"We cannot let this happen. If we believe that Ukraine will one day become a member of the European Union and NATO, then we should be ready to arm it. We must face the fact that the costs of unlimited European Union and NATO expansion have meant war with Russia by proxy — and then fight the war. Having reignited the hottest moments of the Cold War, we must deal with the consequences of encouraging democratization in Eastern Europe.
"This logic demands that we send Western military advisers to Kiev, and give the Ukrainians full intelligence and satellite support. And we must ship them guns, tanks, drones and medical kits by the ton. We must even be ready to deploy NATO troops if Russian tanks roll toward Crimea, as many fear they will, to build a land bridge to the mainland of southern Russia.
"No question, this path involves enormous risks. Russia will throw its might into Ukraine. American and British special forces should be dispatched to plant the flag and protect the airports of Kiev and Odessa. But Mr. Putin may call our bluff: Russian forces might — in an echo of the 1999 Kosovo war — encircle them.
"But if we are not prepared to take these risks, then we must force the Ukrainians to abandon their deadly delusion. It would be up to us to prevent Russia from slaughtering Ukrainian conscripts in vain.
"The only way to achieve this is for the West to oblige Ukraine to surrender. Ukraine is completely dependent on the International Monetary Fund, which is Western money. We must tell Kiev to accept as a fait accompli that Russia has carved out a South Ossetia in the east — or we turn the money off. We can console them: Being another Georgia is not the worst thing in the world."
Again, Ben Judah correctly assesses the war's inevitable outcome and calls on the West to come clean with Ukraine. His calls for Western intervention border on insanity unless we are fully committed to total war in the event "Mr. Putin may call our bluff." We must realize that a major war fought on Russia's border would present an existential threat to Russia and would therefore justify Moscow's use of every weapon in its arsenal. Just as Michael Brown fatally miscalculated Officer Wilson's willingness to use his sidearm to overcome Brown's superior weight and fists, nations must not fail to calculate the full arsenal of any adversaries they might seek to attack in their own homeland. We are talking a very dangerous game that should not be played over Ukraine.
Yes, this is one of the few NYT editorials I can agree with.
We (the U.S. and Western Europe) must either fully commit ourselves to a campaign that will very likely become World War III or we make it clear to Kiev that they are on their own.
Half-hearted responses, like sending weapons but not advisors will only prolong the killing (mostly Ukrainians) while not changing the outcome (that Putin will eventually prevail).
So what will it be?
Afghanistan was on the Soviet border and the Soviets tried hard for ten years to subdue the Afghans. They decimated the Afghan population but in the end they lost. The war did indeed present an existential threat to the Soviet EVIL EMPIRE. It no longer exists. Russia shall meet the same fate because their leader looks back on the EVIL EMPIRE with nostalgic pride, and has refused to learn the lessons of the past.