What Bank Robbery and the Russo-Ukraine War Share in Common
A post where I try to simplify and clarify what I believe.
I'm getting a goodly amount of pushback on my posts about support for Ukraine. I've been called a lefty, a coward, a traitor and a Putin lover.
Seems clear I'm not doing a good job explaining my conundrum with the Russo-Ukraine War.
Maybe this will be clearer.
We Southerners make our points with analogies and stories, so bear with me here.
Five guys decide to rob a bank. All five plan, prepare, and secure the tools they need, but one is designated the wheel man because he is the best driver. He won't go into the bank, but he will be responsible for getting the other four away fast and clean.
The day comes and the robbery is executed.
They make a clean getaway, and a few days after they meet up to split the proceeds of the crime. The four who went into the bank decide they deserve a bigger share because they went directly into danger to do the deed, so instead of giving the driver his twenty percent, they give him 10%, and each take 22.5%.
No doubt the driver is pissed, so he squeals to the coppers. He needed that extra money, his mother is in the hospital and the bills are mounting. The only reason he got involved was to help his mom.
Eventually, the other four get caught.
The four were convicted if a felony for bank robbery.
But the driver didn't get off clean - he plead out to a lesser charge but still got jail time.
Do you think the driver should have gotten off clean because he helped catch the other four? Should he get to keep his share of the money? Should he be excused because his motive was pure?
You probably think, as I do, the driver deserves some leniency - but he still did the crime of which he was accused.
I doubt anyone would think anyone is innocent in this situation.
I guess what I am saying is that everybody has dirt on their shoes, only to different degrees.
OK, that is what we all would expect to happen, right? Justice is served because all that were involved were caught and punished appropriately.
Now imagine the judge and jury systems where this took place were totally corrupt, incompetent, ignorant of the law, and instead of passing sentences according to the facts and the law, they dither around and can't make a decision. In the interim, they let the five perpetrators out without bail - and of course, they all disappear.
Not the first time this judiciary and prosecutors have done this, so now that other criminals know they are going to get let go, a rash of bank robberies ensue with the same result. The police are frustrated but they still do their job to catch them, and they get released.
Of course, in my analogy Russia is the robbers and Ukraine is the getaway driver.
Which brings me to my conundrum.
Should we help Ukraine?
Sure. Absolutely. The humanitarian disaster must be stopped. The war crimes of shelling and bombing civilian targets in an unprovoked war cannot stand. Get the Ukrainians the MIG-29's Poland wants them to have and tell Putin to F-off.
How we do it is the question. Since Obama and Biden have given up our leadership, credibility and trust, a lot of options we had under Trump are now gone.
Should we get into a shooting war with another nuclear power?
Not with our current leadership. Not by a mile.
I guess my reluctance to jump in with both feet is tainted by what Biden and his military "leadership" did in Afghanistan. Afghanistan could have been mitigated by admitting a mistake and sending troops over there to de-militarize our equipment and get our people out - instead, these idiots chose to brag about what a great job they did running away.
That demoralized Americans and has had the effect of emboldening our enemies.
That is what is playing out here.
Mark Levin, on his show this weekend, pointed to a Tablet article titled "Ten Questions for Natan Sharansky", in which Sharansky, legendary Soviet political prisoner and Israeli government minister, noted:
"Russia is not the strongest country and Putin is not the strongest leader in the world. In fact, Russia today is something like 3% of the world economy and NATO represents something closer to 50%. And here it is very important to understand Putin’s psychology. From my time among criminals in prison, I know very well that the one who’s the ringleader in the cell is not the one who is physically strongest, but the one who is ready to use his knife. Everybody has a knife, but not everybody is prepared to use it. Putin believes that he is willing to use his knife and the West isn’t, that the West can only talk, even if it is physically stronger."
That's some straight up truth right there.
Putin just doesn’t believe we are willing to use the knife.
And he may be right.
The leadership of the Western world showed what total pussies they were during the pandemic, being willing to use tactics against their own people we would have only expected from Russia and China. America showed it total weakness through the Afghanistan debacle, that this is true is supported by the fact that some world leaders won't even take Biden's calls, even when they know he is begging.
Donald Rumsfeld said, "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
That may be true for an army, but you can't go to war with a bunch of cowardly, incompetent idiots in charge, people whose decisions are based on myth and fantasy.
Remember we would be going to war with the same morons who embarrassed America with the Afghanistan debacle. To go to war now means you are comfortable that Biden, Harris, Lloyd Austin, Mark Milley, Jake Sherman and Tony Blinken can manage a war.
I'm not.
I’m done supporting a fight just because Lindsey Graham and the neocons want one.
Hopefully that makes it a bit clearer.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/five-questions-for-natan-sharansky