Why My Writing On the Ukraine War Stinks. A Defense.
My wife complained that my last story on the Ukraine war made no sense. It was all over the place, didn’t have a coherent point. I feel her pain, and those of my readers.
There is NO simple reason for the “special military operation”. There isn’t even three main reasons. There are dozens upon dozens of reasons. The complexity explains why the conflict has gone through many phases without resolution. No one wants this war. And no one knows where to begin to end it.
For me, there is no “Topic Sentence #1. Conclusion #2”, as one person commented. I search my thoughts but I can’t find them, ideas that always take precedence over others! I envy people who can order everything and never question that order.
Another found my writing “chatty”. If you know you’re not so smart — as I know that about myself — I try to be friendly and joke around. Why don’t people smarter than me get that to begin with?
You may wonder, if the Ukraine war is too complicated, why bother? You don’t have any say. I don’t. Let the people who deal with this stuff deal with it. That’s okay.
I don’t believe everyone must educate themselves about the conflict. What ruffled my feathers is suggesting incoherent writing, or thinking, can be avoided. I’m not a strong writer, to be sure. Yet I feel the bigger problem my wife, and others have with what I write, is the complex nature of the situation.
There’s nothing more complex in life than the emotions and political reasoning that leads to wars and keeps them going.
All writing is simplification. The deeper one looks, the harder that simplification. Perhaps that’s just an excuse.
If you believe it’s simple, Putin and the Russians are evil child-killers (a view I partially share) then what should we do about such killers? What should have happened in Ulvade? If the point of that piece didn’t come across I’ll simplify. You kill a dog with rabies. You bring overwhelming force to kill a mad-man shooting up people at a farmer’s market.
Sending Ukraine weapons, without the people trained to use them, is the same as fielding a police force that stands around a school building while someone with a gun is shooting people inside — children no less. That was the main point of my last story (if there was one).
Yes? No?
The war may end in a simple way, with the Russian military disbanding and Putin getting poisoned. But all the problems that lead to it will remain and continue causing death and destruction, but in different forms.
To drive that point home, imagine if the United States Federal government completely fell apart. Do you believe each State would say “let’s start a new Federal government and we’ll cede to them the same power as last time.” Makes me laugh thinking about it.
If the United States can barely keep everyone under the same roof then who are we to say to Russia that Liberal Democracy is easy! Indeed, we lecture Russia that it should become more democratic while our government becomes more like Putin’s regime, authoritarian!
I believe the U.S. has made mistakes that lead up to the war and continues to make mistakes.
And it’s hard to argue the gravity of mistakes if I, or you, can’t organize the issues into their respective importance #1, #2, #3…etc.
My feelings (not favorable) toward Putin and his regime are no secret. Yet here are some Sergei Lavrov quotes I wouldn’t argue with:
I don’t believe in ideology in international relations
Every country has its political face and political traditions
The Americans have taken the course of confrontation and do not assess their own steps critically at all.
So the first thing anyone needs to understand is that Russia has not been bent on conquering the world. It doesn’t have slavery. There are Jews living peacefully in Russia. Blacks. Asians. Most of the Russians who have recently left, to avoid getting drafted, seem like they want to go back. For many Russians Putin is NOT Russia. And Russia is NOT Putin.
Just because many in the West like to say that doesn’t make it true.
The problem of sorting through the issues are hard enough! Add to that, the media (both right and left) twisting the story to sell more pickup trucks or EVs.
Who was complaining about Russian imperialism before the invasion? Sure, Russia was roughing up Syria, Georgia and Ukraine. Did the West seem to care? Only enough to slap some sanctions on Russia and get back to business.
I believe most would agree that Russia invaded Ukraine because it wanted to replace Ukraine’s government with one more aligned to Russian interests. On March 12th, 2021 Should Biden Call Putin I go over Russia’s stated issues. For starters…
Article 1: the parties should not strengthen their security at the expense of Russia’s security;
Our own President expected Ukraine to fall if invaded. We can’t forget this. We BLUFFED Putin.
Although most people, like me, didn’t believe Russia would invade. It was a surprise, not a shock. Russia had expelled various Western media outlets like DW, before the invasion. Russia spent months massing troops on the border — sending a CLEAR message. The media likes to focus on the fact that Putin lied about invading, instead of fact that the West had every opportunity to do more to take that message seriously.
If the West knew for sure Putin would invade they would have done things differently. For starters, I believe Europe would have, in no uncertain terms, told the U.S. to stay out of Ukraine in every manner, shape and form.
And don’t forget Hunter Biden! Although his past involvement in Ukraine is immaterial to the war, he’s Exhibit A in how corrupt U.S. politicians are when it comes to Ukraine. The very man who provoked Russia while Vice President is now the President. How does one unpack that?
Shouldn’t Putin or his cronies have their sons “consulting” in Ukraine about its oil? It’s their neighbor, not ours. Biden should have told Burisma, in no uncertain terms, that hiring Hunter Biden would make their access to the U.S. government worse.
How is the guy who was part of the problem now leading the solution? You think I’m a nut?
Is Russia a super-power? I don’t believe it is anymore (part of problem that has no easy solution for anyone). Anyway, it’s what the U.S. has been telling me my whole life so I have to take Russia’s super-power interests seriously. Among many other problems, this is one of the most persistent and critical omissions by Western media.
Super-powers are the last ones who will entertain negotiations —at least about their bad behavior.
Russia felt threatened and attacked. Again, I think it was a stupid move, but calling Russia stupid doesn’t fix anything.
A fact the general media ignores is that people outside America do not see much of a difference between what the U.S. does in South America and what Russia does to its southern neighbors.
Although I believe the U.S. should do more militarily to push Russia out of Ukraine my justification, that democracy must be protected, is hard to defend when I look at our relationship to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But I’ll still make it.
And I must accept the criticism of those who lean more towards Russia’s position.
Americans need to understand Russia is only doing what we’re privately thinking, “might makes right”. At least that was Russia’s plan at the beginning. It’s what we did in Iraq.
Russia experienced many failures in the first 6 months of the war. Since then, it has been more of a stalemate, though many argue one is doing better than the other. The simple fact is that as long Russia controls 20% of Ukraine it’s hard to argue Russia is losing.
There are only two solutions to the war. The first is for the West to mass the largest military force the world has ever seen on the Polish border and tell Russia it must leave Ukraine, or suffer the consequences, as we did to Saddam Hussain.
The second is to find a compromise at the United Nations where people aren’t allowed to walk out on whoever speaks, no matter what they say or what is happening on the battlefield.
There is no real discussion about doing either of those things. That is what I pressed my wife on. What is her solution? She had none. Therefore, the war will continue until everything works out in whatever way it will.
For Americans to assume that will work out the best for them is deeply naïve.
Geopolitics matter because only with stable nation-states is there peace and prosperity. Russia feels insecure. They’re hardly alone. There are growing insecurities in the world. Indeed, I’d say we have a pandemic global insecurity. We, the United States, can’t just say, everyone, just deal with it.
I didn’t accomplish what I set out to in this story. If anything, I proved once again the observations of those who find fault in my writing. Once again, I went all over the place.
Oh well.
