U.S.

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It Is Time to End the Ukraine War!


Twenty months ago, Ukraine was invaded by a power purportedly much stronger than it. But as time has gone by, Ukrainians have risen to the cause and for the most part, held the Russians at bay.

Right now, the United States is the big dog on the block where the free world is concerned. But the United States seems to have abdicated its responsibilities when Ukraine is concerned going back to 2014. At the time of the Obama Administration, the Russian invasion of Crimea was a clear and present danger to the free people of Ukraine and, even more, to the rest of the world. Obama chose to do nothing.

During the Trump Administration, President Trump cozied up to Pres. Putin of Russia and put Ukraine in harm’s way by his ridiculous accusations towards that country. He said nothing when he knew the Russian propaganda machine was spouting its lies of Ukraine being run by neo-Nazis. Of course, with a Jewish president of the country, it was obvious to any thinking person that such was not the case.

And now we have to overly cautious Pres. Biden doing well with sending aid to Ukraine but failing by not having taken NATO to task and said that a large-scale land war was needed to resolve the conflict in a quick manner.

If the United States is to be the guardian of the free world, then it must act accordingly. And right now, there is not peace for the free world country of Ukraine. The problem of sending effective weapons systems to Ukraine was that Ukraine relied largely on Soviet built systems, rifles, aircraft, etc. The U.S. sent system to Ukraine and then had to see that Ukrainian soldiers were trained on these systems. That takes month in almost every case. And now it wants to send F-16 aircraft there, but it will take a full year to train pilots and their support crews. That is a year Ukraine does not have, even if it will be very effective in its future.

Ukraine has proven Russia to be little more than a paper tiger which unfortunately has a large cache of nuclear weapons. Sabre rattle as much as Putin enjoys, he knows full well that he is still in a position of Mutually Assured Self Destruction (MADD) with the United States. And even if he gave the order for his generals to unleash some of his battlefield nukes, it is unlikely the order would be followed as all military people are extremely aware of the consequences of such actions.

Right now, the United States has an entire division, the 101st Airborne, headquartered in Romania. Why? This was simply a defensive action against the possible expansion of Putin’s war. But it is the first time since the end of WW2 that the United States has had an entire division stationed anywhere in Europe. This means our government is extremely aware of the threat that Russia maintains.

As someone who served many years in the U.S. Army, I can tell you war is never as good as peace. But there is a war, and it has implications which extend far beyond Ukraine. There is Belarus which is entirely aligned with Russia, and which has allowed the Russian military to use its territory for its war against Ukraine.

It is time for the U.S. to announce to NATO and the world that it will now actively support Ukraine with its great air power. It will also send its fleet into the Black Sea as Russia has blockaded commerce, which is also a threat to the world, especially Africa. This type of military action does not invite battlefield nukes, but it will show Russia, China and North Korea, that we as a country grow weary of the evil they try to spread.

Russia does not have a large navy and can ill afford to lose any of its ships of war. And in an air war, the United States is clearly superior, and any large air conflict could very significantly reduce Russia’s ability to wage war in that manner.

Lest anyone doubt it, our military already has solid plans for just that sort of conflict, but it can do nothing without the President’s stamp of approval. We cannot go back and be like we were in 1940, isolationist. That is how we are acting right now because the President knows the American people do not have the stomach for another ground war. But an air and sea war are a different animal and a way for the United States to expel all Russian forces from all of Ukraine to include Crimea and the black sea.

That done, Ukraine’s entrance into NATO would be very easy.

And so, when it comes to world peace, who is the enemy of peace? To quote a very old comic, “we have met the enemy, and it is us.”

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Free Trade?


About 100 years ago American industrialists were able to get the U.S. Congress to wage heavy tariffs on most imports.  But with the advent of a world economy that sort of thing fell into disfavor.  People wanted to be able to buy things that were not produced in the U.S. at reasonable prices.  Additionally, the U.S. wanted to be able to sell goods in world markets without foreign government interference.   This worked until around 1980 when world markets redefined themselves.  It is also when Japan became a world leader in markets the U.S. had formerly dominated, electronics and automobiles.

For the American consumer, at least until now, that has been a good thing.  American companies who made inferior products to those produced in other countries, either had to step up or be put out of business.  We can see the result of American industrialists not meeting the challenge when Chrysler and General Motors would have gone belly up had it not been for a huge infusion of government funds.  GM shed a number of its cars, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saturn, and Hummer, so that it could better focus its advancement of its other brands, and, at least at this point, they have done well.

The U.S. used to be the world’s largest exporter of steel but now imports much of its steel.  Why?  After World War II, America’s steel companies failed to modernize their plants, and foreign nations, such as Germany, were more efficient in the steel making process which in turn allowed them to produce cheaper steel.

Since the mid-1990s, however, a new economic power has entered many world markets, China.  Unlike other industrial nations, the Chinese government subsidizes their industry.  To wit, the U.S., the technological leader and until recently leading producer of electric generation through wind power, has suddenly fallen on hard times.  The heavily subsidized Chinese products are far less expensive than their U.S. counterparts.  This, I submit, is exactly where a heavy dose of tariff is called for.

But there are any number of very powerful U.S. corporate interests that would challenge such a tariff, complaining, maybe rightfully, that it would hinder their ability to sell their product on the Chinese market.  One such corporation is Ford Motor Company which has recently built its 7th plant in China.  They would almost definitely holler that any tariff would comprise a restriction of trade, and claim such to be illegal.

While I sympathize with Ford, I believe there has to be a compromise found to level the playing field.  Some will make the cry that this is a case of isolationism, proposing new tariffs.  But at some point it is the job of our government to protect U.S. corporate interests against unfair trade practices such as the Chinese are pursuing.  It is not reasonable to expect that the emerging renewable energy companies can even stay alive, let alone compete, when they are asked to go it alone against a government such as China.