Accounting to the Atlantic Council, “[T]he United States, Europe, and their global partners should add to the impressive array of sanctions against Russia. Their impact thus far, according to the Council’s Brian O’Toole and Daniel Fried, ‘has been to flatten the Russian financial system, crash the ruble, spur a likely sovereign default, and probably move the Russian economy into a depression.’ Yet as Putin’s forces continue their attack, O’Toole and Fried provide a menu (in ascending order of impact) of potential next steps: expanding the sanctions against Putin’s cronies and subordinates; extending sanctions on more banks and key companies (they suggest Gazprombank, Russian Agricultural Bank, AlfaBank, Sovcomflot, Russian Railways, and the diamond company Alrosa); and blocking the Russian government by sanctioning all Russia-state-owned companies. And if all else fails, enacting a full financial embargo that would ban all transactions, exports, and imports with Russia. What’s not in doubt is that Putin will continue to escalate if more isn’t done to stop him. … Putin has lost: He will never be able to entirely pacify and occupy Ukraine, and he has done generational damage to the Russia whose power and prestige he was once determined to build. However, his opponents have not won: Saving Ukraine, and sustaining their newfound common cause, is the key to shaping the global future. What has been accomplished against Putin thus far is remarkable, but it is still insufficient [emphasis added].”
To be sure, the West’s response to Putin’s war has surprised everyone — most of all Putin. I, too, had believed that the West was (still is to a degree) too weak to stand up to authoritarian regimes after years of appeasing the aggression of Putin and other dictatorial governments. Even in America, the rise and sustained love-affair with authoritarian rulers — traitor trump — certainly does not assuage my agita that Americans are one election away from reversing everything Biden and the West are achieving to counter Russia in Ukraine. Recall, traitor trump and the RepubliKKKlan are openly hostile to Ukraine. As the Washington Post reported in 2016, “The Trump campaign worked behind the scenes last week to make sure the new Republican platform won’t call for giving weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian and rebel forces, contradicting the view of almost all Republican foreign policy leaders in Washington.” Today, this is still part of the official RepubliKKKlan platform: Don’t help Ukraine! Pay no attention to what RepubliKKKlans say or do in their criticism of Biden’s handling of Ukraine. Do not pay attention when RepubliKKKlans vote in favor of aid for Ukraine. They are all hypocrites, and when traitor trump returns to the White House, Ukraine will be readily delivered to Russia with a bow on it while all RepubliKKKlans will sign the “Welcome Back, Russia. We Missed You!” card. Actually, the true state of RepubliKKKlan beliefs regarding Ukraine resides in what Marjorie Taylor Greene says and does; she is the authentic barometer of RepubliKKKlan, MAGA moron, evil evangelical, and QAnon kook sentiment on Ukraine.
All that being said, the West must do more for Ukraine. The authors of the article I quoted above were absolutely correct; although Russia is losing the fight as the situation stands now, it does not mean Ukraine and the West are winning. I hope the West truly understands the gravity of this moment. Not only must they do more to support Ukraine, but they must realize they have to do more to counter the threat of Putin. Forcing a Russian withdrawal from Ukraine is not enough and it absolutely must not be the end game! Hell! F****ing! No! It is only the first step. Unfortunately, this is where the weakness of the West and liberal democracies cripple the world: Democratic nations fail to kick dictators while they’re down. The West should be willing to beat the sh*t out of Putin. Full stop! But, no. I have no doubt that if Putin comes to his senses — however unlikely — and decides to negotiate a peace settlement, then the West will do everything it can to help Putin back up and try to convince him to return to the world order as a “good” global citizen, reflecting, once again, a profound inability of the West to learn from even the most immediate history. Putin must be removed from power. Anything short of that is failing to do enough! Sadly, the West always falls short of doing the right thing — completely!