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What a bunch of losers

Human-kind has evolved from single-celled creatures that were somewhat akin to pond scum.

Sadly, despite all the evolutionary advances that time and natural selection have heaped upon us, we still pretty much qualify for the title of "pond scum".

I refer of course to the situation in Ukraine and the way that human lives have lost their value to the invading forces.

However, it's not just the 64Km-long convoy of military vehicles and troops who qualify us for the "pond scum" categorisation, it's also the leaders of the Western World who stand by and watch innocent lives be snuffed out -- all the while screaming "tsk tsk" into the microphones of the public media.

They condemn, in the strongest terms possible, Putin's invasion and the loss of human life that is resulting from it. Yet they sit on their thumbs and watch it all happen from the comfort and safety of their own well-appointed homes and offices.

Of course many will be asking "but what could they do anyway?"

Surely, to confront Putin at a military level would risk all-out nuclear war, something that could see the death toll rise by many, many orders of magnitude.

By not engaging with Putin with all their might, the leaders of the Western world are adopting the philosophy that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one".

I guess there is some validity to that stance. Nobody wants to risk the devastation that a nuclear exchange would unleash on the world.

Then again perhaps we should be reminding ourselves that *every* life is of value and that it is only because of the inaction of powerful people that despots are able to get away with murder.

It is so easy to simply dismiss those who are dying in Ukraine as "casualties of war" and a necessary sacrifice to protect the rest of the world's population. After all, we can't actually smell the blood or feel the tears of those whose loved ones have been violently ripped apart by Russian cluster-bombs.

So let's be all sympathetic and roll out waves of endless rhetoric about how tragic this all is and how Putin is a bad bad man.

The reality is that Western leaders could man-up and tell Putin to get out of Ukraine if they really wanted to. However, it's so much easier to hide behind the risk of creating a nuclear conflict and take the easy/safe road, isn't it?

I was only a kid when JFK manned-up to the Soviet Union and for a few days, the world stood on the brink of a nuclear war. That US president was prepared to take a stand against the Soviet bully and show that he was willing to put his military might where his mouth was.

Of course, as an Aardvark reader already pointed out, the stakes were a little lower back then -- the Soviets only having a relatively small number of nukes in their arsenal in the 1960s. However, they still had enough to take out most major US cities if an exchange had taken place so JFK so not underestimate the level of testicular fortitude that was demonstrated by standing up to the Soviet threat.

It has been suggested that Putin, unlike Khrushchev, may be bordering on insanity and unlike that 60s-era Soviet leader, could be just mad enough to push the big red button if challenged. Is this true, or is it simply a justification used by the West to avoid having to take a stand?

I would love to see NATO and the USA declare that the airspace over Ukraine is now a no-fly zone and then see what Putin does.

It is very, very likely that if Putin was to actually threaten to use nuclear weapons, those around him would rise up and depose him from power in a very quick coup.

Although the Russian president may be willing to engage in a nuclear war, I strongly doubt that his political allies would be as keen.

One thing is for sure... people are dying, freedoms are being annexed and war crimes are being committed in Ukraine and this can not be allowed to continue. Those who sit idly by and simply shout "tsk tsk" into media microphones, all the while having the power to end this, will have blood on those hands.

Are we all going to be cowards who cringe in fear of Putin's veiled threats to use nuclear weapons or are we truly committed to freedom, human rights and the sanctity of life?

Let me use another quote which has formed the basis of my own philosophy: "I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees".

What do readers think?

If you were a Western leader, what would *you* be doing right now in respect to the situation in Ukraine?

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