Don’t Do It, Mr. Secretary

Rumor is powerful, and in the Internet age it has gained more power than ever, so when a single Internet news outlet reported that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had suggested a meeting with his Russian counterpart to discuss an armistice in Ukraine, alarm bells rang in my head. Most likely Russia had planted this rumor.

It’s not that I don’t want the killing to stop — I very much want that. An end to the killing is in Vladimir Putin’s power to achieve today, or given the apparent primitive nature of Russian military communications, perhaps tomorrow. But if the Russian Army isn’t on the run, they’re at least back on their heels. If they want peace with the country they’ve invaded, they know how to get it. They can leave.

Ukraine is a de facto US ally. We have no business calling for discussions about an armistice while Russia continues attempting to conquer the place. Russia gobbled up part of Ukraine in 2014, and built a bridge from Russia proper to its newly annexed territory. Ukraine has quite a bone to pick with Putin. Let them pick it while the picking is good.

When Russia speaks, she sounds like the old Soviet Union. Anything she doesn’t like is “a provocation.” The day after she conquered Crimea, she informed the world that “99 percent of the population had voted to unite with Russia.” It was classic Soviet propaganda out of the late 1940s when Stalin was busy installing puppet governments in Eastern Europe. And when Russia wants something to happen, she often cranks up the rumor mill. During and since the Trump administration that rumor mill has included friendly members of Congress spouting Russian propaganda. Disgusting, but that’s your new action Republican Party.

Putin may have wanted to conquer Ukraine, but an armistice in place wouldn’t be so bad for him. It would virtually cut Ukraine’s access to the sea, and solidify his justification for the war. What it wouldn’t get Putin is Ukrainian engineering expertise. Most Soviet defense engineers were Ukrainian. It shows in Russia’s inability to build things right. Did Putin really think he could annex Ukraine and enslave its engineers? How Soviet. All the good Russian engineers have emigrated.

The Ukrainians should be given the time and materials to push the Russians out, even to the point where they can blow up that bridge from Crimea to Russia.