Thinking the Unthinkable

Expect no mirth from the Clown today. That’s a trigger warning.

As much as the Clown tries to avoid the current news, it is quite impossible. The front page photos, the banner headlines, the talking-head “experts”, the  e-mailed pings on the phone bringing breaking news plus the overheard conversations in the check-out line about “how awful it is, can you imagine?”.

This flood of information thus brings us a picture of a small arm and tiny clutched hand sticking out of a pile of dirt where the child was hastily but not completely buried by retreating and defeated Russian troops in Bucha. Beside that small hand is the lower leg of an adult. It, too, juts out of the dirt, the Nike running shoe neatly tied, but who?, the child’s mother, big sister, a stranger? They could have been walking hand-in-hand to the grocery or merely passing one another when Russian soldiers decided to “light them up” with their automatic weapons. Fish in a barrel. 

Later in the day, while scrolling through the channels looking for anything not War- in-Europe related, one catches a glimpse of a heavy Russian armored vehicle swerving suddenly in order to crush a family sedan, likely with the family inside. The car and its occupants were clearly no threat to the massive war machine, but a Russian driver wanted to see what his green monster would do to a 2,500 pound civilian car and those inside. Just another tale to tell about what daddy did in the war. Pass the vodka.

A day later one sees, perhaps inadvertently, a railway platform covered with dozens of corpse-filled black body bags. Next to a smaller bag, a forlorn, blood-red teddy bear, its little yellow feet indicating that it hadn’t always been red. The toy was, most likely, the comfort toy for one of the 10 children killed by a Russian missile strike at a non-military train station killing 50 or more civilians.

America and its allies scramble to provide the Ukranian military with war material to defend their country but the odds are long, especially now in eastern Ukraine where the Russian supply lines are short and the needed weapons and gasoline can more easily reach the brave Russian soldiers who are trying to rid Ukraine of “Nazis”. That is what the bulk of the Russian population believes because their government has successfully informed them that such is true. Disinformation is the mother’s milk of thought control.

Europe has seen this sort of blatant disregard for human dignity and life before. We recognize the warped moral code that allows a bully and his army of thugs to kill innocents cradling teddy bears. In 1939 it was indeed Nazis and eventually many of them were held accountable, especially the ringmasters. Now, however, because the Russians have thermonuclear weapons of unimaginable destructive power, as does the West, America and its allies stand outside the ring and throw in boxing gloves, hoping that more gloves will turn the tide.

Here’s where the Clown trips over the truth. 

Unless the West calls Putin’s bluff now, sends NATO troops into the ring and makes it clear that the world will risk a nuclear exchange between the West and Vlad’s Russia, the free world loses. Pure evil needs to be confronted with a resolve that says, as long as you try to blackmail the entire world into submission so that you can slaughter innocents and claim territory without reprisal, we will risk massive mutual destruction. It’s your call, Vlad.

Oh, Clown, do you have any idea what an all-out nuclear exchange would do to mankind? It’s unthinkable.

Yes, yes I do. Here is an estimate of carnage by US analysts (1986): U.S. government estimates predict a death toll of between 13 to 34 million Americans for a nuclear exchange involving 3,000 warheads between the U.S. and Russia, with substantial additional fatalities that would result from a lack of medical care, lack of utilities, and ensuing food shortage. But even at a final death toll of 10-20% of the total population, and infrastructure destruction similar to the situation in Germany after the Second World War, the total shock of nuclear war could likely fall within the range historically absorbed by modern economies and governments. (Italics mine)

Bullsh*t.

This rosy, 34-year-old prediction fails to mention that 3,000 warheads is now a rounding error in the actual number of warheads secreted around the globe and you can bet that NATO would launch some or all of its arsenal; and China, India or Pakistan might decide to take advantage of the situation to insure themselves a spot at the top of the world’s pecking order, if there is any pecking order left. And, with the U.S. mortally crippled and no longer a shield, say goodby to South Korea and probably Japan. You know, North Korea likes to bully where it can. Predicting the actual outcome of a nuclear exchange based on a nearly four-decade-old analysis is more than foolish. One prediction, however, is certain. Russia would cease to exist in any meaningful way.

You can read the 36-year-old report Here . Be sure to pour a stiff drink before diving into the gruesome details.

Humans have been around for a relatively brief portion of the earth’s history. Still, hundreds of thousands of years is sufficient time to learn to live together without barbarism, yet here we are, seeing it again and thrashing around trying to find a diplomatic way to make things right without irritating Vladimir Putin too much. Sorry, but as Churchill said of diplomacy with Hitler, “You can’t bargain with a lion when your head is in its mouth.”

Vladimir Putin is many vile things. He’s cruel, amoral, narcissistic, a bully, not nearly as bright as reported and no better a military strategist than Adolph “I’ll be in my bunker” Hitler. Unless someone has proof positive that Putin is clinically insane, he’s not going to escalate to WWIII. To do so would mean his demise and  the end of his dream of a 19th century type empire for a 21st century Russia. This option is not nearly as attractive as staying alive and visiting his dacha with a  mistress every now and then.  Even so, he will always be a war criminal outside the borders of Mother Russia.

If Ukrainian soldiers and citizens are willing to suffer and die for the right to live free, perhaps the rest of the free world should be just as willing. Freedom is indeed, not free.

I’m sure my readers are relieved that neither the State nor Defense Departments would ever let the Clown in their front doors. But realists are very often unpopular.

Observoid of the Day: A lie is not one side of a story. It’s just a lie.