I’m an old bastard and being born in the second half of the 60’s meant that I grew up when bad Nuclear things were seriously discussed as being a possibility. And that doesn’t even include Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. These were visions of Nuclear War, discussions of Nuclear Winter, of the end of civilisation as we know it. I remember watching a BBC telemovie called Threads and it literally scared the shit out of me. I’ve just looked it up and that was 1983 apparently that I would have seen it. Lots of sabre rattling from both East and West was collectively known as the Cold War and in all honesty, I had bugger all confidence in those nutters not to just hit the button at some point and kick it all off. Luckily they didn’t.

Then along came 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall. The beginnings of the actual reunification of Germany and the sharp decline of the Soviet Union following shortly thereafter. The Cold War was kind of over but it didn’t stop geopolitics from being seriously messed up with many actors getting involved outside of their borders in other nation’s business. The USA being the major culprit with all sorts of shithousery in Panama, Nicaragua, Iran, Iraq and probably a heap of others that don’t immediately come to mind.

In 2001 we had the World Trade Centre attack and we’ve all seen and read a lot about that including the amazing footage of George W Bush in a classroom with a children’s book in his hand thinking to himself “Oh shit, this President thing is about to get hard”. Then the invasion of Iraq looking for the mystical Weapons of Mass Destruction that Saddam Hussein had obviously hidden under his bed since they couldn’t be found anywhere else. Then Afghanistan and the hunt for Al Qaeda or Daesh and then IS and whatever splinter groups that came from them.

Bear with me here, there is a theme to all of this.

Oh fuck it, I’ll come right out with it then. The US have always been very ready to get stuck into something when there is something in it for them.

In Central America it was about control of nearby nations within their local Sphere of Influence, making sure they were no hotbeds of Communists ready to cause trouble for the nearby Star Spangled Nation. In South America it was to do anything to stop Hugo Chavez from building too much influence with all of his oil money. It’s all about Freedom you see. Freedom for America.

Then there is the Middle East. They gleefully dived into Iraq to stop Hussein who was somewhat less reliable now than when they put him on the throne after deposing an earlier Iraqi government. Plus the immense distrust of the USA held by Iran after all of the messing about in their politics in the previous five decades. Payoff from Iraq – give US companies fat contracts to rebuild the infrastructure specifically targeted by the bombing and of course there is a shit ton of oil there. Let’s just add Afghanistan in here as a footnote as well since they were allegedly “assisting Al Qaeda”, despite a substantial amount of intelligence actually indicating it was the warlords in remote Pakistan that were actually the hotbed of Al Qaeda resistance since the Taliban and Al Qaeda really didn’t get on at all. Payoff – build a Western style democracy there to stop terrorist cells coming out of there in future plus get to one up the Russians who got the snot kicked out of them over many years in Afghanistan. Result – epic fail.

Now let me home in on this “theme” a bit here without being too disparaging towards those the USA have messed with. Compared to the might of the US military every single one of these involvements were pretty much nailed on wins. Since Vietnam, and I’m calling that a lesson learned by the US, we have not seen the US involved in anything at all where they really didn’t have a massive manpower and firepower advantage, through sheer numbers and/or technological means. Or let’s put in this in sporting terms, it’s the USA basketball team against any other national team from 2000-2016 or so. No chance of a loss really. Not so much now: in basketball or in global domination.

So I ask, where were the USA, the defenders of freedom and the forces to be relied upon to get rid of terrible despots like Saddam Hussein when Yemen exploded into one of the greatest humanitarian disasters which kicked off in 2014? Where were they, the bombers of Sarajevo during the Croatian-Serbian conflict during the implosion of the former Yugoslavia, when Russia just steamrolled into Crimea and said “it’s mine”? Where were the invaders of Afghanistan when the Myanmar military overthrew a lawfully elected government in 2021 and just decided to kill protestors and do whatever the fuck they want? And just to prove I don’t have an anti-American slant where are the former colonial powers who ruled Ethiopia and Sudan to offer some practical assistance as those nations implode in savagery? Only yesterday I saw a news item from Ethiopia about “uniformed soldiers burning civilians alive”.

Now that they have had no victory in Afghanistan and withdrawn with tails firmly tucked between their legs after what can only be called a failed “experiment” with horrific consequences for the people of that nation, all of that military might and combat experience is cooling it’s heels on home soil. Is it because they have learned how tough beating an insurgency can be? Pretty tough to set a Stealth Fighter into a guerilla war scenario. And it gets ugly for the unfortunate population stuck in the crossfire as all of Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria (who I failed to mention up to this point) can brutally attest.

Well then, let’s talk about Ukraine. We can start with Crimea. The Russians took it. The world put sanctions on some Russians. Did they leave? No. Therefore sanctions are not effective. Or at least those sanctions weren’t. So now Russia rattles the sabre some more and start talking about the rest of the Ukraine under the most ridiculous of clauses imaginable – freeing Donbas and Luhansk from a genocidal threat posed by Ukraine. Blimey, that one could have come out of Donald Trump’s mouth it’s so unbelievable. He’ll probably take the credit for it. The collective might of the EU, UK, US and others are quick to say “don’t” and when Russia does what do they do? Sanctions. Well it didn’t work last time so let’s do it again and see if it does this time! But they are harder this time. And if Russia don’t get out the Ukraine and stop killing people soon we might even stop buying their oil and gas.

What the actual fuck?

Cities are being pummelled into rubble and the world powers do NOTHING about it.

Let me define NOTHING.

They send money for the Ukrainians to buy arms or they send some actual armaments in. Missiles, etc. They go to the United Nations and say how they “deplore” and “condemn” the actions of Russia and make the Russians look bad in a vote.

Meanwhile Ukraine gets the shit bombed out of it. Nett effect of the above – basically NOTHING.

NOTHING means not implementing a no fly zone which would at least protect cities and the population from airborne bombing. Doesn’t stop mortars, artillery, cruise missiles, etc but it would be a lot better than NOTHING.

NOTHING means watching millions of women and children flocking to the borders as refugees looking to get away while the males of fighting age go and try and hold back the might of the Russian war machine with whatever they can – including a lot of Molotov cocktails being hand made by the remaining population.

NOTHING means letting us see daily on news bulletins massive columns of Russian tanks, APC and other military hardware streaming into the country NOT being attacked by any of the nations with expensive air forces who say they cannot be drawn into the war.

That last paragraph is actually the key to the whole thing. Everyone is trying to stay out of it. Oh we feel sorry for the Ukrainian citizenry having their nation destroyed because the Russian leader has grand dreams of rebuilding the Soviet Union. Even the Russian people are being arrested in droves for protesting about what their own country is doing to their neighbours.

And in all of this while the bravery of the Ukrainians to stand and fight is incredible it is those protesting in Russia who are showing the world what to do and let me put it very simply here.

THEY ARE STANDING UP TO A BULLY.

It’s what we get told as youngsters, stand up to a bully and he’ll back the fuck off like the little coward that he actually is. But that isn’t happening here because the world procrastinated on its chance to end nuclear proliferation and they know Russia has nukes. Lots of them. And they are fucking terrified he will use them. And if he really is as unhinged as he is acting then he might well do that. But standing back and letting him have Ukraine, which despite the bravery of the Ukrainians I reckon is pretty nailed on, is hardly going to deter him from going for Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, etc. Do you really think he gives a shit if they are in the EU? He is seeing right now how spineless they are as a collective. They are happy to cosy up for some cash but will they bleed for each other? No chance. And the USA who stated that they would not tolerate Russia taking Ukraine had just better learn to tolerate it. Since they are doing approximately fuck all.

We are in a new era right now. Where those with power will wield it ruthlessly unless they are stopped by similar power. In Australia we have never seen anything like what has happened in theatres of war unless you were serving as military there. Our general populace has no clue how bad it is for displaced people or refugees from oppression whether that be political, racial or religious grounds. We’ve had some big floods and savage bushfires in the past few years and I’m here to tell you that is absolutely nothing compared to what Ukraine is going through now. There are no volunteers to help. No SES, no ADF and no government agencies there to assist with clean up. No insurance to get you back on your feet. If you are lucky enough to even have insurance anyway. But the point is we have it seriously easy here. Yeah I hate our PM and cannot believe that guy is in charge of our country and I intensely dislike the rhetoric and the bullshit that flows from government every day of the week. But it is fucking paradise compared to what would happen to our nation in war. And while it’s seriously unlikely that will happen here things will change in a big way in our globalised industrial world. You want to complain about petrol prices? That’s just the start.

We now live in the age of the bully. Again. Kind of like the 70’s. Where tyrannical leaders are not just tolerated but embraced so long as they stay in their holes. When they stick their head out of their hole then it comes down to how much power they wield as to what the reaction is. And Russia has a lot of military power. So does China who refuse to condemn Russia’s actions and with their very well known lust to reintegrate Taiwan will be watching this very closely. Russia has stated Ukraine is an “integral part of Russia”. China has said the same of Taiwan for a long, long time. What difference will their be if China decide to move East? Especially given China is so integral in the manufacturing of pretty much everything. I say no difference at all. China won’t give a shit about sanctions. And having seen the remaining military powers stand idly by as Russia pulverises Ukraine I firmly believe we will see the same again should China move on Taiwan.

Enough rambling from me. But one question remains to anyone mad enough to read my dribble. I still stand up to bullies. Can you say the same? It would be nice if the leaders of our world had the balls to do that.