Deterrence Message to Moscow – WSJ

The U.S. put 8,500 troops on alert Monday with the possibility of deploying them to shore up NATO defenses in Eastern Europe, and allies are sending ships and fighter jets. The West is finally getting more serious about deterring Russian aggression, and let s hope it s not too late for Ukraine.

President Biden is considering the troop deployment, along with ships and aircraft, to NATO allies like Poland and the Baltic states that are closest to the Russian threat. Go ahead and send them, sir. Mr. Biden s strategy of restraint, in the hope of not provoking Vladimir Putin, hasn t worked. Mr. Putin has been adding to his own deployment of troops on three different fronts on Ukraine s borders.

via www.wsj.com

One difference between Ukraine and Afghanistan is that Ukrainians, at least those in Kyiv and to the west, will fight like demons against the Russians. At least that was my impression when I visited my son there in 2018. They are already fighting the Russians now in the East. I can’t help but think Putin is underestimating the costs of actually invading and occupying the west of Ukraine, if he is thinking about that, instead of a more limited incursion in the east. It also saddens me to see what Tucker Carlson and various others on the Right, if I can use that term, are making of Putin’s approach to Ukraine. I don’t think Tucker Carlson is a Russian tool, but I can see why people say he is. We should be enforcing our own southern border *and* supporting Ukrainian sovereignty, as much as possible without starting WW3. There’s no moral equivalence between American republicanism, as corrupt as it is, and Russian klepto-oligarchy, which is much more corrupt. Ukraine has chosen to go with Europe, and derivatively, with the US. We should be glad of that, and at least try to embrace them.