Ukrainians are not just fighting for their own freedom. They are fighting for the entire free world. We have a solemn duty to provide weapons and ammunition to ensure Ukraine wins.
Imagine for a moment that fascist Germany could have been stopped in Poland in 1939.
Imagine if the German war machine was ground down and crushed by Poland’s defenses.
Imagine if the fascist German regime was discredited and defeated.
Countless lives would have been saved.
Unspeakable suffering would have been avoided.
We face a similar situation today.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has made no secret of his intention to try and put the Soviet empire back together.
He even blamed Poland for WW2, clearly recognizing how similar his ‘justification’ for his brutal war of aggression against Ukraine is to the justification used by the fascist German regime in the 1930s.
Top Russian officials and propagandists openly talk about attacking Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, and even threaten the United Kingdom and Germany. Any such attack would draw in NATO forces – including Canadians – in what would be a massive war.
Yet, Russia can be stopped before they go any futher.
Thanks to the courage, brilliance, and strength of the Ukrainian People, Russia is being held back. Putin’s nightmarish expansionist vision is being checked by Ukrainian Forces.
Thus, Ukraine’s success in saving their own nation and retaking their stolen territory not only protects Ukraine, but also protects the entire free world.
The more successful Ukraine is, the less likely it is that Canadian troops will ever have to fight in Europe.
Again, that point must be heard and understood. If you really want to ensure Canadian men and women don’t end up fighting in a brutal war in Europe, then supporting now Ukraine is essential.
And right now, what Ukraine needs is ammunition and weapons.
Ukraine is not asking for Canada or anyone else to put boots on the ground.
All they are asking for is weapons and ammunition so they can keep fighting and push Russia out of Ukraine.
We must do everything we can to provide Ukraine with what they need.
And that means we need to rapidly ramp up our military industry.
Not in a month or a year.
But NOW.
We need to be rapidly building new ammunition plants, and work with our allies to starting producing tanks and drones in Canada.
We need a complete shift in perspective here.
It’s not a choice between helping Ukraine and building up our own forces.
We must do both.
We must spend billions more to ensure that our own forces are well equipped, and ensure that Ukraine gets what it needs.
Remember, the most likely enemy Canada would fight is Russia. If Russian forces are ground down and pushed out of Ukraine, that is a direct benefit to Canada.
And so, helping Ukraine is also helping ourselves.
A great point made by Wyatt Claypool in a recent discussion on the issue is that if Canada built up our military production industry and provided more weapons/ammunition to Ukraine, we would be also helping ourselves.
If Canada spent $5 billion on artillery shells for Ukraine that were built in Canada, that would be $5 billion in economic stimulus that would benefit Canadian industry, create Canadian jobs – and most importantly, would increase the efficiency of our production through the build-up of expertise and best practices, meaning we would also be more proficient at boosting our own forces.
It would absolutely be in our self-interest, which is why our enemies are trying to convince us not to do it.
That’s another point made by Wyatt as he noted that the opposition to Ukraine aid we see coming from some of the political far-right is the same pacifist naivety that we have seen from the far-left:
The anti-Ukraine narratives originally came from the Green Party which believes in weakness or "pacificism" in the face of aggressive dictatorship.
The "anti-war" Left has always been more "pro-dictators winning wars". Green/NDP politicians.
Don't follow their lead.
— Wyatt Claypool (@wyatt_claypool) February 24, 2024
In fact, the NDP Socialist Caucus uses rhetoric almost identical to that of Tucker Carlson and the far-right pro-Putin propagandists:
“Socialists oppose all wars, except the class war. Workers and the poor, women and children are the first and foremost victims of war, while a tiny, rich minority profit from the woe it inflicts on the vast majority. The current conflict over Ukraine shows this again. It stems from the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is led by Washington, London, Paris, Ottawa and their imperialist allies. The unfolding tragedy can be halted by mass protest actions in every country demanding Negotiation, Not Escalation. The construction of a broad, democratic anti-war movement is the key task at this moment.”
If the far-right or far-left had their way, we wouldn’t produce any weapons, we would abandon Ukraine, Russia would win, China would invade Taiwan unopposed, and freedom & democracy would recede as authoritarian regimes steamrolled over the pacificist nations of the world.
That cannot be allowed to happen.
We need to start producing more weapons now, and we must do so at a massive scale.
And as we do so, we must provide many of those weapons to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s fight is our fight.
The Ukrainian People are fighting for the values that built Canada and the Western world.
We must ensure Ukraine wins and Russia is defeated.
We must not waver.
We must not let ourselves be divided or manipulated by foreign propaganda.
Instead, we must stand with Ukraine all the way until victory.
Our future, and the future of freedom, depends on it.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
