Holocaust 2.0

This topic is not typical of my blog, but something I feel compelled to write about.

For all my criticism of Washington spending, I have only praise for the support given Ukraine, particularly regarding the supply of world-class weapons that defend against Russia and bloody its nose.

While billions of trillions spent on defense is wasted and robbed, maybe this time the outcome will be worth it. This time the U.S. is on the good side of a bad thing.

Despite this, if we don't do more, our support for Ukraine will be for naught – and could even backfire. Nobody wins 75% of a war. Particularly when the opposing force is the mogul horde.

Putin's Russia has 100 million more people than Ukraine and can carry on recruitment drives for years to come. Ukraine is unable to do the same. As such, Putin will use all the time given him to chip away at Ukraine's infrastructure and morale. Moreover, Ukraine will be doomed if Putin succeeds in striking a deal with China.

Putin's initial attack to rid the Ukraine of Nazis was not met with the enthusiasm he had hoped. Perhaps the premise was wrong. Nevertheless, the rejection was an assault on Putin's dogma and his image of a great Russian empire that never existed. Since, the Russian President has been out for revenge – driven by a horde mentality that's his second nature. A vestige of Russia's medieval past, when the moguls took Moscow in the 13th century and held it for over 200 years. 

"One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic," said Stalin.

Like his mad predecessor, Putin is now well into the statistics game. Human life – whether Ukrainian or Russian – is a number. There's no plan for salvation, and likely never was. The world's largest country, which occupies eleven percent of all landmasses and stretches across eleven time zones, needs yet more room. Not to improve anything but just to have it.

Win-win is not a strategy the mogul horde understands. For the horde, the options are two: to beat or be beaten. There's no middle ground. Furthermore, a loss is incomplete without misery and discomfort. The horde does just bomb living space but its infrastructure too.

If you're robbed on a street in Moscow, it's not just a matter of giving up your wallet. You can be assured a beating too. A proper horde mugging would be incomplete without it.

This is the mindset that we must address to end the war in Ukraine and Putin's slow-motion holocaust.

To be clear, the "mogul mindset" I refer to is specific to Putin and his true believers – a minority of Russians but still a lot. The rest, mostly the talented ones, are leaving or have already left. As with Orbán's Hungary, a loyal public is replacing an educated one. Both Putin and Orbán, as said by a former American leader, "love the poorly educated."

The random killing of innocent brothers and sisters, and their children, cannot be tolerated and must be stopped. Not just because it’s immoral and inhuman but because of how it's damaging the rest of the world.

It's time to focus on the endgame and to outflank Putin's mogul horde. He's looking for a long, winding off-ramp. We shouldn’t give him twenty feet.

As a horde leader, Putin is ready to be beaten, but only by force. Negotiations are his delay tactic and provide time to woo Iran and China into a great war against the west.

Not a moment too soon, President Biden met with China's Xi in November. By all indications, it was a good meeting. Most significantly, the President said in a press conference following the meeting that Secretary Blinken would be "following up on our discussions and continue keeping the lines of communication open between our two countries."

I trust Secretary Blinken is exploiting this move and doing everything he can to drive a wedge between Xi and Putin.

Nothing will bring the mogul horde to a more abrupt halt than the giant that borders it, China, and its supremely powerful President Xi. In Xi's company, the czar Putin is a puppy dog on a leash. No nation scares Putin more than China, and no leader more than Xi. Russia shares a 2,700 miles border with China. Russia's population is one-tenth of China's, and its military budget is one-fourth of China's. Worse is Putin's awareness that Russia and China have fought many times throughout history. Even during the height of Communism in 1969, a dispute over borders along the Ussuri River brought both to the brink of war.

As Putin tries to corner Xi, we must flank him. We must let up on China's human rights record and focus on future lives more than past ones. This doesn't mean abandoning human rights but rather finding diplomatic methods that produce more results than talking points.

We should also back off from all the saber-rattling over Taiwan. Maybe Speaker Pelosi had a reason for traveling to Taiwan in August last year that I'm unaware of; otherwise, I think the visit was a foolish choice. It risked alienating Xi and giving him reasons to work with Putin to weaken the west.

The deep economic ties between the U.S. and China, and the E.U. – that have concerned many over the years – can be hugely beneficial now. But the west needs to schmooze Xi, remind him how our futures are inextricably linked and show him the economic impact of Putin's war. Xi can get lots of cheap oil from Russia, but it won’t do much good without U.S. and European customers to buy Chinese goods and services. About half (41%) of China’s exports are to the U.S. and European countries, and only 4% to Russia.

In parallel with our efforts to persuade Xi to tell Putin to stop his war against Ukraine, we should be supplying the Ukrainians to the teeth with the best weapons the U.S. and western allies have to offer. Europe and NATO must acknowledge that the influx of millions of Ukrainians into member nations - and the burden that this places on these economies - is tantamount to an act of war by Russia against NATO.

Another argument for NATO's involvement is Putin's repeated references to nuclear weapons. I think the odds are very low, but still, Putin has given western leaders another reason for stepping up their actions.

Accordingly, it's time to enforce a no-fly zone and take the war to Putin. In addition, NATO should inform Putin that it will assist Ukraine in counterattacks on any locations in Russia that launch attacks on Ukraine. As Russia weakens, so will Xi’s support for Putin.

The mogul horde is ready for a good beating. Let us not disappoint.