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by Dave Morgan
, Featured Contributor,
December 28, 2023
Slava Ukraini! “Victory to Ukraine” is critical and matters to all of us.
For sure, you read less of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine these days. Our press cycles, and our
news’ attention, is tuned for the “latest thing,” and Ukraine hasn’t been that since Hamas’ atrocities on innocent civilians in Gaza on Oct. 7, and the focus on domestic
issues in the U.S., with partisan divisions in Washington and early candidate and court skirmishes in advance of next year’s Presidential election.
Those same “what have you done
lately” attention cycles had many of us expecting a quick Ukraine victory — in weeks or months — after it launched a counteroffensive this past summer. Forget that a nation with
barely 30 million people within its currently controlled borders was trying to repel the world’s second most powerful military. Innumerable, military-fluent talking heads on TV were telling us
that Crimea could be back in Ukraine’s hands by Christmas.
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Now is our time to confront reality, a reality that the Ukrainian people have known for a long time: This war will not end
quickly.
The Russians won’t be evicted from Ukraine until they have wasted the lives of hundreds of thousands more young Russian conscripts in their horrific human wave attacks, and, in
their terrorist-like attacks, killed or injured hundreds of thousands more Ukrainians, especially civilians.
Just this week, Russian fired barrages of missiles at the Kherson train station,
where 140 civilians were waiting to board a special evacuation train to help them escape a day-long barrage of Russian artillery and missiles on the city’s civilian infrastructure, designed to
destroy its power grid and capacity to provide heat for homes this winter.
This is not just a winnable war for Ukraine. This is a war that WILL be won by Ukraine and its allies, and the sooner
the U.S. recommits its full economic and military support for Ukraine, the sooner the war will be won, the fewer soldiers and innocent civilians will die, and the less likely that the U.S. and the
world’s economies will be dragged down by the conflict.
Remember: Russia, China, Iran and North Korea don’t need Russia to win the war. All they need is for the Ukrainian victory
to take a long time to happen.
What do they worry about? That the U.S. recommits its full economic and military support for Ukraine immediately.
So far, for just $75 billion in
military aid (5% of the U.S. military budget), we have already helped destroy 50% of Russia’s total pre-war capabilities in soldiers, officers, aircraft, tanks, missiles, ammunition, etc. -- a
goal we had been spending trillions of dollars over the past decades to achieve. As the late Margaret Thatcher would have reminded us, this is not the time to get “wobbly.”
And this
is the greatest military investment bargain the U.S. has ever made. A large portion of U.S. military aid has been weapons systems from old stockpiles, like 30+-year-old, already obsolete Bradley
fighting vehicles and Abrams tanks. We have helped destroy one-half of Russia’s military without putting any U.S. service members' lives on the line. It is brave Ukrainians who are dying, not
Americans.
If the U.S. doesn’t recommence its aid in a full-scale way, some of what will happen over the next decade is quite predictable.
Russia axis grows. Russia,
China, Iran and North Korea will be emboldened, and we will see more incursions and interventions from these countries with more audacity and less restraint. The Balkans, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia
and Nordics will face aggression. China will tighten its noose on Taiwan, the Philippines and others in Asia. Iran will continue to foment terrorism and genocide, just it as has recently in Syria,
Iraq and Gaza. North Korea will continue to harass South Korea and Japan with nuclear weapons and the rest of the world with its ransomware and cyberattacks.
Fence-sitters choose the other
side. India and others on the geopolitical fence, which include most of Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, will hedge their bets, move away from the U.S. economic sphere
and buy fewer goods and services from the U.S. We will lose the world’s growth markets.
The U.S. economy goes backwards. The U.S. is making great strides to rebuild its economy
for a digital age, with global manufacturing and supply chains and with less dependency on goods from China and energy from the Middle East. Continuing on this path will mean job growth in the U.S,
particularly,in areas like next generation on-share manufacturing, which is so critical for the U.S. economy and work force long-term. Take away growth markets and you take away U.S. economic
growth.
Bad will triumph over good. Supporting Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression and genocide (don’t forget that Russia has already forcibly taken more than 20,000
Ukrainian children to be “adopted” re-educated in Russia) isn’t just the smart thing to do, it is the right thing to do.
What can you do to help? First, care. Second, act.
Third, don’t stop caring and acting.
Care and act by speaking up: to your friends, colleagues, acquaintances, social media circles. Don’t let the news cycle pass Ukraine by.
Care and act by showing your support: put the Ukrainian colors on your home, apartment, workplace, clothing, wrists. Everyone needs to know, particularly those in Ukraine, that the support is still
there and unwavering.
Care and act by demanding action from your elected officials. All politics is local. We have big elections this coming year. Make sure that your politicians (all of them)
know that you are watching them on this issue. If they fence-sit or choose partisan bickering, or pretend that Ukraine doesn’t matter to U.S. ideals and jobs, let them know that you’ll
help vote them out.
Slava Ukraini! Please care. Please act.