I did not expect, at this moment in my life, to be reading up on nuclear war.
I really do not want to learn about the difference between the A-bombs of yesteryear and today’s much more powerful nukes. And yet, here we are, in the year of our Lord 2022, holding our collective breath after a despot halfway around the world announced Sunday his nuclear forces are now on high alert.
No one seems to know exactly what that means. All we know is that Russian President Vladimir Putin invoked the specter of the unthinkable – despite releasing a joint statement with the leaders of four other nuclear nations on Jan. 3, less than two months ago, vowing never to use such weapons.
Putin’s violence against Ukraine and far-fetched threat about nukes has prompted changes in the world order that few would have anticipated: Switzerland has abandoned its storied neutrality to support Ukraine. Likewise, the ever-neutral Finland and Sweden have taken steps to join NATO in the face of Russian aggression. Germany reversed its long-standing policy of not sending weapons to war zones.
And, for the first time, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and equipment for a country under attack – Ukraine.
Some awful aspects of human nature, however, never change. People of color – from Africa and India, mainly – have reported being turned away from border crossings or ordered off buses by Ukrainian security forces as they try to flee. U.N. officials acknowledged the reports and have condemned the apparent racism.
The underpowered former Soviet republic, a fledgling democracy long known as the breadbasket of Europe, has captured the hearts and imaginations of people around the world. Thousands of antiwar protesters in Russia have been arrested.
The unexpected steeliness of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a former comedian and TV star who refused to abandon his country despite the neon target on his back, helped stiffen the spines of Western allies.
We have to acknowledge that it’s not just Ukrainians and Russians who will feel the pain of this war.
Russia’s aggression has the potential to change all of our lives, whether that be reflected in the price of our gasoline, a shortage of certain goods, a volatile stock market or the terrifying possibility that Putin has unleashed the beginning of World War III.
Americans, so deeply riven by domestic political strife, have finally found something we can agree on: Putin must be stopped.
“In a rare bit of agreement,” reported my colleague David Lauter last week, “Republicans and Democrats had equally negative impressions of Russia, although Republicans were slightly less favorable than Democrats in their view of Ukraine, 66% versus 57%.”
But then, of course, there are the high-profile Republican outliers.
Former President Donald Trump, who has fawned over Putin for years, praised the invasion of eastern Ukraine as a genius move. “He’s taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions,” he told a gathering at Mar-a-Lago. “I’d say that’s pretty smart.”
The perpetually mystified Fox News star Tucker Carlson, who has also lionized Hungary’s autocratic prime minister Viktor Orban, asked, “Why is it disloyal to side with Russia, but loyal to side with Ukraine?”
Almost 90% of Americans, according to Gallup, view Putin’s war on Ukraine as either a “critical” or “important” threat to U.S. vital interests. Only 11% think it’s “not important.”
What will tomorrow bring? All we know for sure is that more death and more destruction – all of it unthinkable – will be inflicted before this war is over.
The Los Angeles Times