This is an open message directed to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, but also one for the world to pay attention to.
Mister Putin, you’ve recently invaded the independent nation of Ukraine, on the pretense of being a “peacekeeper” and a “liberator” from a supposed scourge of “Nazis” that only seemingly exists in your mind.
And, you know, I get it. America is not innocent when it comes to invading nations. We invaded Panama to get rid of the tyrant Manuel Noriega. We invaded Afghanistan after the September 11 terrorist attacks and stayed there far longer than we should have. We invaded Iraq just to get rid of Saddam Hussein. I can hear you justifying invading Ukraine and doing all the violence and destruction in the same way that we invaded Iraq. I get it, even if I don’t buy it.
But there is one thing that you did recently that differentiates from America’s past invasions. You threatened war on the rest of the world for imposing non-military sanctions over your actions. Worse yet, you reportedly put your nuclear forces on high alert, threatening the world with nuclear Armageddon simply because we took non-military actions over your military invasion.
So I have a simple question for you, Mister Putin, given your more bellicose attitude. And it’s one that has its origins from the military.
Is this the hill you want to fall on?
Before you threatened the world with the nuclear trigger, this was a conflict that could be resolved. Something that could be walked back. But if you go from this to nuclear brinkmanship, and from there to potentially pushing that button, you cross a line that can never be walked back; one that can never be forgiven.
So is this the hill you want to fall on?
Do you want to end Russia and the world over your hunger for “breathing space”? All to go after a former entertainer who only rose to power in that little nation because your corrupt puppet leader there was a loser? A former entertainer that has – through your actions – been transformed into a war hero for the world to admire.
Winston Churchill once said that history is written by the victor. But let’s get brutally honest here... when it comes to nuclear warfare, there are no winners at all, only survivors, and they will write the future entry about the fall of the world and who is to blame for it.
And you would not survive that.
Even if you somehow avoid the exchange and the devastation that followed, there would also be those around the world that would survive it as well. And they all know what you’ve done leading up to this. And they will write tomorrow’s history books to let everyone know who caused it and why, and they will name you as the one that did it.
But let’s suppose the devastation is complete, and everyone on the planet dies over this. If there is intelligent life in this universe and they are capable of faster-than-light travel to worlds like ours and they come across the radioactive remains of our planet, their science people will know through what remains of our world what happened.
They may even know about it before they arrive.
The late Carl Sagan once talked about being in his hypothetical “spaceship of the imagination” and hearing the broadcasts being beamed from Earth even from great distances from our solar system. All the television broadcasts beamed up into the sky for satellites to reflect down since the start of broadcasting are still going out there into the universe. Some hypothetical space traveler could no doubt listen in to those signals from our news broadcasts talking about the invasion and the reaction and your escalation, and, finally, the Emergency Broadcast System alerts before that sudden silence. And they will know who would be to blame for it. And it will have your name as the destroyer of the world before they even get here.
So is this the cause that you want to gamble the world on? Is this the hill you want to fall on?
Listen, at the end of the day, I’m just some guy with a blog. I have no more of a say in the affairs of the world than what you read here. It’s up to you to decide whether or not you want to risk it all, and I do mean all, for your ambition. Is this really worth it? I would hope it isn’t.
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