The Cold War Never Truly Went Away
– By Ed Kociela –
Those of us of a certain age grew up under the specter of the mushroom cloud.
We were children of the Cold War, too young to do anything about the nuclear brinkmanship that led us oh-so-close to mutual annihilation, but old enough to understand that the fate of humanity sat in the balance as the United States and USSR faced off for a shootout in the street.
So, the Russian invasion of Ukraine brings some frightening flashbacks to a time when the future of humanity was indeed on the line.
I remember asking my sixth-grade teacher why we should do duck and cover drills in the classroom if a nuclear missile could commit such destruction. Would the desktops we hid beneath really save us?
I remember asking my dad why we didn’t build a fallout shelter in our backyard as so many other people had done. His answer was blunt and frightening: “There would be no world to come back to.”
I remember how the worst possible thing you could do was call somebody a Commie because every single one of them wanted to kill every single one of us, or so we were told. As I grew and met some people from Mother Russia, I learned about how they had love and respect for the American people and just wanted a taste of the freedoms we enjoyed; how it was the leaders who were bent on destruction and conquest.
I remember how I felt when the USSR finally dissolved, how the world seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief when the Cold War thawed, a result of economic failure rather than military might.
We were warned by the best and brightest, of course, that the dissolution of the USSR was probably only a temporary thing, that Russia still coveted resources from the various states that emerged free, and that somewhere along the line, the likelihood of the reunification of Russia was inevitable. There have been more minor incursions over the years since the USSR was busted up in 1991.
All it took for the most severe of those incursions was a lunatic who was part of the KGB — the former USSR’s secret police/intelligence agency — with enough political savvy to seize power to point the nation in that direction, something a very patient Vladimir Putin is trying to accomplish. He’s old-school KGB, well-trained in terror and intimidation. He has fostered this business of a new USSR for years, from the annexation of Crimea to the black market sales of oil stolen from the Middle East to trying to fix the election of an uneducated, ignorant puppet made of the same fabric. We will, perhaps, never know the extent of the collusion between Donald Trump and Putin. However, it is clear, particularly in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that Putin still holds the cards on Trump, who, despite the breach of the peace, continues to call Putin a “genius.” Of course, Trump never met an authoritarian figure that he did not like and befriend, which hastened Putin’s aggression. In fact, Trump remains Putin’s biggest cheerleader.
Western intelligence had warned for several weeks that Putin, who has only two more years remaining in his presidency, wants to create a Russian empire, striking first in Ukraine. And it appears he also does not plan to give up his authority once his term ends as he is working on proposed constitutional changes that would allow him to retain power once his term expires in 2024. In other words, he is making plans to stick around.
None of this bodes well for a world that has largely lost its stomach for war after 20-odd years of bloodletting in Iraq and Afghanistan and countless aggressions across the globe. NATO doesn’t want to put together a military response. While U.S. sanctions may put a crunch on the Russian economy, those impacted most will be the working class and not the leadership of a nation hellbent on conquest. Western sanctions are aimed at the Russian elite and government, but it can take decades for them to take hold, as we have seen. Putin is not above throwing those guys under the bus and seizing whatever he needs to move onward in his march to reunify the USSR. With its vast mineral reserves and manufacturing base, Ukraine would be a bright and shiny centerpiece of USSR 2.0.
The West has pledged billions of dollars to help the Ukrainians defend their borders with military weapons and other assistance. But, other than that, not much else has been promised because to do so would almost force us into World War III against a foe who has no limits of evil and mayhem, which gives the Russians the upper hand. And Putin is the bogeyman causing this nightmare, invading by land, air, and sea and launching hundreds of missiles to grind Ukraine into submission.
But Ukrainians are showing resilience and an unwillingness to back down. Despite Russia’s military superiority, the locals seem united in fending off the takeover and finding a will to fight to the last man, woman, and child standing, meaning that this will quite possibly result in a slaughter of innocents before the guns go silent.
It is highly doubtful that the West will supply troops to help Ukrainians. However, by funding for weapons and necessities, it can help them sustain in a slow war of attrition, such as what occurred for the United States in Vietnam and Afghanistan, where the grind continued until the U.S. decided the effort wasn’t worth the lives and treasure, and how Russia gave up its unwinnable war with Afghanistan.
It is the best we can hope for at this point that the defenders of Ukraine can muster a guerilla response that will take the fight out of Russia in all ways, mental, physical, and economic.
We will miss out on yet another season of peace, love, and harmony, but aren’t we all used to that by now, especially when we are fighting a Cold War that never indeed went away?
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