5-point plan to stop Putin

The war rages on in Ukraine, but Vladimir Putin and Russia have already lost.

Not the physical fight — Russia’s armed-to-the-teeth military may prevail on the battlefield — but Putin has lost the PR war. The world has turned against him. Even his new ally China did not vote with Russia in the UN Security Council.

As of Sunday morning, the Russian tricolor does not fly over any Ukrainian city.

Once it does, his forces can expect urban guerilla warfare from stubborn Ukrainians who are choosing to stand, fight, and die, if necessary for their homeland.

Any hope Putin had of driving a wedge between NATO members has evaporated. 

Even Germany, which because of its history is always loath to promote armed conflict, is sending weapons to Ukraine.

The oppressed Russian people are protesting, and being arrested, for opposing the war.

I believe Putin has miscalculated. He allowed his previous success in Georgia and Chechnya and Crimea to make him believe he could take a bigger bite without the West’s interference. The West now must do everything possible to put down this mad dog. 

I watch the war in real time, absorbing as much as I can from as many sources, and sticking to what I can confirm, and it kind-of sickens me. 

But what can I do?

I have already written a check to the International Rescue Committee, a charity I have long supported, that aids refugees.

I can’t pick up a Kalishnikov and join the battle, but Americans who feel that way — should. Volunteers went to France in WWI before the U.S. entered the war, and pilot volunteers, such as the Flying Tigers, confronted Japan long before Pearl Harbor.

What else can we, and the world, do?

• The UN should designate Putin as a war criminal and remove Russia from the Security Council.
• NATO should declare Ukraine a no-fly zone to prevent Russia from pounding cities, a temptation it has so far resisted.
• Send money to Ukrainian charities.
• Allow American volunteers to fight. 
• Have no NATO member accept energy exports from Russia, forever. Energy exports are what keeps Russia afloat. The U.S. imported  209,000 barrels per day in 2021, triple the year before. This is suicidal. Stopping Russian exports will require the U.S. to turn our oil and gas tap back on, and again become an energy exporter, as we were a few years back.

All this should lead to Putin’s downfall, without the risk of a single American or NATO soldier.