After four weeks of watching the Russian invasion of Ukraine go sideways and after Putin has decimated whole Ukrainian cities, my worst fears are coming into focus, as I had predicted all along: The West is standing on the sidelines wringing their hands. To be sure, America, NATO, the EU, and other Allied nations have been levying the harshest sanctions ever seen on Russia. Indeed, they are sending in weaponry to help support Ukraine’s defense. All of this is true enough, but given what everyone — except Russians — sees on TV or on a laptop, it’s become evident that the West is perfectly willing to sit on the sidelines wringing their hands. Entire cities are being razed, and the most the West can do is watch and admonish Putin. We are precisely in the pusillanimous position I knew the West would eventually settle into; I just f***ing knew it. As I have said many times before, Putin invaded primarily because he thought the West would let him get away with taking Ukraine, and, at this point, there has not been enough pushback from the West to convince him otherwise. While the war seems not to have progressed as initially envisioned, Putin is adjusting. I think he believes that if he can’t have Ukraine, then no one can, so he’s willing to lay waste to the entire country, and the West will let him do it because the West is f***ing weak. Now is the time if there is ever a reason for the West to step out of their NATO boundaries. Putin will never learn until the West punches back, but dare I say they never will. Oh, well. And we wonder why authoritarian nations are on the ascent in the world.
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