The polite Ukrainian
What we will unleash if we don’t supply arms
Once upon a time, there was a certain civility to war. It didn’t last long, and had plenty of exceptions, but there was a time when two armies would face off, away from cities and towns and duke it out.
Russians call this ‘pole boya’, the field of battle. Once Napoleon defeated the Russian army outside of Moscow, he assumed- as was the custom in Europe- the Mayor would pop out and hand him the keys of the city. It didn’t quite work that way in the end.
Back then, you had lines of soldiers, in the era of firearms, dutifully lined up in nice rows, all wearing bright colours to distinguish themselves- shooting at range, until one side called it quits.
I have posted about the ammunition constraints of the war from the very beginning. In July 2023 I wrote this article describing how Russia wasn’t especially trying to win the war- just freeze it long enough till Westerners got weary of it and supplies dwindled. And, further to that, western politicans and indeed the public, would insist the war come to a close, regardless of the cost to Ukraine. The Pope’s comments only highlight this.
We can see this play out in American politics and the odd leader in Europe too.
