OPINION | EDITORIAL: Not seen overhead

Smiles throughout the Kremlin


The paper said that the Baltic nations and Poland support the idea of giving fighter jets to Ukraine. But they would, wouldn't they? After all, if/when Vlad the Impaler has taken Ukraine in his quest to rebuild the USSR, they'd be next on the shopping list.

It's difficult to understand why Ukraine's much bigger allies would decide to send companies and even battalions of tanks to Kyiv, but not jet fighters. Word has it that the West doesn't want to bait Vladimir Putin. He has nuclear weapons, a short fuse, and NATO on his borders.

But that argument doesn't make much sense considering all the millions--and in the case of the United States, billions--of dollars' worth of weapons and equipment we've already sent. Are we trying to help a democratic nation defend itself to the death only a little? Is the West saying it's all-in on Ukraine killing Russians with Western bullets and artillery, but the Russians would be offended if the bodies coming back were killed via air?

This little-bit-pregnant policy to almost send Ukraine all it needs to win must have them smiling in the Kremlin. Look out, guys, Riga is sending its plane!

The U.S., Germany, and the United Kingdom have let it be known--to Ukraine and Russia--that F-16s and the like will not be defending the defenders. Nobody wants to escalate, right? Those holding off the invading army might want to consider: If they'll just stop defending themselves, the Russians will stop killing them. Eventually.

Bret Stephens, the best conservative writer and thinker since Charles Kraut- hammer and Paul Greenberg left us, said in his New York Times column this week: Vladimir Putin isn't baited by strength in other nations. He's baited by their weakness.

Ukraine should get what it needs. It is very much defending its own soil. Washington, Berlin and London should follow those real leaders in Riga, Latvia.


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