DD Support Board and Research Team

[jbsliverer]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem

Sacrifices saving the rest of the free world. Saving a $1 to spend $5 more is never a very efficient business model. Neither is saving a million to continually cost a billion more down the road.

On stopping Putin: If not now, when?
Scott Benarde
OPINION
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/opinion/2022/03/23/commentary-world-cant-let-putin-destroy-ukraine-and-bully-humanity/7089535001/
I have been struggling for days with immense frustration, sadness, and disbelief at the senseless death and destruction the vicious tyrant and man-boy bully Vladimir Putin has unleashed on Ukraine to satisfy his delusions of Soviet empire grandeur. There is a lesson here: No individual should have this much power. I know we’re supposed to be careful about comparing war-mongering, imperialist strongmen to Hitler but Putin is clinging to “der Fuhrer’s” blood-soaked coattails. I am reminded of these lyrics from “The Last Resort,” an Eagles’ classic by Don Henley and Glenn Frey: “We satisfy our endless needs / And justify our bloody deeds / In the name of destiny…” It wasn’t written about Putin but the jackboot fits.

I feel like some kid on the playground watching the school bully slowly beat the hell out of some smaller child just because he can and being unable to stop it. I want to, but I can’t. It’s a shameful, guilt-filled feeling. I was brought up to speak out against injustice, to intervene and protect the defenseless. I am not a very religious person but there is a commandment of sorts in the Jewish book of ethics known as the Pirke Avot, The Ethics of Our Fathers, that serves as a moral guidepost: “In a place where there are no human beings, you must strive to be one.” The message being, if there is no one else available to respond to the needs of the community, then you must do it for the sake of humanity.

To me this isn’t only about individuals; it applies to groups, governments, and groups of governments. In the Pirke Avot, we are also reminded that the world stands on three things: “on justice, on truth and on peace...,” so it is imperative to “execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates.” In my view we are failing to do that.

With all the military and humanitarian aid the free world is providing; with all the global, cumulative sanctions undertaken against Putin and Russia, we are still allowing the bully free reign. He might tire; he might slow down but he is not stopping because we have not done all we could do to end this tomorrow. Why? Because we are afraid Putin might be nuts enough to use nuclear weapons.

If that is our fear, then Putin wins and rules the world. If he takes Ukraine, as costly as that might be to him, we still have enabled and empowered the bully to continue his ruthless, power-mad onslaught. If not tomorrow, then perhaps a year or two or three from now, after he has recharged his army and restocked his arsenal. Putin will see that all he has to do is rattle his nuclear saber and the world trembles and recoils.


NATO and the rest of the free world are sending a sign of weakness. Ukraine has been warning us; they’ve been fighting this fight for a while. They know whom and what they are dealing with. And after 22 years of ruthlessly ruling Russia, the rest of the world knows who and what Putin is: an insecure bully with too much power, who had it all, and on Feb. 24, 2022, decided that wasn’t enough.

The question is, what are we finally going to do about it?

The Pirke Avot also asks this vital question: And if not now, when?