The Moral Imperative of Every Man: Be Hard to Kill
The situation in Ukraine haunts me. Seeing a place and people I care about being invaded and attacked viciously makes me both angry and sad. The atrocities coming out of Bucha, Irpin and Mauripol (and many other places) as well the ever increasing cases of looting, torture, violence and rape by Russian soldiers against unarmed Ukrainian civilians is sickening. Yet many in Europe and USA still refuse to give up their comforts or speak up or turn a blind eye. They ask that we stop sending Ukraine weapons to give peace a chance. Naive, ignorant & “Useful Idiots.”
Yet the reason Ukrainians are fighting so hard is because they know what will happen if they lose. Russians & their pet Kadyorite Chechnyans will show up at the door with a list and they will get taken away to camps or shot in the back of the head. Their women to be treated in unspeakable horrendous ways by the Russian soldiers and security services. Yes, this is awful but this is what they do. They will bombard and destroy wholesale cities. They open up so-called Humanitarian corridors but then shell them when it’s full of people. They did this in Chechnya and they did this in Syria.
We have not experienced the horrors of a major war of aggression at our doorstep, especially in America in 70+ years, outside of 9/11 terrorist attacks. Same in Western Europe outside of some Islamic terrorist attacks. This has inured us to the horror and shock of World War 2 style war of aggression that has caused us to be in so much disbelief & shock.
What the barbarian Russian-caused horrors coming out from Ukraine should be a warning to every single one of us. That the “Tamerlane Principle” exists, Tamerlane was a medieval conqueror reported to have killed 5% of the global population at that time.
Noah Smith describes this very well:
“Tamerlane is always over the horizon, waiting to strike. There will always be conquerors waiting for the chance to conquer and pillage the soft civilized nations of the world. If you think Tamerlane is ancient history, just look up Pol Pot, Joseph Kony, Hitler, etc. This is a recurrent phenomenon. The only thing that can protect people against the Tamerlanes of the world is a strong, economically prosperous, well-organized nation state.”
There is an excellent Richard Grenier quote that should remind all of us fortunate people not on the frontlines that "People Sleep Peacefully in Their Beds at Night Only Because Rough Men Stand Ready to Do Violence on Their Behalf"
This is why it’s important to support Ukraine by sending them as many weapons as possible so they can defend themselves and eject the Russian army out of their territory. Force is only language Putin and his cronies understand. Let’s be frank, force & power is what everyone understands. This is something we have forgotten due to our dulled senses from too much comfort and prosperity. Ukraine literally is the bulwark of democracy and the free world. They are buying the West time with their blood, so all of us have to get tougher and prepare.
Or even better said in the excellent Batman Begins movie: "Like you I was forced to learn there are those who are without decency, who must be fought without hesitation, without pity."
This is also why at the personal level it’s even more critical to be “Physically Fit & Financially Lit.” You need to be healthy and in good physical shape Ie. be able to run without being out of breath. You need to train in some useful martial art like boxing or Muay Thai Kickboxing or Mixed Martial Art. Definitely learn how to shoot a gun and have some basic tactical shooting. Knife fighting skills probably will not hurt either.
You definitely need to have the money and resources to protect and help your family, friends and neighbors. You need to be ready to fight back & defend your loved ones and beliefs. Maybe it will be the Russians, maybe the CCP Chinese, or just the ever growing number of desperate violent criminals in America. Maybe it’s a nutty extremist on the Right or the Left. Either way the world has become a much more dangerous place. Just look at the crazy murder rates in America over the last 2 years starting in 2020. I don’t like it but it’s the new reality.
As much as we want to believe that someone will come save you, why take that chance? In what is turning out to be a tumultuous “Raging Twenties”, better to be safe than sorry. You have to be prepared and become your own “First Responder” for your family. You need to become “A Rough Man (or Woman) ready to Do Violence on those who will try to harm you & your loved ones.”