Ukraine Dilemma

In unconscionable hypocrisy, the administration’s intense, main, hour-by-hour focus lately is on the Ukraine-Russia border crisis, rather than on our own southern border which, from all reports, seems to be effectively wide open.  Reportedly, some 2-million illegals crossed it last year, not including the who-knows-how-many made it into our country illegally without being stopped, and accounted for, by our heroic Border Patrol officers who face an impossible task, 24/7, thanks to apparent total lack of effective concern by the Biden team.  More than lack of concern, it’s an open invitation to enter illegally.  There might as well be flashing signs posted around the world: “The U.S. is Open. Come on in. It’s all Free,” as illegal immigrants, now from all over the world, the poor, the criminals (beyond their illegal entry status), potential terrorists, all without vaccination and identity vetting, especially for those who slip past Border Patrol encounters.

So, while we endure a future, very likely, to be one of negative domestic social, security, health, and economic national impact, being carried out purposely to pack the future voting rolls for Democrats, at the literal expense of traditional, nation-loving Americans, so as to cover up these mass incursions and other domestic and foreign policy mis-steps, the full attention of the administration (and media dance partners) seems to be centered on Eastern Europe. Now, with the very real potential, we’re told by the national media, of sending American military men and women into potential actual combat with Russian troops, at enormous cost in human suffering and lives lost.  And the bottom-line question remains: Do we have a legitimate reason for being involved in this pending foreign conflict, which does not directly impact America’s freedom or security, but seems to be functioning more as a political smokescreen hiding substantial serious domestic issues from badly needed solutions?

Beyond our border mega-crisis, other domestic issues, like crime, seems to have exploded within major cities these days, yet again.  Principal causes: Defunding police, leaving departments now short-handed due to officer departures; little apparent desire to keep those charged with serious crimes in jail, as a result of too many Progressive-backed D.A.’s; all of which seems to be leading to persons charged with crime being treated more as the ‘victim,’ somehow, rather than perpetrator; and overall within these crime-heightened metro areas, we too often find passive, Progressive-influenced (financially-backed?) Democrat administrations.  Connected to, and a direct result of, all of that, along with a disturbing societal-erosion of respect for authority, comes an alarming rise in the number of law enforcement officers shot in the line-of-duty.  In 2021, ambush-like attacks rose 115% over the previous year. Regrettably, 346 officers were shot in 2021, with 63 of them killed by that gunfire. The state with the highest number of on-duty police shootings was Texas (43), while Georgia ranked 4th with 19 police officer shootings.  And the gun-initiated attacks on our police sadly continue.

Beyond crime directly, but connected to it, is the alarming rise in American deaths from illegal opioids, and in particular, fentanyl.  Worse yet is who’s now considered to be the apparent major source…China…reportedly, ”the primary country of origin for illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States.”  The reason fentanyl is so dangerous is that “it’s up to 100 times stronger than morphine and some 50 times stronger than heroin.”  Now, here’s the stunner about the fentanyl impact story, clearly a pretty-much hidden national crisis: “Among 18-to-45-year-olds, fentanyl overdoses are now the #1 cause of death in the United States.”  Yet another significant downside to our apparent lack of sufficient control of our border(s), especially our southern one, of course, and our current camouflaging obsession with the Russia-Ukraine potential war scenario.

Still other problems facing Americans at home: inflation (in 2021, up 5.8%, the worst up-tick in 39-years); supple-chain disruptions, leading to depleted goods on store shelves (with prices, of course, rising); the COVID pandemic, with the frustration of mixed administration messages on vaccine effectiveness and mask-or-no-mask, etc.; labor shortages (despite rising wages), related to both employee outages due to the virus spread and over-extended government payments to individuals temping some to forgo work; and election voting integrity, with the most recent attempt at federal over-reach, in the form of a blatant Congressional take-over of state voting rules & procedures measure, thankfully defeated, thanks to two courageous Democrat Senators, who voted to maintain the historic filibuster rule. All of a sudden, with all of these close-to-home issues plaguing our nation and families, climate change doesn’t seem to be so important (only so when it needs to be spotlighted again, and repeatedly, for political gain and issue distraction, as needed).

With all of the currently over-shadowed domestic issues (and others) reviewed, back, now, to the major international issue (beside China, and those North Korean missile launches!):  Possible war in Ukraine.  Interestingly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated publicly that Russia “doesn’t want war.” However, he then went on the state: “But we also won’t allow our interests to be rudely trampled, to be ignored.” Seemingly agreeing with Lavrov, two days later, the head of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said: “At this time, they’re (Western nations) saying that Russia threatens Ukraine – that’s completely ridiculous.  We don’t want war and we don’t need it at all.”  That said, bearing in mind that Russia reportedly has over 100,000 of its troops spread around the Ukraine border, at least one prominent Russian lawmaker is urging civilians residing in the Russian-dominated region of Donbas (Ukraine) “to join up with the Russian military.”  Important to recall that Russia invaded parts of the region back in 2014, annexing some territory, which resulted in scattered armed skirmishes, between pro-Russians (“separatists”) and the Ukraine army, continuing to the present.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed frustration with Mr. Biden and other world leaders, or at least the subsequent media reports, which were saying that war with Russia is imminent.  Responded Zelensky: “We need to stabilize the economy of our country because of these signals which say that tomorrow there will be war.  This means panic on the market, panic in the financial sector,” claiming that such panic-creating war hype has already cost Ukraine almost $440-million in foreign investment.  President Zelensky is working to calm the rhetoric, calm the world, and especially to calm his own nation.

An actual Russian military invasion may, in fact, not be as imminent as the U.S. and others are predicting.  And we, here, can certainly hope that is true and that a permanent way out of this pending crisis can be found.  We now know that nothing invasion-wise is likely to happen within the next couple of weeks.  And that’s because Russian security officials have agreed to meet with their French and German counterparts (notably not to include America!) in Berlin in two-weeks. Apparently, back in 2015, the then-Russian offensive into Ukraine ceased with the signing of something called the “Minsk-2” agreement.  Little discussed since, there is a feeling among some that it allegedly gave Russia “a significant say in Ukraine’s future,” and as such might just give Mr. Putin “a face-saving way to de-escalate,” without resorting to the feared armed combat which no one within the rational world wants to see happen.  In addition to discussions with French and German officials, talks are said to be continuing between Russia and Ukraine over the possible implementing of that 2015 Minsk-2 agreement.  Let’s all hope that something short of war can be worked out in the coming days.  As one commentator concluded in a more positive vein: “The Russian authorities need to show their own people the appearance of a victory.  Look, they want to be able to say, NATO, U.S. and Ukraine got scared and retreated.  Our task is done, the enemy is fleeing, and the peace-loving Russians can withdraw our troops from the border. For that propaganda, Russia needs on the part of NATO and the U.S. at least a tiny concession or a semblance of such.”

Speaking of possible war involving Russia, what no one wants to remember or even think about is that Russia (like far too many other enemy nations) has nuclear weapons!  Writer Peggy Noonan reminded us of that in her week-end WSJ column: “We don’t worry enough about nuclear weapons.  We have lost our preoccupation with them.  Which is funny because such weapons are in more hands now than every before.  We’re used to being lucky.  Luck is a bad thing to get used to.”

Short of actual combat, Russia could “invade” Ukraine by means of cyber-attacks, internal sabotage, or both.  Meanwhile, in the midst of Western media war hype, the Ukrainians themselves are reportedly more worried about the price of natural gas and the possible decline in the overall worth of their money.  From President Zelensky on down to civilians in the streets of Kyiv (Ukraine capital city), the concern more than immediate war seemed to center on the ‘panic’ caused by perhaps the intemperate words of at least one world leader, and the resulting impact on the nation’s economy.

One important thing to keep in mind beyond the U.S. administration’s presumed official thinking, military planning, and public pronouncements is the attitude of the American public regarding all of this Ukraine-war-with-Russia talk and headlines.  According to the respected Rasmussen Reports survey of likely voters (conducted between January 24-25, 2022),  only 31% say “the U.S. should defend Ukraine with combat troops.”  Survey question #2 asked respondent to rate President Biden’s handling of the situation between Ukraine and Russia.  Sixty-two-percent (62%) rated his handling as “fair to poor.”  The American public decidedly does not want to see American troops involved in Ukraine combat and they don’t feel like the president is handling this conflict well.  On this particular subject, at least, the American public is very definitely not behind our nation’s leadership.  Hopefully, this will have a positive, restrained, influence on our future direction in this conflict.  And even more so, we must all hope that the Russia-Ukraine stand-off and threat can somehow be settled peacefully, without the need for U.S. armed intervention.  That latter scenario (i.e., foreign combat) is destined to not end well for everyone involved. Understatement of the week.

 

(Line of duty officer shootings stats via foxnews.com, Audrey Conklin, 1-27-22; China and fentanyl quotes/data via The Epoch Times, John Mac Ghlionn, 1-12-22; Russia’s Sergey Lavrov quotes via foxnews.com, Greg Norman, 1-28-22; Patrushev quote via nypost.com, Mark Moore, 1-30-22; Zelensky quote/data via breitbart.com, Frances Martel, 1-28-22; Minsk-2 discussion quotes/data via The Wall Street Journal, Yaroslav Trofimov, 1-28-22; Noonan quote via The Wall Street Journal, 1-29-22; What needs to happen top prevent war quote via americanthinker.com, Jacob Fraden, 1-28-22; Rasmussen survey results via newsmax.com, Theodore Bunker, 1-26-22).