We have seen evil this past month. We experienced evil each day of this past month. Evil is what Russia is doing to Ukraine. Evil is what the leader of Russia is ordering his armed forces to do to innocent people. The personification of evil is Putin, the President of Russia.
Russia, for no reasonable reason, invaded a free and independent nation. It claimed that all of Ukraine was really part of Russia, full of Nazis, and not really an independent country. This is the second time Russia invaded Ukraine in recent years. In 2014 it invaded and annexed Crimea, claiming that it was part of Russia. We stood by and let it happen. This time we galvanized democracies around the world and especially in Europe to oppose the Russian efforts. This really is a fight between autocracy and democracy.
After WWII the nations of the world agreed not to invade each other. Some of those mighty proclamations were on signed treaties and others were “gentlemen’s agreements.” The new world order made it unacceptable for one country to invade another.
Last month, however, overnight, Russia challenged and changed the world order that had been in place for over 80 years, four generations.
Ukraine did not join NATO after the breakup of the Soviet Union as so many other Soviet Republics had done. Those who joined wanted protection from possible Russian invasion. As everyone knows by now, Article #5 of NATO’s charter states that if one nation is invaded, it is an attack on all thirty member states. NATO invoked Article #5 once, on September 11, 2001.
The atrocities are unacceptable, of course. Cities have been wiped off the face of the map. Millions of people were forced to flee their homes, families separated and exiled to other countries around the world. War crimes are in evidence across the country. The Geneva Conventions are treaties that relate to the treatment of “hors de combat,” people incapable of fighting: civilians, POWs.
Thomas Friedman, a NYT columnist, points out that Putin had no idea that his war would be a war watched in real-time by the rest of the world, with the exception of most of Russia itself. Elon Musk moved some of his “X” satellites over to Ukraine to help sustain the internet and cell phone capabilities of the nation. The smartphone enables us to see hospitals that have been bombed, a war crime, schools that have been bombed, a war crime, fleeing civilians who have been gunned down, a war crime; villages of people shot on sight on the streets, a war crime. President Biden has called for a war crimes trial for Putin.
The democracies of the world, fearing an actual war with Russia, are using economic sanctions in an effort to destabilize their economy. The results are mixed because some countries in Europe are unwilling to stop using Russian primary trading commodities, oil, and gas. If they did it would cripple the big bear. Meanwhile, billions of dollars of munitions are pouring into Ukraine and being put to good use as they push back and regain the land. The only good news is that the Russian ground forces are less capable than expected.
If Russia is allowed to get away with the invasion of a free country, and the changing of the world order, it will give a green light to those who want to destroy liberal governance and democracy. It will give credence to those in the U.S. who want to destroy the democratic ideals of our experiment in self-government by the people, those who want to limit the diversity of the nation, and those who want to suppress the right to vote.
Even as we see the results of the Russian barbarism exploding across the Ukraine cities and villages, we still have powerful talking heads on cable TV extolling the virtues of Russia, of Putin, and the downsides of the invaded nation. These same people constantly call for the diminution of the free state.
If Russia succeeds, European democracy will be put to the test and American democracy already balancing on the edge of failure might be pushed over the side. Russia cannot be allowed to win, and when she loses she must be punished.
