Say it Ain’t So, Joe.
Dear Joe — —
Sorry I haven’t replied to all your fund-raising letters. It’s true, I did give to your 2020 campaign. But I can’t do it this time, at least not while you are “defending your decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine.” As you know, these weapons will kill and maim little children — Ukrainian children — and keep killing and maiming them for years, as “tiny, deadly bomblets” lie scattered around the countryside.
Both you and I are old enough to remember Vietnam, where we killed and maimed children, and destroyed villages in order to save them. The real enemy wasn’t even the Vietnamese, it was the Russians and the Chinese. We fought them all over the world — Korea, Africa, South America, South Asia — we set brothers against brothers, sisters and against sisters, cousins against cousins. And we killed and maimed enough children to give us a horror show in Hell that will last a thousand years.
Today, we have no more business fighting the Russians in Ukraine than we did in Vietnam. Neither place has any strategic value to the United States. If you think killing and maiming little children in Ukraine will help us win power and influence in the world, you haven’t learned a thing.
“Say it ain’t so, Joe.”
Here’s an idea: take a walk around the White House and look at the portraits of your predecessors. Imagine them speaking: George Washington on the dangers of “entangling alliances.” John Quincy Adams on not going abroad seeking “monsters to destroy.” General Eisenhower on the dangers of the “military-industrial complex.” Today the military-industrial complex is in love with you. You’re pouring billions of dollars into their bins to pour killer weapons into Ukraine. But it seems like you’ve exhausted even their capacity. You say these cluster bombs are just a transition until the production of artillery shells can be ramped up again. But where’s the exit ramp, Joe? I don’t see an exit strategy, just another endless war.
Take a look at LBJ, at that sad, wrecked face — remember “Hey, Hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” He thought he couldn’t be re-elected unless he stuck it out in Vietnam. But an unwinnable war makes an unwinnable election. And the older a war gets, the uglier it looks.
Remember Colin Powell? A shame he was never president. The Powell Doctrine said you don’t get involved in a war unless you can win, and win quickly. The Ukrainians say they need cluster bombs to match those the Russians are using. The last thing you want in a war is two sides evenly matched, a “fair fight.” World War One was a fair fight. Did you watch “All Quiet on the Western Front?”
Finally, look at your friend Barack Obama. I remember his mild voice saying he preferred “peaceful solutions.” You say in your letter that you might just call me up if I send money. Do yourself a favor and call him up instead. Ask him what a “peaceful solution” might look like, and who might be able to craft it. (It’s the exit ramp marked “Diplomacy.”)
By the way, while you’re in Lithuania this week, please get real with our NATO allies. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was never meant to be a Eurasian alliance of everyone against the Russians and Chinese. Its original purpose was quiet on the western front.
So, keep the cluster bombs at home. Change your mind or drag your feet. Let the Ukrainians face reality. If they’re running out of ammunition, take it as an opportunity — not to recycle atrocious weapons, but to save the children. And maybe save yourself.
Your Friend and fellow Democrat,
Tom Phillips
