War is Hell but Bullies Don’t Understand Pacifism
War IS hell but bullies don’t understand anything but force.
When I was a kid in school, which for many might seem like a long, long time ago, there were bullies. Fighting wasn’t allowed in school even then, but bullies didn’t understand that, either. Maybe they didn’t think of it as fighting when they picked on other kids. Or maybe they didn’t think of potential consequences. Or maybe they just saw kids that didn’t fight back as weaklings to be exploited for their enjoyment.
A Bully Understands One Thing…
Though there were consequences for anyone who was willing to stand up to a bully even then, everybody knew that there wasn’t any other cure for a bully. He wasn’t afraid of the rules. The threat of the strap didn’t deter him (maybe, sadly, he was beaten all the time at home).
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There was only one way to deal with a bully. The person being bullied had to stand up to him and knock him flat. Clean his clock. Rearrange his face… the kids had all manner of imaginative description for it, but the main point was and still is, if you don’t stand up to a bully and knock him flat, he won’t quit. Period. That is a fact as old as time, all the way back to when Cain the bully killed his kid brother.
But I digress. We were talking about war. But then, I really haven’t gone off topic.
Putin
You see, Vladimir Putin is a bully. Maybe he got knocked around when he was a kid. He is pretty short. But then again, maybe he was just born with a mean streak. That happens. It normally doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but when you are as brilliant and ruthless as Mr. Putin, who was able to rise to the top in the Soviet KGB, you are a very powerful man and if a bully, a very, very dangerous bully.
For whatever reason, Vladimir Putin is the classic bully. He has unabating visions of his own grandeur. He doesn’t care who he hurts as long as he achieves his own ends, and woe betide anyone foolish enough to get into his way. He certainly would make his Lenin namesake proud!
Bullies pick fights they’re sure they can win
Today we are watching with horror as the Russian military at Mr. Putin’s command trashes a peaceful country. They are not fighting battle-hardened soldiers in the mud and in the trenches as the war movies and old news reels depict, but they are standing well back and lobbing bombs from afar into civilian neighborhoods with the sole intent of hurting the people enough that THEY will beg their soldiers to stop repelling the invaders.
The West – NATO – stands wringing our collective hands, afraid to put tentative foot on the ground in Ukraine, lest we trigger the Moscow Monster even more and – horror of horrors – he gets mad at us and lobs a missile our way.
The Repetitive Cycle of History
In our multiple thousands of years of “civilization,” as we like to call it, we still have not learned that the only way to stop a bully from bullying is to stand up to him. Mr. Putin is not going to stop because we’re playing nice and not standing up to him.
Western powers will protest, “But if we stand up to this bully, it will set off World War III!”
It’s Already Too Late
My opinion is that there is probably much more than a 90% chance that has already happened. It is the sad reality of history that denying reality doesn’t change reality.
Then they will protest, “But if we stand up to this bully, Mr. Putin, he will fire nuclear warheads at us!” I think the chance of that happening is down around 50% or less.
Nevertheless, it is a genuine concern, as he has lots of them, and he has declared his willingness to use them – something like the school bully who says, “Give me your lunch or I will give you a knuckle sandwich!” In such a case, you can give him your sandwich and maybe avoid meeting his fist. But tomorrow, the same thing will happen. A bully is never satisfied. As long as he keeps getting his way, he wants more.
The World Hasn’t Learned
The world sat by and let Mr. Putin take the Crimea, much as they let Adolf Hitler take Austria. “After all,” they reasoned, “they are the same people. And Mr. Putin will leave us alone.” Look back in history to see how well that worked out in the 1930s!
Now Mr. Putin has declared he’s only interested in the Donbass region of Ukraine. But he continues to fire rockets and missiles into Kyiv, Kharkiv, and elsewhere in Ukraine, indiscriminately killing civilians. His own general has said they intend to take Moldova. He most certainly intends to take all of Ukraine. War is hell, but Vladimir Putin glorifies war. (Watch for him to finally declare war on Ukraine as part of Russia’s May 9 celebrations.)
Once he has Ukraine, if he is allowed to take Ukraine, he will without question attack Poland. He intends to revive the entire USSR as the new glorious Russian empire. But that will not be enough. He will continue, if allowed to get that far, even looking across the oceans to the Americas. If he is allowed to continue, he will have deep ocean ports on both sides of the European continent, literally within visual distance of the American continent!
Talking is a Sign of Weakness to a Bully
Talking does nothing to deter a bully, and this has been underscored as the Russian aggression continues in Ukraine. Mr. Putin does not fear talk – no matter where it comes from. Just a few days ago, a UN delegation very publicly visited Kyiv in Ukraine. But while they were there, Putin’s forces fired missiles into the city. UN chief Antonio Guterres was shocked that Russia would do such a thing – he is the head of the UN, after all, to which Russia is a member state. He rightly believes that war is hell and sternly declared in Kyiv that war has no place in the 21st century.
But Mr. Putin doesn’t care. “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” seems to be his schoolboy mentality. And as a bully, he won’t stop until he is stopped. War is hell. But Putin doesn’t care. He doesn’t care what the world thinks of him. He has no intention of stopping short of his Napoleonic goals.
The One Thing that Stops a Bully
In truth, sadly for the world, there is only one thing that ever stops a bully – force. Unless Russia is met with a overwhelming force, Mr. Putin will not stop. He is a bully, who, like Napoleon, wants to be emperor of the world.
The choice the Western world needs to make, right now, is how far we will let Russia expand its aggression until it’s knocking at our front door, nukes and all. Or keep playing nice, meekly protesting the international laws they keep breaking, hoping Mr. Putin will eventually see how nice we are and want to be nice, himself.
My bet is he won’t. War IS hell. But sometimes in this life we must walk through the hell of war with boldness and determination, so that our children get another crack at peace.
What do you think? Please tell us in the comments!
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