A headline, from the Associated Press: “Long days of gravediggers tell story of Ukraine’s war dead.” Yes. An important and moving story. The article is here.
• Another report, from yesterday:
A Russian missile hit a museum building in a Ukrainian city on Tuesday, killing at least two people and wounding 10 others, part of a relentless barrage . . .
Ukrainian officials said the Russian military used S-300 air defense missiles to attack Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, hitting the museum of local history in the city center. The Russian military has repeatedly used S-300s, which Ukraine’s air defenses can’t intercept, to attack ground targets.
Missile defense is one of the most important things in the world. Putin’s Russia is a terror state, firing at innocent civilians day after day. People need protection.
• Viktor Orbán, Ron DeSantis, and others call for a “cease-fire.” It is an innocent-sounding call. But I think of a quip made by Bernard Lewis, toward the end of his life. He was speaking of the Middle East. “We cease, they fire.”
Moreover, Ukrainians know full well what Russian occupation is. (So do Estonians, Latvians, and others.) That is why they are loath to leave their countrymen in Russian hands. As Oleksandra Matviichuk and many other Ukrainians say: They are fighting not merely for territories, although those territories are rightfully, lawfully, theirs. They are fighting for the people in those territories — to spare them what Putin’s men mete out.
DeSantis may call the war a “territorial dispute.” But Ukrainians know that it is a fight for freedom, independence, survival. Their right to exist.
• On Twitter, Senator Mike Lee, the Utah Republican, styles himself “BasedMikeLee.” I think “based” means something like “cool.” At any rate, Lee responded to a critic by saying, “You support this war. I don’t.” Those words are interesting.
I once wrote a book about war and peace. For a meditation on peace — an essay drawn from that book — go here. The terms “pro-war” and “anti-war” are bizarre. No one supports war, except for psychopaths. (There are more than a few of those, to be sure.) As a rule, debates are between those who think that war is necessary, or just, and those who do not.
Do the Ukrainians have a right to defend themselves against invasion and subjugation? Should the United States support them? This is what people are talking about.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican congresswoman from Georgia, styles herself “anti-war.” So do others like her. You will notice, however, that they tend not to criticize Putin — who inflicted war on Ukraine. Does that tell you anything?
If I had my way, there would be no war. There would be no militaries, even. No nukes, no tanks, no fighter jets. No police departments. No locks on doors. But I don’t get my way. We deal with the world as it is. That is realism (true realism).
• A lot of people wish NATO dead. The Kremlin does, of course, and so do many on right and left in free countries, very much including ours. You will find Chomskyites and Buchananites in unison. But NATO is not dead. Thanks to Putin, it is strengthened and expanded.
A news item:
NATO countries have delivered more than 98% of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine amid its war with Russia, the military alliance’s chief said Thursday, giving Kyiv a bigger punch as it appears poised to launch a counteroffensive.
Along with more than 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks and other equipment, member nations have sent Ukraine “vast amounts of ammunition” and also trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian brigades, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
More than 30,000 troops are estimated to make up the new brigades.
“This will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.
Good.
(For the full article, go here.)
# One more news item: “Czechs put Russian Patriarch Kirill on sanctions list over Ukraine.” (Article here.) This fellow served the KGB and the Kremlin back in Soviet days. He is the same man today, only more powerful. We “old conservatives” opposed the brutes in the Kremlin back when; we find we have to do the same today. You may be tired of the world’s drama, but the world’s drama, unfortunately, is not tired of you.