. Crimea has been part of Russia since at least the 18th century. Americans have no interest in history, but they should do a little reading on the Crimean War (1853-1856).

Russia had an important naval base in Crimea in 2014 when the region was annexed. It seems reasonable that the Russians were concerned about the security of that base when Ukraine made a radical shift toward aligning with the West after the Maidan uprising.

I am no apologist for Russian imperialism, but the United States should not be promoting a war in Eastern Europe without a clear sense of what that war is about. I'm beginning to think the US has bullied its way into a conflict that is none of our damn business.

The Ukrainian War isn’t a trivial event.  According to the New York Times, nearly a half million soldiers have been killed or wounded over the past 18 months. The Times estimates that 70,000 Ukrainian troops have lost their lives. An independent military analyst thinks the number is more than five times that number. Who knows?

One thing is certain. The war between Russia and Ukraine has wrecked Ukraine. Millions of refugees have fled the country. Millions more have been displaced from their homes. Ukraine is a significant source of the world's food supply, and its ability to raise and export grain has been severely hampered.

Americans seem indifferent to the fact that our country is prosecuting a proxy war against a nuclear power. We apparently think we can get away with this reckless behavior and that there are no consequences for our participation in the slaughter.

I don't think so.

A Half Million Ukrainian War Casualties and 6 Million Refugees: What’s the Point?

 During the First World War, it was said that the British military maintained three sets of casualty lists. One version was kept to hoodwink the public. A second set was maintained to dupe the British War Office. And the third set was kept to deceive itself.

According to the New York Times, nearly half a million troops have been killed or wounded over the last 18 months of Ukraine's war with Russia. The Times calculates that 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and another 180,000 wounded. Russian military casualties are even higher: 120,000 deaths and 180,000 injured.

Of course, these numbers are only estimates. Neither Russia nor Ukraine have revealed their casualty lists. These tallies don't include civilian casualties, which must be severe given the routine bombing of Ukrainian towns and villages by the Russians.

As the Times put it, the toll of dead and wounded is “staggering.” To put it in perspective, about 58,000 American soldiers died during the Vietnam War, a conflict that stretched over ten years. Ukraine, a country with a much smaller population, lost 70,000 soldiers in only 18 months.

Then there are the refugees. Around 8 million Ukrainians have fled the country, and another 5 million have been displaced but still live in Ukraine.

Most Americans feel no moral responsibility for this catastrophe, even though American weapons and money have significantly contributed to the carnage. College students, by the millions, protested the war in Vietnam, but today's young students have more refined moral sensibilities. They can be whipped into a frenzy if a conservative judge gives a speech on a college campus. They don't give a shit about the Ukrainians.

And consider this. The New York Times may have miscalculated the death toll from the Ukrainian war. Douglas Macgregor. a retired U.S. Army officer, believes 400,000 Ukrainians have been killed during the war—more than five times the number reported by the Times.

America's legacy media report that Ukraine is winning this war, but that's untrue. Ukraine will never recover Crimea or the Donbas, no matter how many Ukrainians are killed or maimed in this senseless war with Russia. And make no mistake. The Russians will find a way to make America pay for provoking this pointless conflict.

Georgia Indicts Trump: The Democratic Party’s Operation Barbarossa

In the spring of 1940, Adolf Hitler was in the catbird seat. Nazi Germany had conquered almost all of Europe. France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Norway were under the Nazi heel. Fascist Italy was Germany's ally, and Vichy France actively collaborated with the Nazis.

What more could an ambitious dictator want? Still, Hitler wasn't satisfied. In June 1941, he launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia.  German troops attacked along an 1800-mile front and captured thousands of square miles of Russian territory. At first, all went well, and the Russians retreated eastward across the steppes and waited for winter.

Then, the Russians counterattacked and drove the Germans all the way back to the cratered streets of Berlin. Millions of people died as a result of Hitler's hubris. And, as we all know, Germany lost the Second World War.

Over the last few months, federal and state prosecutors have indicted Donald Trump, accusing him of election interference and racketeering. Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis filed the latest indictment in a Georgia state court.

I believe the Georgia indictment is the Democratic Party's Operation Barbarossa. Launched with glee and a bully's swagger, this misadventure will only strengthen Donald Trump. The Democrats believe that Trump's legal problems will neutralize him as a political threat. However, persecution has only increased Trump's popularity. He will almost certainly be the Republican Party’s nominee for the presidency next year.

If the Democrats had played by the rules of decency and fair play, Donald Trump would have faded into oblivion like Ross Perot or William Jennings Bryan. Unfortunately, the Democrats made him a martyr.

A lot can change before election night in November of next year. Nevertheless, it appears today that Americans will be forced to choose between President Biden, a demented crook, or Trump to be the next president of the United States. The Democratic Party will be surprised by how people vote when faced with this choice.

The Dems have sown the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind.

The Georgia Indictment of Donald Trump: The Dems' Operation Barbarossa

Where did Fani Willis go to law school?

 Fani Willis, a Georgia attorney general, filed criminal charges against former President Donald Trump a few days ago. Although the complaint has some bells and whistles, she's essentially charging Trump with challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The last time I checked, the First Amendment guarantees the right of all Americans to state their opinion on political matters. Certainly, it protects a political candidate's right to challenge the results of an election.

And this gives rise to the question: Where did Ms. Willis go to law school?

She graduated from Emory School of Law. Did Emory stop offering courses on constitutional rights?

However, Willis's outrageous conduct can't be explained by the law school she attended. Jack Smith and Alvin Bragg are prosecuting Trump in different venues. And they both got their law degrees from Harvard. Indeed when we examine the credentials of all the attorneys who have contributed to the foul stew of persecution and malicious behavior toward President Trump, we see that many graduated from elite law schools.

I'm no fan of Donald Trump, and I fervently hope he is not the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election. Nevertheless, it appears more and more likely that he will win the nomination. And surely everyone of sound mind knows that the US Supreme Court will not allow the state of Georgia to imprison a former president or a sitting president on such specious charges as Miss Willis has concocted.

Indeed, the Georgia case against the former president will undoubtedly be removed to federal court. If the case gets assigned to a federal judge who has read the Constitution, most, if not all, of the baloney in Willis's charging documents will be tossed out of court.

A character in one of Cormac McCarthy's novels said that evil has no Plan B because it cannot contemplate the possibility of failure. The Democratic Party is behind all this nonsense against President Trump, and prosecuting him has only made him stronger. 

It needs a plan B but doesn't have one. It needs a plan for removing President Biden and Vice President Harris from office and replacing them with candidates who can win the next presidential election.

Instead, the Democratic Party is playing with fire on both the national and international stage. The world is watching this insanity. The world knows President Joe Biden is a crime boss with dementia. The world knows the United States backed the loser in Russia's war against Ukraine. The world knows that the Biden administration is writing checks on an overdrawn bank account.

Reality will show up in the next few months when the economy collapses, bringing all this craziness to a halt. Many innocent people will suffer before this nation's affairs are straightened out. I fervently hope that the people who suffer most will be the people who created this mess. Curiously, many of these ninnies graduated from the nation's top law schools.

Are we having fun yet? The Ukraine war intensifies, and Americans are enthralled by Barbie

Ukraine’s war with Russia has dragged on for 18 months and shows no signs of ending. It's like The Walking Dead series; it ran on and on long after its audience became bored. General Milley warned Americans that the war would be a long one; perhaps the only honest thing he's said about it.

The mainstream media casts this war as a barbaric act of Russian aggression. However, pro-war columnists neglect to mention that the United States provoked this war when it helped overthrow Ukraine’s democratically elected pro-Russian president in 2014. American meddling alarmed the Russians, and they quickly seized Crimea, where a substantial Russian naval base is located.

Pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists, aided by the Russian government, have been fighting the Ukrainian army in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine since 2014--resulting in a stalemate. Then in February 2021, President Vladimir Putin decided he's had enough and ordered the Russian army to invade Ukraine. 

So far, the Ukrainians have held their own, aided mightily by high-tech weapons and money donated by the NATO countries and the United States. The US alone has invested $100 billion in the Ukrainian Project.

Ukraine launched its highly publicized counteroffensive against the Russians in the late spring of this year. It is now August, and it is clear that the Ukrainian counterattack has failed.

Now Ukraine seeks to heat up this war against Russia by other means. Earlier this year, the Ukrainians launched missile attacks against the city of Moscow. They also attacked the Kerch Bridge, a critical land link between Crimea and the Russian motherland.

Russia retaliated by canceling the grain agreement that allowed Ukrainian wheat to be exported by sea. Russia also began bombing Odessa and other important grain ports on the Danube River.

Now the war has spread to the Black Sea. Ukrainians have attacked at least three Russian military vessels and one civilian ship. Russia promised to retaliate and began intensifying its aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities.

Perhaps Americans should be grateful that the Ukrainian counteroffensive failed. Some military analysts believe a successful counterattack might provoke the Russians to use tactical nuclear weapons.

Biden apparently believes attacks on Russian shipping, the Russian heartland, and the city of Moscow will force the Russians to abandon the war. If so, he is delusional. The Russians will never surrender Crimea or the Donbas.

American foreign policy is directed by nincompoops. Our NATO allies are beginning to realize they were snookered when they agreed to back Biden’s foolish war in Ukraine.

No one can predict the event that would prompt the Russians to use tactical nuclear weapons, but we may soon find out. President Biden seems determined to drive Russia to the breaking point.

The United States is courting mortal danger by meddling in Eastern European geopolitics, and the mainstream media is complicit in this insane behavior. Meanwhile, Americans are mesmerized by the new Barbie movie, a fantasy flick for people living in Fantasy Land.

Psst: Have you seen the new Barbie movie?