Ukraine has revealed the Russian military as a fraud. I believe the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army is a fraud too!

For a very short time following WWII, America basked unafraid in the satisfying sunlight of freedom and prosperity, fearful of no one until the Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb followed soon after that by a thermonuclear device, space achievements, and bluster. Since then, until today, Americans have languished under the cloak of fear of mutual self-destruction, and we have lived in fear of the Russians ever since. 

The idea of fear, when implanted in the mind of a group or a whole society, can become paralyzing and destructive if not provided for.

Ronald Reagan proved how economically weak the post-Afghanistan Soviet Union really was despite its braggadocio, flouting its military prowess, with its grand army, navy, and air forces capable of interfering in American activities around the world. It was a Cold War that lasted until 1991 when their house of cards came crashing down, and the Soviet Union ceased to be. The fear abated somewhat, but the Russians still had atomic bombs. Clues to their potential demise were evident to even the most casual observer if one looked and understood what they saw.

The first blow for the Soviets came when they were humiliatingly driven out of Afghanistan. Of course, we helped, but the massive material cost of lost equipment, lost personnel, and a questionable reputation for being badass’s, seriously depleted their future prospects. With the 1991 collapse, the Cold War supposedly ended, but it proved that if we didn’t fear them, we still respected them. The contagion of fear abated a bit.

Russia went through a period of internal adjustments and opened to Western tourism and commerce, considering new leaders we don’t recall anymore until Putin, a Soviet throwback, arrived. During what Putin might consider Russia’s Dark Ages, when Americans flocked there as tourists to see the Kremlin and other sites, Putin set about rebuilding Russia’s Army and Air Force, but especially the Navy focusing on submarines as it did in the Soviet days. Putin wanted a high seas surface fleet which has turned out to be of no particular significance, and an Air Force that was flying copies of newer allied nations’ stuff.

Old habits never change. Russia cooperated with us in joint space adventures and scientific applications of new inventive ways of killing one another. But Russia was also getting restless, its perceived enemies encroaching on its borders, and as old Russian fears about its neighbors rose again, they had to be addressed.

In 2014, Russia militarily invaded eastern Ukraine.

Thirty-one years after 1991, another real leader, a Ukrainian stand-up-comic turned President, showed the rest of the world how fragile the Russian military really was by thwarting Putin’s plans to reestablish the old Imperial Russia. It’s not to be!

If we had looked closely in those intervening years, we could have seen the clues of their demise. Many in my field (CE/CI) did, but the world had changed, and while geography hasn’t, the methods of getting from here to there with our weapons have pointedly changed the dynamics of fear.

Politicians facing the prospective loss of political control through fear-mongering of something ⏤ Russia then and China now ⏤ limited any real responses that could have achieved a safe world with Russia in it. 

Putin’s failed quick, sharp military thrust to capture Ukraine’s Capitol, Kyiv, an expected four-day operation, was denied at a terrible price, especially for civilians, but pointedly for Russia. They cannot afford to carry on with their campaign to subjugate Ukraine. The inept progress of the Russian army’s untrained conscripts, the sinking of Russian warships in their own Black Sea bathtub, their massive loss of military aircraft and elite Commando units, hundreds of junky tanks, and armored fighting machines can only foreshadow the end.

So today, Ukraine has revealed the Russian military as a fraud. In truth, Russia has been a military fraud for all these decades, and we should no longer be afraid. We must now turn our sole attention to the protection of Taiwan.

I believe the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army is a fraud too. We can help the Taiwanese prove it. We can’t be afraid of China. Then, we must clean out the nest of evil Marxists in our own government to bask in the sunshine of freedom once again.

Remember, freedom is the goal; the Constitution is the way. Now, go get ‘em!