[FRIAM] war footing

[Marcus Daniels]

Something like this would be handy in the current situation.    

https://newatlas.com/boeing-f16-jet-unmanned-drone/29203

But really, if we can send munitions, it seems no different to announce that Ukraine has a set of Hellfire-equipped MQ-9 Reaper's on loan.   Just ignore that USAF sticker.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of Steve Smith
Sent: Wednesday, March 2, 2022 4:04 PM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] war footing

Glen -

I really appreciate your outlining this so well.

It is always easier to imagine that *other people* can magically do things that we know from our own experience that we cannot (or choose not to) do.   I also felt very impotent to do much of anything about Trump's tenure except commit to myself (and encourage other fence
sitters) to put aside petty ideals and vote *effectively* against Trump in 2020.   I voted against Trump in 2016 but also Hillary by voting for Green Jill Stein (before I discovered what an anti-vaxxer she is, even as an MD).  I would not have done so if I thought NM could fall to Trump, but if I'd lived in another state where he was a shoo-in I might have also thrown my vote into the "protest" category.  Biden was easier for me than Hillary to accept, even though I'd have chosen any one of about half the big slate in the primaries.  Bernie near the top. I may have talked a few of my more curmudgeonly friends out of voting for a write-in simply because they didn't get Bernie (or Mayor Pete or Tulsi or ...) .   This was one election where the total "popular vote" was important even if it didn't "count" as such.   There were a couple of candidates I'd have had a hard time not passing over in "protest" but not if it was going to change the outcome.

I do think, however, that gumming up Russia's gears, even if it hits the populace hard is important.   Making the clear, unequivocal statement that Authoritarian Belligerence isn't welcome.   I was shamed by the US under Trump (and Bush for that matter) but did not begrudge my shamers... I did (do) feel responsible for what my country does in my name, even if/though I feel fairly disempowered in most specific ways.

I doubt that the Russian citizenry is suffering any more than the Ukranian citizenry, and insomuch as many of them are friends/family, there are surely things *they* can do to help Ukrainians that is hard for the likes of you or me to do.  That doesn't mean I shouldn't try, though I do moderate that by the myriad *other* things i should be doing both domestic and foreign with my first-world privilege.

If we can make it out the other side of this without a devastating (or even trivial but earthshaking) nuclear exchange, I hope it leads to many rethinking the size of the world's nuclear stockpile.   I just saw a headline that implied that Belarus was going to host some of Russia's nukes.  It was *the right thing* for Ukraine to give up the nukes on it's soil at the end of cold war, but imagine how things would look (better or worse) if Russia knew that Ukraine held a handful of nukes? Time to disarm ourselves...

-Steve

> This video brings home, to me, the inherent conflict with "do what it 
> takes to ...":
>
> I'm Russian I want the rest of the world to hear me out 
> https://youtu.be/FUE40mkEYeo
>
> Even though I'm worried she's a plant, she makes the valid point that 
> things like sanctions don't hurt the ultra wealthy. And in a country 
> where the elections really are rigged (or you're young enough to have 
> had no way to intervene before the gravity well became inescapable), 
> what does it mean to "do what it takes to ..."? The last number I 
> heard was Russian authorities arrested 2700 protesters. And given guys 
> like Magomed Tushayev 
> <https://www.jpost.com/international/article-699032>, the gods only 
> know what else has happened.
>
> I mean, I felt pretty impotent with Trump as President. And I'm a 
> relatively well-off white male in a relatively trustworthy democracy.
> What hope do those fed up with Putin and his government have? Only the 
> hopes of coming years, if not decades of poverty, protesting, and 
> bearing the risk of dying in jail or at the hands of a Tushayev?
>
>
> On 3/2/22 14:59, Steve Smith wrote:
>>
>> I like to hope that the net effect of Putin's nonsense on the heels 
>> of Trump&Co's nonsense is that everyone else might actually get fed 
>> up with Authoritarian capriciousness and do what it takes to shove it 
>> out the airlock and get on with our lives w/o so much of the toxic 
>> something-ulinity.
>>
>