Today, for at least the second time in the last month, the President of the United States has speculated in public about the fortunes of the Ukrainian people. In response to a question about the possibility that Russia might use chemical weapons, the President responded: “The nature of the response would be based upon the nature of the use.”
The President indulged in this kind of speculation the first time when the issue of incursion (read invasion) was in play:
I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades. And it depends on what it does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do.
I am not an expert in foreign policy or military tactics. But as a Christian, a theologian, and priest, the questions tumble over one another in wake of the press conference:
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Are we really so frightened, so lacking in moral clarity and resolve that we are willing to countenance any use of chemical weapons?
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Are we so poorly acquainted with the dynamics of negotiation that we are prepared to create a space in which someone like Vladimir Putin might be invited to “explore” or “probe” just exactly what our limits are?
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And – worst of all – are we willing to speculate in public about what those limits are in a fashion that puts the Ukrainian people at risk and then watch as Putin’s armies probe those limits, while we stand by?
This is not a matter of partisan politics. No one wants this President or any President to fail in the effort to contain the kind of threat that Vladimir Putin poses to the well being of the world.
But what is now at stake are the lives of men, women, and children who are already the victims of unprovoked aggression and war crimes. And this kind of public speculation places those people squarely in the middle of harm’s way.
There will be those who cite the possibility of nuclear war and this is a serious consideration. But, as the Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrated, that threat is always with us, and there are other evils that we will need to confront that fall well short of that possibility. For the people of Ukraine, however, the apocalypse is a reality, and the moral peril is already before us.
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