Longer Step: Ideas for Justice and Sustainability

  Several thoughts about 3000 North Korean soldiers headed to Ukraine: a. Countries in a war always seek allied soldiers to help them. The US does it all the time. There is nothing immoral about it (except war itself is immoral of course). b. A retired US general said these are inexperienced N.Korean kids who may know how to goosestep but they will get mowed down in short order by the Ukrainians, the most-experienced, hardest-edged soldiers in the world right now. c. North Korea's entry is spurring S.Korea to give much more aid to Ukraine, and S.Korea's high-tech military arsenal has the best electronics in the world. So it's likely N.Korea's entry will turn out embarrassing for both Russia and N.Korea. Meanwhile, as the war drags on, it will become, in hindsight, a monumental diplomatic and military tragedy for the Biden administration, which gave just enough aid to prevent Ukraine from losing, but not enough for winning, and at some point the steady dying of Ukrainian...

  I keep returning (mentally) to the point made by a Wash Post writer, regarding Biden: You just cannot be directly responsible for the extermination/genocide of an entire ethnic group of people (Palestinian civilians), and have it swept under the rug because the US voters love you on so many other issues. It's like saying that Hitler painted some very nice watercolors, without saying anything else about Hitler. A Palestinian spokesperson said it well (my words from poor memory): 'What else could be more important than this?' Biden could've stopped military aid to Israel unless they did more to protect civilians. Biden could've inserted thousands of peacekeepers into Gaza, to protect/withdraw civilians even as Hamas was rooted out. Biden could've stopped the war with one phone call. This is direct responsbility. There must be some price paid for that. There were ways to avoid this level of civilian carnage. But one of my friends told me there is one thing even m...

  I'm not a single-issue voter; if I was, then for women's rights issues I would certainly vote for Biden. But we're facing other huge issues, on which I think Biden is failing grossly: Climate change, addressing the debt, and the Israeli war on Hamas are the best examples. Biden has leverage he could use, to mitigate Israel's genocide of the Palestinians, but instead Biden has encouraged it--enabled it, even. Israel's war will fail, and will only create more hatred of the US. Even if you don't consider the humanitarian aspect, it's not a very sound US strategy. And don't forget that in every war we've supported since WW2, we lost. Even if you don't care about the death/maiming of US soldiers and the world's civilians, our supporting war hasn't often been sound strategy (though in Ukraine, it may be). When turning away from a hapless Biden, what thoughtful person could vote for a narcissistic, self-aggrandizing criminal? But I would con...

  I dunno. It's easy to say we're for "peace," and certainly unnecessary wars (like W Bush's foray into Iraq) were utter financial and humanitarian disasters, with no kind of success to point to. Cynics say that the US gov't does whatever it needs to, to boost the profits of the weapons makers. Mere lives are expendable. I'd like to support the (below cut-and-pasted) sentiment by World Beyond War), but it feels naive. It's catchy to say "let's spend the next $100 trillion on the needs of our own people." If only we would. The biggest reason that the US remains unattacked--the reason you don't have to worry about missiles or vengeful enemy soldiers entering your house-- is our powerful military. It's not because everyone loves us; they know we are one of the most-violent, most-meddling countries on the planet. The biggest reason Ukraine is still a free country is our military aid. Probably could say the same about Israel; not sure...

Honor to the defenders and supporters of Ukraine. In such a major geopolitical struggle, it's wise to ask: Are we seeing it correctly; is our media presenting it fairly? Kruschev's daughter, who lives in the US and keeps in touch with Russian sentiment, says that Russians don't want the war; they see the body bags coming back but are told not to talk about it; they are imprisoned if they complain about the war, so they have to outwardly support it; but they also see the war as "Putin v Biden"--a political dispute--with both of them at fault. What we see is naked aggression and war crimes committed by a dictator desperate to become a Russian hero leaving a great legacy. That he invented a false narrative to justify his mass killing. That he will fail, if the US and Europe remain committed to Ukraine's defense. An entire city administration in Karkhiv has been moved to a big basement, where mostly middle-aged and older women run everything (as most of the men an...

  Very interesting essay by a West Point graduate: He predicts Ukraine will become part of Western Europe and the EU, with many Western innovations and West-supported rebuilding in the cards (and P.S., you don't mess with Sparta--they were bad-ass, and they didn't care if you had five times as many soldiers--they knew how to fight and win). Here is the essay. (Photo credit: Fine Art Prints)

  Here's a good article addressing Russia's many surprising failures in the Ukraine assault, including poor-quality equipment (due to corruption), poor training, and poor communication/planning at all levels, including, in stupendously bad planning, lying to the common Russian soldiers that they were only going on maneuvers! Soviet soldiers are reduced to abandoning their armored vehicles and trucks, and stealing food. This, coupled with Ukraine's energetic, brave defense of its homeland and its access to good military tech from the West, explains how the Russians have so far mostly failed in their goals, despite overwhelming "on paper" advantages. And Russia has all these troubles, even not considering the economic sanctions, which should, over time, prove very troublesome to the dictator there. If you champion peace, you want to believe that economic sanctions will work, that international pressure on Russia from almost every country will hurt Russia so much ...