A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

I've already given the example of how the justice was maintained in Soviet prisons. If two inmates didn't like each other much and quarreled all the time, they usually were given the knives and offered to settle their matter permanently. Please, note that the weapons given to the opponents were equal!!


The collective West (the USA and EU) are not yet giving Ukraine the weapons it needs (airpower, self-propelled artillery, long range precision fires and main battle tanks) in needed quantities, but to really equalize the chances of the opponents the West would have to give Ukraine nuclear weapons. I don't know how much time it may take and whether this is technically possible, but it would be surely fair.

Most likely Mr. Putin would not attack Ukraine in February if the US, as a signatory of the Budapest Memorandum, had taken this step in autumn 2021. There would not have been thousands of killed and maimed Ukrainians and Russians, Bucha massacre and tragedy of Mariupol, millions of Ukrainian refugees, the threat of famine for many countries, high gas and gasoline prices in the world...

A stitch in time can really save nine, but the one needs to have understanding and a will to make this stitch in proper time. Sadly, the West lacks both. And yet democracy is mostly about talking, not acting.


The collective West cannot help Ukraine to resolutely win the war simply by virtue of its democratic organization. Democrats have to discuss everything first which is obviously correct, but not in wartime. They should have done that (and act!) before. So there is too much talks about “saving Putin’s face” and in general about the war in Ukraine, which lead to belated half-actions. Authoritarian states (Russia, China) are simply much quicker in making the decisions and implementing them, which is critical during wartime.

Besides, the West plays by the rules, while Mr. Putin does not. Many luxury yachts and other assets of Russian oligarchs have been arrested all over the world - well, do something with them, sell the yachts at auctions, for example, and give the money to Ukraine. No, not yet. It is necessary to observe democratic procedures and to protect the sacred right of private property. The fact that Mr. Putin and his oligarchs regularly turn Russian state property into their own private property (this is called corruption, which the West has been fighting desperately) is not taken into account as well as the fact, that Mr. Putin is now seizing Ukrainian private (and state) property. The Russians make war according to the principle "all means are good now": nuclear, gas, food blackmailing, and simply the blatant lie of Russian Foreign Minister S. Lavrov, who claims that Ukraine is hitting its own people with American missiles.

Yes, I understand the West cannot act like Mr. Putin... Yes, principles are important ... But Ukrainians are the ones, who are dying now for the Western principles, which they share, not Germans and Frenchmen...


Ukraine is also hindered much by the need to follow the democratic procedures in wartime. The country is not a "democracy" as many people believe, but a “hybrid regime” #86 according to the Democracy Index. Why does Ukraine (and any other state) need the parliament in time of war? During wartime the entire country must fulfill the orders of the commander-in-chief, i.e. act rather than speak, then it can win. No army in the world is organized according to democratic principles. Therefore, President Zelenskiy has to carry out the right actions the country needs by long democratic methods. For example, in March 2022 National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine very correctly (but purely undemocratically) has banned 11 opposition parties in Ukraine which frankly had to be done long before from my subjective point of view. Then in June, 2022 the Ukrainian Eighth Administrative Court of Appeal has satisfied the corresponding claim of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

Democracy is a special delicate instrument and it is good in times of peace. In wartime democracy is harmful.


The EU heavyweights (Germany, France) are reluctant to transfer necessary heavy weapons to Ukraine and advocate for the restoration of peace at any cost. Even the US, according to the former US ambassador in Ukraine J. E. Herbst is “still under the illusion that it can achieve its objectives by slow half-steps—fooling itself that permitting Moscow to deter the United States from taking more resolute steps is actually the prudent policy of avoiding … a third world war.”

It reminds me the story of a man who took pity on his dog and docked its tail off by pieces. If the collective West has decided to take the side of Ukraine it would be better to “cut off Putin's tail” at once. It is better for Russia, too, not to mention Ukraine and the West itself.
……….

The collective West still tries to understand a “mystifying Russian soul” and is not really at war with Putin, but Mr. Putin personally has been at war with the West for a long time. He has said many times that Russians fight just with the West in Ukraine. The West has been long indirectly involved in war with Russia (I think at least from Mr. Putin’s “Munich speech” in 2007) without realizing it.

Now the "peace-loving" Russia has unleashed a full-scale war against Ukraine under the far-fetched pretext of "denazification" and "demilitarization" of the neighboring country. What prevents the tolerant West from calling things by their proper names? I wonder what else Putin has to do to get Russia recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism.

So the West is forced to participate in more direct way - by providing Ukraine with arms and money, not realizing again that it will remain the Putin’s enemy until Mr. Putin’s physical or political death (or the collapse of the West).

Unfortunately, while dealing with Putin, the collective West proceeds from the false democratic premise that it is always possible to agree everything, because "we are different, but we all have common values.” No, the intelligent and tolerant West has nothing in common with the bandit mentality of most Russians. It is impossible to come to an agreement with bandits. They must first be beaten, disarmed and then judged, if the West is so fond of defending human rights.


The collective West does not yet realize that it has now a unique chance to defeat Mr. Putin on the battlefield by the hands of Ukrainian soldiers and to break up aggressive Russia maybe forever just by giving money and ANY weapons Ukraine needs. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia understand that very well, but they don't weigh much in the EU. NATO (one more impotent organization with huge budget) will not interfere, although it could, if the collective West is so much concerned about the value of every human life, and here the question is about the right to life of the entire Ukrainian nation.

Yes, there is a 50% chance of Russian tactical nuclear strike against Ukraine or even some NATO country. Ukrainians are too angry with Russians to be afraid of this possibility. The democratic West, on the contrary, seems to be afraid very much. The voters who survive that strike won't forgive.

In my opinion, it is time for the West to realize that a horrible end is better than the endless horror of coexisting with Russia. A leopard cannot change its spots. It is very much likely that the small countries of the EU (and NATO) will still have to go to war with the Russia, only later, after Putin's "war and peace” in Ukraine. Therefore, the EU and NATO are better off risking their lives for their principles a little now than being engaged in a full-scale war a few years later in the event of Putin's success (or freezing the conflict) in Ukraine.


Ukraine would already have been occupied without Western aid so it is up to the collective West to decide whether it wants the Ukrainians and Russians keep killing each other with available weapons for some time or to end the war more quickly (and Putin's lie and blackmailing, too) by finally giving to Ukraine the weapons it asks. In particular, HIMARS systems and missiles to them with a combat range of about 300 km. In the meantime, the US officials say that this will not happen because Mr. Biden doesn’t want to provoke Mr. Putin to start World War 3.


P.S. It turns out that the prison customs in the USSR were more fair than the current democratic rules in the West.



P.P.S. Dear Reader! I am very much interested in your opinion on the subject of this article. Please, write a comment or ask a question if you want to clarify something.
Yours,
Igor Chykalov