Call Vladimir Putin a dictator. Call him an autocrat. Call him a totalitarian. Call him whatever you want, but make sure you understand he is serious. He also knows the West is not. He has brought war to the West’s doorstep.
Here is how incompetents run countries: Leave the oil you need in the ground and $85,000,000,000 worth of war materiel behind in a hostile county when you leave it and then a few months later go pick a fight with a guy who is loaded with nukes. Over what, exactly? Whether or not Ukraine joins NATO? To save a democracy? For our honour? To defend a treaty the cosigner violated last evening? An irony here is that we could go in, push the "Rooskies" back to their border only to watch the missiles fly off their launch pads heading towards various US cities as our defeated enemy decides to "defend his honour". For historical reference check out the real cause of WWI. (PS: It wasn't because the Archduke Ferdinand got popped while riding in his convertible.)
Well said Erick. Great background I was unaware of. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this Ukrainian 🇺🇦 situation is a direct result of Democrat and leftwing media narratives. Primarily because of their hatred of Trump, they made Russia into a convenient scapegoat villain for the last six years, thus destroying any chance of an alliance with Putin. We could have allied with Russia 🇷🇺 to hedge in Chinese 🇨🇳 expansionism and influence.
Couple that with our innate weakness and wokeness, and now our adversaries are seizing on the golden opportunity to realign more countries behind what many consider the winning team (🇨🇳🇷🇺) now. Heck, NATO ally Turkey 🇹🇷 won’t even condemn Russia, so what does that tell you? USA is not the world’s number one superpower anymore.
What is underlying all of this, in my opinion, is that we have lost our moral leadership in the world. It cannot be minimized how reckless and destructive to the survival of civilization and family cohesion American ideological exports are. Many countries now consider that the USA 🇺🇸 is a threat, since we have become the standard bearer of WOKE and LGBTQ propaganda around the globe. Push back against this toxic brew is going to be fierce.
I can't add anything here that hasn't been said already. I am sad, angry, and helpless in the face of this evil. Russia takes Ukraine--then what? Latvia? Romania? Poland? China takes Taiwan--then what? Does Russian move West and China South to surround the Middle East? China is already active throughout Africa, giving Xi access from that direction.
Meanwhile, the Americas are mostly caught up in the ridiculous.
"Those who deny history are destined to repeat it." When then US president was Democratic Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and he wanted to join with the British leader, Winston Churchill, to oppose German leader, Adolph Hitler's aggressive actions, people said that's way across the ocean and not for us to be involved with. Then Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and overnight we refocused and entered WW2.
I read an assessment of WWII years ago. We could have just stayed out of WWII, let Hitler have Europe, and then negotiate trade.
Given the geography of the US it is very unlikely that short of using nuclear ICBM's that any country could successfully invade the US. That and we all have our own guns.
But the problem with the WWII assessment is it fails to take into account who's on top. What country, cultural is dominant?
China and Russia mean to make the US irrelevant. Weaken the dollar, destroy our economy, make us as a country and culture diminutive.
And so do the useful idiots, the liberals, the progressives, the Democrats.
Is there a Trump version of the Bush, "miss me yet?" billboard?
I don't miss Trump and his erratic behavior. His going off script rambling, practically a standup comedy routine, was just as annoying as Biden's dementia mumbling.
What I miss was the return to an America Firt attitude after 8 years of Obama apologizing to the world and creating the decline we was managing.
The useful idiots will buy the Ministry of Truth telling them this is all Trump, we just need to go further down the road of liberal Democracy.
Just go look at the early 20th century. Ceding Hitler Sudetenland with no input from Czechoslovakia to get "Peace for our time". And a nonaggression pact with the Axis.
Has this already happened? Is the deal Putin can have East Ukraine and be nice with the oil, gas, fertilizer, not hold Europe hostage?
In a Christian world view, we must say that God put Putin in his place of power. Putin, a bit like Jehu, brought the Russian Orthodox Church back to public life and pretty much dismantled both communism and the wild capitalism of the 1990's and made the former communists and oligarchs beholden to himself. Of course, once Putin becomes proud and stubborn, he too will fall. But for now he is a "serious person," and he is certainly more articulate than Joe Biden.
You may be interested that I have a Chinese Christian friend who escaped communist China, although his parents are still there. When he goes to most contemporary Christian worship services, "not serious" is the phrase he uses to describe our way of worship. Tenth Presbyterian in Philly is an exception to that for him. Perhaps our politicians are not serious because the worship of too much of the Christian public is not serious either.
I noted the chessboard picture. The Russians have had some notable grandmasters in the game. Putin is playing chess very well; Biden is a “rook”ie. President Biden is leading from a position of weakness of his own making. Will XI Jinping jump in the game next?
This is excellent and a very clear-headed assessment and commentary. Thank you.The Biden Administration, the Obama Administration and most Democrats have been running around for all this time screaming about their foolish , made-up issues and smoke screens, Climate Change, Pronouns, imagined white supremacy, taking America's focus off real issues to weaken us. Meanwhile Russia and China have been playing the long game, laughing at our obsessions with foolishness. Putin IS deadly serious, so is Xi. You are exactly right. I pray it is not too late to awaken.
Erick, you should use all of your media contacts to get this article published/posted on a MSM platform (NYT, WAPO, etc.). The US needs to learn this. The fact that the entire establishment and MSM is blaming all that is happening on Trump in order to try to take the focus on Brandon's incompetence is going to be detrimental to our country.....................
This is America's "exit stage left." In end-times prophecy, it's hard to figure out where or if America is even in the picture. The stage is being set.
I’ll make an attempt to answer my own question with research of my own. That being said, are other political commentators offering a cogent analysis of Putin that does not include the West’s focus on climate change as causal?
Don’t get me wrong: I am not urinating on anything here. Instead, I am trying to get a clearer picture.
I suspect the climate change position was useful to Putin. It's "never let a crisis go to waste" on a worldwide scale. If world scientists conferred with ALL the available data, that crisis may not have had an effect, but Putin would have found or created another of some kind.
I am sorry for your trapped family. Had Biden handled Afghanistan properly he could have got everyone and everything out. There we had the upper hand. Biden choose not to use it. He has no cards to play regarding the Ukraine. None whatsoever. He will get no help from Europe as many countries there are beholden to Russia for energy on cloudy days with no wind. Furthermore, Biden's state department will claim no responsibility as they warned US Citizens to get out a couple of weeks ago. The reality is that your family will have to get out on their own.
Better question--what WILL he do? Praying for your family. Most of my missionary friends there left a couple of weeks ago and went to the Ukrainian community in Poland.
In other words, NATO and western countries castrated themselves under the name of "climate change" yet Putin kept his stones.
Here is how incompetents run countries: Leave the oil you need in the ground and $85,000,000,000 worth of war materiel behind in a hostile county when you leave it and then a few months later go pick a fight with a guy who is loaded with nukes. Over what, exactly? Whether or not Ukraine joins NATO? To save a democracy? For our honour? To defend a treaty the cosigner violated last evening? An irony here is that we could go in, push the "Rooskies" back to their border only to watch the missiles fly off their launch pads heading towards various US cities as our defeated enemy decides to "defend his honour". For historical reference check out the real cause of WWI. (PS: It wasn't because the Archduke Ferdinand got popped while riding in his convertible.)
It's 1937 all over again.
Well said Erick. Great background I was unaware of. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this Ukrainian 🇺🇦 situation is a direct result of Democrat and leftwing media narratives. Primarily because of their hatred of Trump, they made Russia into a convenient scapegoat villain for the last six years, thus destroying any chance of an alliance with Putin. We could have allied with Russia 🇷🇺 to hedge in Chinese 🇨🇳 expansionism and influence.
Couple that with our innate weakness and wokeness, and now our adversaries are seizing on the golden opportunity to realign more countries behind what many consider the winning team (🇨🇳🇷🇺) now. Heck, NATO ally Turkey 🇹🇷 won’t even condemn Russia, so what does that tell you? USA is not the world’s number one superpower anymore.
What is underlying all of this, in my opinion, is that we have lost our moral leadership in the world. It cannot be minimized how reckless and destructive to the survival of civilization and family cohesion American ideological exports are. Many countries now consider that the USA 🇺🇸 is a threat, since we have become the standard bearer of WOKE and LGBTQ propaganda around the globe. Push back against this toxic brew is going to be fierce.
I can't add anything here that hasn't been said already. I am sad, angry, and helpless in the face of this evil. Russia takes Ukraine--then what? Latvia? Romania? Poland? China takes Taiwan--then what? Does Russian move West and China South to surround the Middle East? China is already active throughout Africa, giving Xi access from that direction.
Meanwhile, the Americas are mostly caught up in the ridiculous.
Kyrie eleison
"Those who deny history are destined to repeat it." When then US president was Democratic Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and he wanted to join with the British leader, Winston Churchill, to oppose German leader, Adolph Hitler's aggressive actions, people said that's way across the ocean and not for us to be involved with. Then Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and overnight we refocused and entered WW2.
I read an assessment of WWII years ago. We could have just stayed out of WWII, let Hitler have Europe, and then negotiate trade.
Given the geography of the US it is very unlikely that short of using nuclear ICBM's that any country could successfully invade the US. That and we all have our own guns.
But the problem with the WWII assessment is it fails to take into account who's on top. What country, cultural is dominant?
China and Russia mean to make the US irrelevant. Weaken the dollar, destroy our economy, make us as a country and culture diminutive.
And so do the useful idiots, the liberals, the progressives, the Democrats.
Liberalism kills.
I don't believe the US ever would have declared war on Germany. We would just have fought the Japanese. Germany declared war on the US.
Is there a Trump version of the Bush, "miss me yet?" billboard?
I don't miss Trump and his erratic behavior. His going off script rambling, practically a standup comedy routine, was just as annoying as Biden's dementia mumbling.
What I miss was the return to an America Firt attitude after 8 years of Obama apologizing to the world and creating the decline we was managing.
The useful idiots will buy the Ministry of Truth telling them this is all Trump, we just need to go further down the road of liberal Democracy.
Just go look at the early 20th century. Ceding Hitler Sudetenland with no input from Czechoslovakia to get "Peace for our time". And a nonaggression pact with the Axis.
Has this already happened? Is the deal Putin can have East Ukraine and be nice with the oil, gas, fertilizer, not hold Europe hostage?
Fools all they.
In a Christian world view, we must say that God put Putin in his place of power. Putin, a bit like Jehu, brought the Russian Orthodox Church back to public life and pretty much dismantled both communism and the wild capitalism of the 1990's and made the former communists and oligarchs beholden to himself. Of course, once Putin becomes proud and stubborn, he too will fall. But for now he is a "serious person," and he is certainly more articulate than Joe Biden.
You may be interested that I have a Chinese Christian friend who escaped communist China, although his parents are still there. When he goes to most contemporary Christian worship services, "not serious" is the phrase he uses to describe our way of worship. Tenth Presbyterian in Philly is an exception to that for him. Perhaps our politicians are not serious because the worship of too much of the Christian public is not serious either.
I noted the chessboard picture. The Russians have had some notable grandmasters in the game. Putin is playing chess very well; Biden is a “rook”ie. President Biden is leading from a position of weakness of his own making. Will XI Jinping jump in the game next?
This is excellent and a very clear-headed assessment and commentary. Thank you.The Biden Administration, the Obama Administration and most Democrats have been running around for all this time screaming about their foolish , made-up issues and smoke screens, Climate Change, Pronouns, imagined white supremacy, taking America's focus off real issues to weaken us. Meanwhile Russia and China have been playing the long game, laughing at our obsessions with foolishness. Putin IS deadly serious, so is Xi. You are exactly right. I pray it is not too late to awaken.
Erick, you should use all of your media contacts to get this article published/posted on a MSM platform (NYT, WAPO, etc.). The US needs to learn this. The fact that the entire establishment and MSM is blaming all that is happening on Trump in order to try to take the focus on Brandon's incompetence is going to be detrimental to our country.....................
This is America's "exit stage left." In end-times prophecy, it's hard to figure out where or if America is even in the picture. The stage is being set.
I’ll make an attempt to answer my own question with research of my own. That being said, are other political commentators offering a cogent analysis of Putin that does not include the West’s focus on climate change as causal?
Don’t get me wrong: I am not urinating on anything here. Instead, I am trying to get a clearer picture.
I suspect the climate change position was useful to Putin. It's "never let a crisis go to waste" on a worldwide scale. If world scientists conferred with ALL the available data, that crisis may not have had an effect, but Putin would have found or created another of some kind.
This is Bidens chance to be more than a footnote - will he be another Chamberlaine or not?
Biden fiddles while Americans burn. Putin played Obama and Biden and their arrogance will hurt us all. Mr. Erickson your article is spot on.
I am praying for my son and his family who are trapped in Kiev. No cell phone connection right now. What can Biden do to help Americans over there?
I am sorry for your trapped family. Had Biden handled Afghanistan properly he could have got everyone and everything out. There we had the upper hand. Biden choose not to use it. He has no cards to play regarding the Ukraine. None whatsoever. He will get no help from Europe as many countries there are beholden to Russia for energy on cloudy days with no wind. Furthermore, Biden's state department will claim no responsibility as they warned US Citizens to get out a couple of weeks ago. The reality is that your family will have to get out on their own.
Better question--what WILL he do? Praying for your family. Most of my missionary friends there left a couple of weeks ago and went to the Ukrainian community in Poland.
Thank you!