America, Citizenship, Culture, Ethics, history, Hope, Leadership, mass murder, Race, Story, Theology, war

Not Everything is a Deal

A conviction, my late friend Jim McClendon used to say, is that which, should you cease to believe it would mean you were no longer you. The sacrifice of Ukraine and appeasement of Vladimir Putin is appalling. Who are we? I’ve watched our new Vice President scold Germany and Europe for not holding hands with the far right. In a press conference, the President essentially turned the three year war into a giant misunderstanding that should never have happened at all.

There is plenty of blame to go around, going back to failure to oppose the annexation of Crimea enough during the Obama administration. But this a 180, just at the moment when there is opportunity to deter further aggression by Putin’s grandiose ambitions. Why we are beating up our friends in Canada, Europe, and Mexico and sucking up to Orban, neo-Nazis and a cowardly murderous dictator in Russia is, well, incomprehensible.

Ukraine didn’t, contrary to current rationalizations, force Russia to invade them. The “deal” was: give us your land and minerals and depose your freely elected President and let us place a puppet in his place, and we will not destroy you. By the same logic, Hitler was forced to invade Poland on September 1, 1939 and therefore started the Second World War because Poland would not voluntarily turn their country over to the Fuhrer.

No one with any rational sense thinks war is a way to solve problems. There are too many unnecessary conflicts and our nation has jumped into its share. But naked aggression against another country and hundreds of thousands of deaths don’t easily resolve as a business deal. War crimes have happened, children have died.

Four of my Dad’s brothers fought in World War II. I grew up knowing that Naz propaganda was a damnable lie. It still is. Anything else is weakness and the abandonment of our best selves embodied by Presidents who stood up against tyranny.

To forsake that for some perceived short term victory is weakness. Dishonoring the sacrifices of our soldiers in World War II by turning our backs again is appeasement. It always turns out to be worse later. Something America, with all of our faults, would wear like an ill fitting suit. Or a nation that is no longer sure of who we profess to be.

I still stand with the people of Ukraine. Period. You don’t do deals with dictators. To abandon them will be our everlasting shame.

6 thoughts on “Not Everything is a Deal”

  1. I assume this one is for true friends only 🙂 , i.e., not to be shared on Facebook. Nevertheless, you only spoke the truth. (And I wouldn’t share it on Facebook anyway because the few conservative friends I have left my start a mass stampede away from my post–can 5 or 6 folks be a stampede?! Anyway thanks for sharing. I agree completely. It is a dark, dark day. Peace, LaMon

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  2. Thank you for this essay. Your writing is succinct, yet thorough. I’m grateful to have connected with you on FB through Anitra. I remember you and your family fondly as I was a long time member at First Baptist in Blakely.

    I now proclaim to be a grateful recovering Baptist. Getting a rise out of hypocritical, faux X-tians is one of my passive resistance methods. Since Christianity has been co-opted by the Apostolics and Evangelicals, I declare that “I am no longer a Christian, but I am a follower of Christ.” I think that’s an important distinction in this dystopian merger of church and state where double-speak, disinformation, and propaganda have been normalized. If you were still preaching here, I would risk a rafter collapse to hear you.

    I look forward to reading more.

    Warmest Regards,
    Janie Thomas

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    1. How wonderful to hear from you! Speaking of thoughtful, I loved your comment. The SBC lost its way after 1979 and has not recovered. I just tell people about fundamentalism, “They don’t take the Bible seriously.” Stay in touch!

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  3. As a child of a WWll and Korean veteran who grew up as an army brat in Germany during the cold War, I am stunned that we are here.

    Nato was not created just to protect Europe. It is OUR front line to Russian aggression. Our President is trading off our security for his ego and ignorance.

    Go back and review the conduct of the USSR after WWll and know that no country on the border of Russia is safe when the goal is constant expansion.

    We can stop Putin there with Ukraine and Nato or here alone.

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