Summary

The website content expresses a passionate call to action against Putin's aggression in Ukraine, emphasizing the need for the United States to intervene militarily to stop the senseless killing and prevent further atrocities.

Abstract

The article on the website titled "War is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things" presents a strong stance against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It highlights the devastating impact of the war on civilians, including children, and criticizes the inaction of the international community, particularly the United States. The author, Roger Reid, argues that President Biden's reluctance to deploy American troops to directly confront Putin's war crimes is effectively a tacit acceptance of the slaughter of Ukrainians. Reid points out the irony in the global policy of containment, which aims to prevent the conflict from escalating into a world war by sacrificing Ukrainian lives. He insists that the U.S. has the power to end the war and must take decisive action to do so, suggesting that inaction will only embolden Putin to commit further aggression against other nations. The article concludes with an appeal to President Biden to reconsider his strategy of "watchful waiting" and to take a stand against the atrocities being committed.

Opinions

The author believes that the war in Ukraine is a moral catastrophe and that the pictures and videos of civilian suffering are heartbreaking and enraging.
Putin is portrayed as a power-mad, war-mongering death machine responsible for the war crimes being committed in Ukraine.
Russian troops are accused of being fully aware of their actions and are labeled as war criminals for intentionally targeting civilians.
The article suggests that Russian soldiers could choose to disobey Putin's orders, lay down their weapons, or even fight for Ukraine, implying a level of moral responsibility and agency among the ranks.
President Biden's approach to the war is criticized for framing it as a conflict of ideologies rather than the result of a power-mad dictator's ambitions.
The author argues that the U.S. is the only country capable of ending the war and that its current policy of non-intervention is a form of complicity in the suffering of the Ukrainian people.
The article questions the logic of containing the conflict to prevent a larger-scale war, as it involves sacrificing innocent lives in the process.
There is a call for the U.S. to take decisive action, even suggesting the formation of a volunteer force if regular troops are not deployed.
The author expresses concern that without intervention, Putin will continue his aggressive expansion, potentially targeting NATO members in the future.
The nuclear threat posed by Russia is acknowledged, but the author implies that it should not paralyze the international community from taking necessary action to stop Putin.
The article concludes with a direct appeal to President Biden to reassess his approach and to take a firm stance against Putin's actions, suggesting that the cost of inaction is too high in human lives and global stability.

POLITICS

War is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things

Putin needs to be shown the door to hell

“War is not healthy for children and other living things.” — Another Mother for Peace

Remember that phrase? It was coined by Another Mother for Peace during the sixties — when the atrocity was Viet Nam.

The war in Ukraine has affected me more than I can express. The pictures of displaced Ukrainians trying to escape the constant bombing are heartbreaking — and fucking maddening.

I’ve watched the videos of bombed out hospitals, schools, and apartment buildings — intentional civilian targets — and it’s obvious that in spite of all we’ve achieved as a species, we’ve learned nothing from the carnage of past wars.

Photo from Deposit Photos — Maidan in Kyiv, Ukraine

There are still too many despots, dictators, and tyrants who believe it is their right to subject others to their will. And if that requires indiscriminate mass murder, then so be it.

Yes, I know the finger of blame for what’s happening in Ukraine is pointed at one particularly rabid animal — Putin, a power-mad, war-mongering death machine that should be exterminated on sight.

But I’ve also seen the video footage of Russian troops killing a civilian trying to surrender, his hands in the air as they shot him dead. I’ve seen the pictures of injured, young children being loaded into ambulances, only to be later transferred to body bags.

And I’ve seen mothers grieving over their dead infants, while knowing their husbands, brothers, and even fathers will probably suffer the same fate.

The Russian troops know what they’re doing. They are intimately aware of the death and destruction they’re causing. Their actions are deliberate. They are responsible. They are war criminals.

Not convinced? Has the pleadings of a captured Russian pilot influenced you to offer his comrades in arms the benefit of the doubt?

Captured Russian pilot says he was ordered to hit civilian targets

Video of a Russian pilot apparently admitting he had been ordered to bomb a civilian target has been widely shown on…

www.newsweek.com

Then why do Russian soldiers continue to kill innocent civilians?

If Russian troops really find Putin’s orders morally repugnant — as reports have suggested — why don’t they lay down their weapons and go home? Or surrender? Or even better, take off that god-damn Russian uniform and replace it with the bytan camouflage worn by Ukrainians, and fight for something that matters.

Yesterday, I saw the photographs of Marcus Yam.

A photojournalist in Ukraine heads toward deadly conflict to humanize war

For the past three weeks, Marcus Yam has been capturing harrowing images of the war in Ukraine, as he pulls long hours…

www.npr.org

And later that afternoon, the photos posted by the New York Times.

On the Ground: Ukraine Under Attack

Photographers in and around Ukraine have captured a populace struggling with uncertainty and fear, and showing resolve…

www.nytimes.com

It’s difficult to imagine this level of devastation and suffering is taking place on the other side of the world.

So many of us continue to block it out, ignore it.

After all, we had a hard day at work. Traffic was a bitch. So we pick up a bucket of chicken and look forward to the weekend — when life isn’t such a grind. And when news of the war interrupts our favorite sit-com, we think: Somehow, it will all work out. Now, where’s that remote?

And what is our country’s official stance on the war?

President Biden appears to act as if this is a conflict of ideology, of opposing political philosophies, of dictator-driven fascism versus democracy. But it isn’t. Not by a long shot. It is a war taken directly from the playbook of a power-mad, deranged serial killer who has been allowed to rise to unimpeachable power.

It is a war based on Putin’s plan of personal conquest — a war to be won at any cost.

And yet, by refusing to use American troops and aircraft to stop Putin’s barbaric, senseless slaughter of the Ukrainian population, Biden believes he is preventing world war three.

I understand his logic.

A generation ago, it was thought a strong nuclear arsenal was the ultimate deterrent to thermo-nuclear war. But this belief was based on the assumption that those in power were rational. And now, we see what happens when the criminally insane take the helm.

Under Putin’s vicious need to dominate those who don’t have defensive nuclear capability, Russia’s nuclear stockpile has become the ultimate lever a madman needs to hold the world hostage.

So we let him have his way.

We let him murder our brothers and sisters because we want to limit the death and destruction to a single theater.

Instead of saving those under siege, our goal is to keep the massacre contained, to keep it manageable, with the presumption that sacrificing Ukrainian lives is the cost of preventing the total destruction of our world.

Rationalize it any way you like, it’s still placating an evil dictator by turning our backs on those who are literally dying as they wait for our help. And that makes the bottom line very easy to see: We’re sacrificing innocent human lives to prevent suffering on a larger scale.

You get the irony, right?

It begs the question . . . when does the cost become too high? What will it take for America to say, “That’s enough!” Another thousand children killed? Another hundred thousand?

Based on President Joe Biden ’s cowering position, it’s doubtful a million lost lives will convince him it’s time to bring down this tyrant.

And that’s extremely hard to stomach, because the United States is the only country who can end this war.

Yes, Russia could, but they won’t.

So it’s time, Mr. President, time to take action. To grow a pair. To stand up and make it known that Americans will no longer stand for the programmed extermination of an entire nation.

Because if we don’t, you can be sure Putin will do it again. Maybe his next desired acquisition will be Estonia, or Slovenia, or Albania.

But wait! These are NATO members. They have a protective military commitment from twenty-nine additional countries. Make war on one and you risk retribution from all.

Really? You actually think that?

The size of the opposing force will mean nothing after 13,000 nuclear warheads have turned our planet into a gray, smoldering, radioactive hulk where time has stopped because there is no one left to record it.

And make no mistake — it’s this depraved, irrational logic that keeps Putin in the business of killing for personal gain.

The Ukrainian war is driven by the aims and ambitions of a lunatic, hell-bent on world domination. And just like the others before him — Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mussolini — the world fought these murdering misfits and eliminated them.

Putin is simply another freak in the sideshow. He needs to be shown the door to hell.

So Mr. President, I urge you to consider your current policy of watchful waiting.

If you won’t — or can’t — commit our forces, ask for volunteers. I believe the only problem you’ll face is how to deal with the logistics of handling the over-whelming number of American military men and women who are ready and willing to defend those who are desperately begging for our help.

There is only one question left to ask: Is Putin pointing an empty gun?

There’s only one way to find out.

Roger A. Reid, Ph.D. the host of Success Point 360 Podcast and author of Better Mondays and Speak Up. A certified NLP trainer with degrees in engineering and business, Roger offers tips and strategies for achieving higher levels of career success and personal fulfillment in the real world.

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