Ukrainian Folk Rap from Eurovision 2022

The annual Eurovision contest is happening now, with the Grand Final a week and a half away. In the interest of meeting my state-mandated support quota for Ukraine*, I figured I’d best post the Ukraine entry for this years’ competition (Russia was disinvited from the contest):

Honestly though, I think this entry would have provided a better rationale for Putin’s invasion than the silly “Nazis next door” hokum.

I’ll try to remember to post the winner’s video in 11 days.

*My official (and not uncommon, I’d guess) position is that while I have no particular love or respect for Ukraine, the invasion was wrong and should be met with a united international front of sanctions. If our administration had been on the ball with preemptive action, the invasion never would have occurred. Sadly they kept talking about what a terrible threat it was, while wasting precious time.

My less common position (for those on the Right) hearkens back to the old domino theory of the first Cold War. Letting aggressor nations seize lands from other nations has never been a successful path to peace. And we can see that the reluctance of NATO countries to use military force has not stopped Russia from threatening nuclear escalation. Meanwhile, China is being encouraged by the West’s tepid response (so long, Taiwan).

So I would support military intervention, though only from a coalition of countries that includes the US, the UK and France (NATO’s nuclear powers). Give Putin a way to withdraw by announcing that we’ve recognized the issues raised by Russia, so we’re going to introduce coalition security forces to address their concerns and do their policing for them. Maybe throw them an economic bone as well. They save face, we show strength, Ukraine is presumably happy. Then we announce a permanent base to ensure that Ukraine toes the line, heh heh.

This is all predicated on the hope that the efficacy of our military has been preserved. Recent reports suggest otherwise. If our military strength has degraded as much as I fear, then Biden’s milquetoast approach makes a lot more sense.