Rod Dreher: The West At The Precipice

[Kamaji]

The West At The Precipice

By Rod Dreher
March 1, 2022

Good morning from Budapest. Woke up here to see news that the Russians are moving in the big guns to wage total war on the Ukrainians, who have the gall to resist Moscow. You want to scream. You want heaven to open and rain down fire on Vladimir Putin for doing this.

I also saw a quote from the French Finance Minister, saying, “The sanctions inflicted on Russia are extremely effective. We are waging total economic and financial war on Russia. We are going to provoke the collapse of the Russian economy.” If you have French, watch:

https://twitter.com/BrunoLeMaire/status/1498575829902708736

Two thoughts come at the same time: 1) Good, Putin deserves it over what he’s doing, and 2) my God, this really could mean World War III.

Seriously: a senior government minister in a major Western power openly boasts that the West is waging “total economic and financial war” against Russia, a nuclear-armed superpower. It’s obvious that the West is doing exactly that, but the fact that this man is also on TV bragging about it is terrifying. Unhinged, even. It is clear that madness has overwhelmed Putin, but a reactive madness is also overwhelming us. If the goal is to punish Russia maximally for what it is doing to Ukraine, no matter the risk, then it makes sense. But if the higher goal is to avoid World War III, well, this ain’t the way to do it.

Neither is this: Ukrainian pilots are on their way to Poland to pick up fighter jets.

https://twitter.com/titusfilm/status/1498603336890818562

This all feels so familiar to me. I will spare you yet another tour down memory lane, to the time between 9/12/2001 and the day in 2003 that we launched the war of choice on Iraq. But I’m telling you, if you were there, you remember the same moral fervor, the same certitude that we were right to do this, that it was all going to work out because, as Karl Rove boasted at the time, “We create our own reality.” You remember, or you should remember, how anybody who said, “Hang on, wait a minute” was derided as weak, unpatriotic, and all those things. People poured French wine down the drain (because France wouldn’t support the war) in the same way they’re pouring out Russian vodka today. The Dixie Chicks lost their audience and their fame for opposing the war. On and on it went … and look what happened.

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Source:  https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/west-at-precipice-ukraine-russia-war/