A naive argument for the defense of Ukraine

I love thinking about the complexity of the world. The challenges of intervention and making change. Unintended consequences and behavioral economics. But that’s not where my heads at right now. Sometimes when you’re mired in complexity and logic, you need to remember your basic values.

I’ve seen lots of unmitigated arguments that suggest we can’t get involved. Ukraine should just give up. They can’t win. It seems like we’ve just given up, and run straight to “let the bully take your lunch money”.

I get it, international relations, China, nuclear annihilation, NATO, noninterventionism. I get all the reasons we can’t but it feels wrong to forget all the reasons we should.

As if there’s any certainty. As if a country in the midst of committing attrocities is considering the “rules of war”.

I welcome the counter arguments, the rhetoric, the education in history and nuclear deterrent.

But the baseline value has to be set, because sitting back and watching this and just thinking Russia should get whatever they want is fucked. It looks like we’re already seeing the beginning of atrocities, and while I’m sure the thinkpieces afterwards about how we should have intervened will be very thoughtful, they won’t be much help to the Ukrainian people.