Ukraine Always Get What You Want

The convoy, stretching some 40 miles, has moved little over the past day as the Russian forces have grappled with fuel and food shortages, a U.S. defense official told reporters, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/03/01/ukraine-convoy-stalled-heavy-fighting/

 

sacrificing for their beliefs and standing up to trudeau's tyranny

 

And good for you, because it is a huge deal. I'm lampooning -- and will continue to lampoon -- a particular ... ahem ... perspective re: degree completion that pops up 'round here from time to time.

 

Yeah, they don't have a code.

 

Second cousin to Harvey the Rabbit.

 

I know and I join you in the eye roll. I was just mentioning as an aside. At the time I really could have done ok without that last class. So this clutching of pearls over some but not complete college is a little funny.

 

It’s about to get a lot more bloody.

 

I had the bright idea of trying to make a go of it in journalism without a degree, and fact is, no one took me seriously. I’m sure that had nothing to do with my hijinks at 19.

I went back and I still don’t know how I got that piece of paper. But I have it, even if the major itself is as useless as a wet cardboard box.

 

I posted this over on the Biden thread, following up on Biden's State of the Union address, but am copying it to here, as well, because it might be better suited for this thread:

Was I the only one who actually teared up a little bit when President Biden spoke to the Ukraine ambassador, and about Ukraine? I'd bet not.

Those were by far the most successful, affecting, and clearly bipartisan parts of the speech. And Biden should have built on them by speaking about them even more.

It's what is top of people's minds right now, and, kind of poignantly, I think, Ukraine's plight has spoken to Americans, has concerned them, and frankly, has unified them more than anything else in years. Biden should have used that, and spoken to it more than he did.

I mean, I get why he didn't, and maybe that's exactly my issue. But what I heard was how he, the U.S. and other NATO countries will deploy troops to and protect and defend "every inch" of NATO interests in the event that such efforts are needed, and all I could think was, "OK, but what about Ukraine?"

In the past week, this is a country, a people and a president that has moved and inspired us, reflected us and the democratic ideals of NATO, I think, and reminded us again about what we've always said we represented at our best. And yet, Biden again made it seem that under no circumstances, and no matter what happens, the U.S. will not go there to provide any manpower or more direct military support to Ukraine's cause -- that weapons provisions, economic sanctions and, essentially, moral support, is the best we can do. Or, the best we're going to do, anyway.

In saying that, it feels to me like we're abandoning Ukraine to its fate -- a disastrous end to it, and this war -- and we shouldn't do that. It feels just like throwing money at something but never touching it, even if the principles involved are exactly the ones you say all the time that you believe in, support, celebrate, and would protect for yourself if you had to. It sounds like we're saying, "We stand with Ukraine," but won't really stand up for it.

I read something the other day about how Ukraine should be invited to join NATO, that it has earned it, and I agree.

Then, would Biden/the U.S. step in in a faster, more direct, and more meaningful way? It certainly sounded like it.

So, where does that leave Ukraine? And why is it being left there? Something feels just...not right about this. Like we're just going to let something bad happen to Ukraine that should not.

 

You can read, yes? I asked the question first and got a logical explanation right away.

 

Lord knows I don't take anyone seriously until they've dropped out of several top-5 MFA programs.

 

General Hertling had your answer a couple pages ago: