Dread

[nwhiker]

Unless Biden and NATO can come up with a solution in short order, I think, as much as it makes me sick to say this, that we/NATO are going to have to enforce a No Fly Zone over Ukraine.

Yes, I know that if we do, and we shoot down a Russian plane... it's an act of war and probably WWIII.

And WWIII may be nuclear, for all we know.

But.

The Russians are targeting civilians/non-combatants. They don't care about children. The bombing of the Mariupol theater today. The number of hospitals -children's especially- hit. This is not random. They know. They don't care.

Putin is, in some ways, daring us to do something.

I think the time may have come. We have to do something beyond what we've done. Clearly, nothing the US/NATO has done so far is stopping the deliberate targeting of civilians and that, I think, is the line we have to draw.

I wouldn't want to be the one to start that shift in thinking, to be in Congress, in Biden's shoes, having to decide if letting an out-of-control authoritarian murder civilians in an unprovoked attack on their country is an acceptable outcome to balance against taking the US/NATO to war.

Other NATO members, knowing that they're closer is Russia decide to respond with nukes, may not be on board, I don't know. Biden may be hesitant, knowing that not only will he have brought the US into WWIII, that there are traitors in our ranks, that he'll be fighting a war abroad, and one at his back, the Republican party and the crazies they draw on. A fifth column, if you will.

One thing I am surprised I am confident in: the US military. This is not the war of attrition of Iraq or Afghanistan. I think if we do decide to engage, with NATO, that the US military is 100% capable of fighting this type of war.

I don't know what happens if nukes are brought onto the table. I am confident it would not be by us, at least, not as a first strike.

As Gandalf said in the Mines of Moria: "You shall not pass!" This may be where we too need to draw our line.

This video I am linking is... sickening. Trigger warning/content warning/viewer discretion advised. A Tweet from Liz Cheney.