Stay Calm America; Don't Make Decisions Based on Emotion
From Tom Nichols at the Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/stay-calm-and-dont-advocate-war-against-putin/624169/
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In my rage, I want someone somewhere to do something. I have taught military and national-security affairs for more than a quarter century, and I know what will happen when a 40-mile column of men and weapons encircles a city of outgunned defenders. I want all the might of the civilized world—a world of which Putin is no longer a part—to obliterate the invading forces and save the people of Ukraine.
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And yet, I still counsel caution and restraint, a position I know many Americans find impossible to understand. Every measure of our outrage is natural, as are the calls for action. But emotions should never dictate policy. As President Joe Biden emphasized in his State of the Union address, we must do all we can to aid the Ukrainian resistance and to fortify NATO, but we cannot become involved in military operations in Ukraine. ...
...Also, let’s remember that America is, in fact, taking action to help Ukraine and oppose Russia. Western sanctions will not save Kyiv or other Ukrainian cities tomorrow, but they are crippling the Russian economy and undermining Putin’s ability both politically and materially to seek a larger war. We are working with the rest of the world to get military assistance to the Ukrainians, who will be fighting a resistance for as long as the Russians are in their country.
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one more reason not to let our emotions get the better of us is that the only way Putin can save himself from his own fiasco is to bait the West into an attack. Nothing would help him more, at home or abroad, than if the United States or any other NATO country were to enter direct hostilities with Russian forces. Putin would then use the conflict to rally his people and threaten conventional and nuclear attacks against NATO. He would become a hero at home, and Ukraine would be forgotten.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Not Stay Calm DU. But you seem to take it personally so maybe that's why some advice from a longtime expert is a mental block. If you can't listen to that because people on DU attacked you, then you're just proving the point. I didn't like the earlier thread that took people who have expressed frustration or advancing different takes than theirs. But saying that and the many other things I've posted about understanding the desire of people to discuss things doesn't matter to you. So I'll stop even trying.
I could give you a long list of bad policies done at the behest of a public outcry. The list is long and includes many different topics as anyone who understands history knows. But you've shown you're not open to anything but airing grievances against others in a thread where it doesn't belong.
It doesn't help. The guilt and shame I am going to feel if the worst happens in Ukraine are not going to go away, no matter what the truth and justifications are for our calling the line where we do. At this point the truth feels like empty platitudes.
