Perceptions, by Gerry Warner

Op-Ed Commentary

“Be wary of Great Leaders.”

I doubt if Pete Seeger had Vladimir Putin in mind when he issued his prophetic warning. But the great songwriter and pacifist knew a thing or two about war and the diabolical leaders that cause them.

Another American who knew a thing or two about warfare was General William Westmoreland, who said during the Vietnam War: “The military don’t start wars. Politicians start wars.”

How true. But German General Carl von Clausewitz, the great Prussian military strategist, said it best before the First World War: “War is the continuation of politics by other means.”

And where does Putin fit in this dubious pantheon of war thinkers and justifiers? Near the ugly bottom if Putin’s own cruel words and sickly screeds are any indication. Let’s look at three of them.

“To forgive terrorists is up to God, but to send them to him is up to me.”

“It’s better to be hanged for loyalty than to be rewarded for betrayal.”

“You can do more with weapons and politeness than just politeness.”

Surely these three quotes give the measure of the man. Namely a violent megalomaniac who sees himself as some sort of a God and a God that values loyalty to him as the greatest virtue and is obsessed with alleged terrorists trying to bring him down and bring down what he regards as the former glorious empire of the Soviet Union.

Indeed, Putin on numerous occasions, has referred to the fall of the USSR in 1991 as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” But Putin is no less than a terrorist himself.

How do you deal with a demented madman like that?

The answer, if there is one, is difficult because you’re dealing with a nuclear-armed psychopath who has the capacity, and possibly the will, to end life on this planet as we’ve known it the last 10,000 years. It’s going to take more than a silver bullet to take down this Russian monster although I’m sure there are shadowy special forces contemplating doing just that as surely as I know Putin is trying to have Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy taken out the same way.

So, realistically what can be done? Several strategists are suggesting NATO impose a “no fly zone” over the Ukraine thus preventing Russian air attacks that are killing Ukrainian soldiers on the ground and have also been blamed for an attack on a Ukrainian maternity hospital.

But up to this point NATO, much to the regret of Zelenskyy and many others, has been saying no because such an attack could trigger a nuclear war between the belligerents.

However, there is nothing to stop NATO from setting up a humanitarian no fly zone to patrol the sky and warn those below of danger but without permission to shoot unless shot at. NATO could also mount a relief air lift to drop supplies such as food, water, medicine and blankets to the besieged civilians getting slaughtered below.

Such measures won’t win the war for Ukraine but it would help a lot and could make the difference in a war that the Russians thought they were going to win in less than a week. But three weeks in, the Russian tanks are bogged down in the Ukrainian mud north of Kyiv and their troops slowed by the unexpectedly fierce resistance of the Ukraine forces.

No Ukrainian wants their country to become a Soviet puppet state belonging to Russia. And it’s got to be highly demoralizing to the Russian soldiers on the ground, and to the many Russians in the homeland, who don’t support Putin’s atrocity against a fellow Slav nation.

Ironically, Putin has pulled the rug out from under his own feet by giving his troops the green light to kill civilians in the war. That has turned almost the entire world against the Russian bear and given NATO a shot of adrenalin it badly needed to become an activist military power again. Not to mention the stringent world-wide quarantines that are destroying the economy and hurting ordinary Russians.

“Live by the sword; die by the sword.” It says that somewhere in the Bible. Maybe it’s time Putin read the Good Book.

Photo submitted

– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist, who has stopped cheering for all Russian teams, including the hockey team, captained by  Alex Ovechkin.

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