Yahoo Finance William Watson: Peace on earth requires that Ukraine win
The power went off in our area of Montreal on Saturday. The lights had flickered a couple of times and gone off briefly around midday, but when they went off again late in the afternoon we got out candles and plugged our devices into those little charger-batteries you get as gifts at conferences nowadays. We figured a branch, weighed down with the heavy snow we’d had, must have fallen on a line. Or a transformer had blown.
The Wi-Fi was out but our phones still worked so we checked out the Hydro-Québec power outages page and there we were, about an eight-block area, shaded brown on the map with a symbolic lightning symbol emblazoned on us. In the five-step plan for recovery, we were at Step 3: “Crew on the way.” Step 1 was “Start of power outage” at, I think, 4:20 p.m., and Step 2 was “Under analysis.” Next would be “Work in progress” and then, finally, Step 5: “Service restoration expected at 6:15 p.m.” For those who wonder, this was all in English, though how long that will last is anyone’s guess. At least there isn’t an election anytime soon.
We’re hard up against the shortest days of the year so we lit several candles and sat in the deepening gloom, reading on our iPads. Outside the temperature was about zero — hence the heavy snow — so there was no problem with the furnace being off a short time.
As the neighbourhood descended into darkness — a transformation that is quite enchanting when you know it’s only temporary — I found myself thinking about Ukrainians sitting in the dark and cold this Christmas, about a fifth the way around the world from us. Their power’s not out because of branches falling on power lines. It’s out because a hostile foreign power is aiming high explosives at their electrical grid, presumably after analyzing how best to disable it. We see on television that people’s cellphones still work — despite what must be the best efforts of Russian hackers. I wonder if their equivalent of Hydro-Québec is posting real-time reports on how the repairs are going and when the restoration of power can be expected.
We weren’t greatly upset by our projected two-hour interruption of electricity. There was the question of what the effect would be on dinner, with the stove and microwave unavailable. And in the end it came back on a little earlier than forecast. I doubt that happens much in Kyiv these days. When the lights go out people must have to assume they’ll be sitting in the dark and cold indefinitely and fend as best they can on that basis.
We have the faintest outlines of an idea of what that might be like, based on our experience of the week-long power outage during the ice storm of 1998. But during the ice storm, bombs weren’t falling on us. No one was trying to kill us as part of their government’s official foreign policy. The premier went on television every night to provide updates on how things were going. But he didn’t have to broadcast from a secret bunker, for fear he would be targeted for murder by missiles, fighters or drones.
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It beggars belief that one modern state is trying to immiserate the civilian population of a neighbour in order to achieve its military goal, which is to conquer the country and make its 41-million citizens — or however many remain — bend to its will. What can Ukrainians possibly have done to deserve this?
The horrible incongruity of it all in an age in which technology could instead be enabling the flourishing and fulfillment of just about everyone on the planet may suggest the conflict should be ended as quickly as possible in whatever way possible. The yearning for peace will be especially strong at Christmastime.
But it’s hard to believe a successful conquest of Ukraine would lead to lasting peace. We obviously shouldn’t fight to the last Ukrainian, but if the Ukrainians remain willing to fight, we should help them defend their country. It is in our strong interest — it is certainly in the interest of our allies in Europe, especially those that border Russia — that Ukraine prevail.
What we really mustn’t do is make promises we know we will not keep, as the Post’s John Ivison suggests we have been doing. Canadians understand that our government habitually over-promises and under-delivers. We have grown used to that game. Playing it this winter with a population under bombardment in the cold and dark would be cruel beyond measure.
Financial Post
