Terrible and Even More Terrible Choices

My heart is heavy.

It’s been heavy since the war in Ukraine began.

Sometimes to process things I turn to here and write, just to get it off my mind. This war is one of those things and I will probably post from time to time on this topic, even though it is not the main focus of this website.

Choices…

There are no good answers to this dilemma. As best as I can see it – and I’m NO expert in this area – there’s terrible and even more terrible choices.

As an example and the most prominent example at this time, a terrible choice is no no-fly-zone. Most people in the West instinctively want to help the underdog, which in this case is Ukraine, and help protect them from the missiles flying from the air; hence there is a strong desire to impose a no-fly-zone. Heck, I totally empathize with that – I want NATO, the European Union and the US to help protect Ukraine, so having no no-fly-zone is really, really painful to endure. It’s painful to watch the leaders of Ukraine to call out for a no-fly-zone and hear that the other Western nations will not do anything.

It breaks my heart.

BUT, it could be that imposing a no-fly-zone is an even more terrible choice. Again, I’m no expert but here is my reasoning with additional thoughts not being expressed out loud (or maybe thought of -but I think our leaders have thought of it). We’ve all heard the obvious reason: imposing a no-fly-zone could expand the war and become nuclear. What’s NOT stated and what I fear is that once the no-fly-zone is imposed, Putin goes nuclear, hits other nations, thus dragging them into the war, AND goes nuclear on Ukraine to prevent any other country “having” Ukraine. Other countries dragged into the war in protecting themselves from the nuclear devices will focus on saving themselves and will no longer focus on aiding Ukraine. This diversion of focus will hurt Ukraine. In addition, I get a sense that Putin, if he can’t get Ukraine, he then psychologically wants no one to “get” Ukraine and thus will bomb the existence out of Ukraine. Potentially, Ukraine will be no more.

This is why imposing the no-fly-zone may be an even more terrible choice.

I wish Putin would realize that he needs to cut his losses because the situation is not going to get better for him. He already has other nations running into NATO’s and/or European Union’s arms – exactly what he didn’t want. His hope of bringing back the “Soviet Union” has probably been cancelled – it’s not going to happen in his lifetime. He needs to cut his losses and go back to his people with the lie that his mission has been accomplished. Drag the war out longer and the people will realize that they’ve been lied to. The reality of dead sons coming back from the military operation will hit the people hard and rip the veil of lies he has created thus far.

Just cut the losses, retrench and be happy with what he already has: he is a leader of a large nation and has unimaginable wealth.