Exactly. Among other things, back sixty years ago, one year past high school made you a soldier. Won’t take long in Russia, either.

“gladly” isn’t the same as “grimly determined”, but it has the same result. Along with “worth it”.

As to “who”, it would be the most likely to be in charge in Russia, along with sufficient of society, at least at the start, to get going.

It’s as if seeing the Russians continually doing this doesn’t mean they’ll continue doing it.

Let me put it briefly; IT’S WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY DO. Endless discussions of what happened, didn’t happen, should have happened, how what happened should have been perceived….don’t count.

IT’S WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY’VE DONE. Over and over.

Each time, they run out the rapidly accumulating dross, get streamlined…maybe that lasts until the next time, or perhaps the stuff they did while streamlined (manufacturing, technology, full cabinets, etc.) gives them a good start.

To insist that this time will be different is an imprudent bet.

Russia does not care.

They gladly sacrificed a quarter million of their young men for a chunk of Ukraine. And in a few years they will gladly sacrifice another quarter million more for the rest of it. And then they will sacrifice another quarter million for the Baltics, and another quarter million for eastern Poland. And then another quarter million for Finland.

Just because *you* wouldn’t make that trade doesn’t mean they aren’t doing so gladly.

Then Ukraine will acquire nuclear weapons. Is that what you want?

Because if Ukraine is not part of NATO and doesn’t have tens of thousands of American troops stationed on its soil, then that’s what will happen. It’s going to be one of the three.

Choose carefully.

But, on the other hand, as the price for gaining that territory, Russia has essentially destroyed a large part of it’s offensive forces/capabilities, lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and suffered grave damage to it’s economy.

All things which greatly decrease Russia’s ability to mount any future credible threat to Europe for many years to come and–given the demographic collapse currently taking it’s toll in Russia–perhaps actually effectively destroying any further major Russian offensive capabilities.

So, presuming it’s coming to an end, was this war “worth it?”

Well, not likely for the Ukrainians.

But, “keeping it real,” for the West, for Europe, and for the U.S., likely very much worth it.

R2L. Lots and lots of people want to see others made to do stupid stuff. Hence the support for lockdowns and mandates. And Tim Walz’ snitch line on your neighbors who weren’t hewing the line….

Used to be strong on personal liberty in general. Most of their restrictions on personal liberty were extralegal: if you’re a mudlark and don’t touch your forelock when the Duke of Earl flips you a half-crown he may have his footman thrash you and if you complain to the bobbie on the corner he’ll ask “what did you expect”. That sort of thing. But on his own land or in his own home an Englishman could do most things without it being the government’s business. (Englishwomen, less so, of course.)

Now they live in the Health and Safety hell described by C. S. Lewis:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

As Blackstone said, which was once true,

The idea and practice of this political or civil liberty flourish in their highest vigour in these kingdoms, where it falls little short of perfection, and can only be lost or destroyed by the folly or demerits of its owner: the legislature, and of course the laws of England, being peculiarly adapted to the preservation of this inestimable blessing even in the meanest subject. Very different from the modern constitutions of other states, on the continent of Europe, and from the genius of the imperial law; which in general are calculated to vest an arbitrary and despotic power of controlling the actions of the subject in the prince, or in a few grandees.

Kate on February 14, 2025 at 6:53 pm
“Western Europe, and the UK, … I don’t know if they can recover. They’d have to want to.”
+ + + + !!

It has been my experience that true servant leadership leads to transformative positive movement in an organization, as people step up to be their best selves.
May this be the case in our country.

I’m not a Trump cultist, but how’s this for servant leadership: serving as President without taking a salary, and fighting wicked elements of our government who tried to financially ruin, imprison and kill him?