Uncomfortable Dialogue… Thoughtful Reflection… 03-29-2022

Mitch Schneider
March 31, 2022

 

It’s gray and wet outside.

The rain crashing against my office window is distracting. Its seductive rhythm has taken me far from what I hoped to accomplish this morning.

What’s going on outside seems sadly in concert with what’s going on a half-a-world away. Scenes we haven’t witnessed since Hitler and the Second World War. Images none of us can escape no matter how hard we try or how much we would like to.

I have actively tried to avoid writing or speaking about things like this in the past. There are too many places you can go to reinforce your personal belief system without me adding to the chaos and confusion. This is different. An exception to the rule. A compulsion to find the right response to something I know I have little or no control over. The desire to identify the right course of action. Right for me, our country, and the rest of the Free World.

I know that what is going on in Ukraine is wrong. Waging war against civilians, against women and children is depraved. The worst kind of war crime. There is no justification, no explanation sufficient to wash away the stain left in the wake of Putin’s appetite for expansion. And, yet the obvious response seems untenable.

I want to do more. I want us – as a nation – to do more. To give more. More military support. Certainly, more humanitarian support.

There is a part of me that wants to see Goliath defeated. A part of me demands to see the bully vanquished. Beaten as badly as he has beaten Georgians, Chechens, Syrians, and now Ukrainians. To see that he is never allowed to do this again without fear of being pummeled himself.

I Understand…

Syria 2018 Aid worker administering oxygen to a victim of chemical warfare

I understand his threats are not idle. That he has used banned weapons before and is likely to use them again. The question is whether the civilized world should wait for the inevitable to transpire before acting.

I am probably as conflicted as you are when it comes to the right course of action. But even as we sit here watching this drama unfold, we have a pretty good idea of how it will end.

Bullies bully, that’s what they do. Until someone stops them. Until someone does unto them…

The real questions are simple. Who will stop Goliath, when, and how? Do we wait for sanctions to choke the giant into a slow and painful death not knowing if or how he will retaliate in desperation? Or do we defend our values — and Ukraine — by taking the initiative? By closing the sky.

How much death and destruction will it take for us to realize who and what we are dealing with.

I don’t know.

The only thing I am sure of is that determining what happens next often starts with an uncomfortable dialogue accompanied by a fair amount of pain and discomfort. Enough pain and discomfort for all of us to share. Pain and discomfort I would really prefer to deal with on our terms, at a time and place of our own choosing, rather than have someone else decide for us.

 

 

 



0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Related Stories

Arrow-up