With the war in Ukraine dragging on (six months so far for us, and seven years for them, it might be time to reflect on how this war is different, and what we can do about it.
First, how is it different? Why are we so engaged in this war, when we were largely indifferent to the same atrocities inflicted by Russia and its agents in Syria?
- This is a Facebook war, and there are lots of smart phones in Ukraine.
- This is a war that tests the premise of globalization that if we get interconnected enough, war will be difficult, if not unthinkable.
- This war, like the Spanish Civil War, is not just a war of nations, it is a war of ideologies. Liberal democracy is being challenged by authoritarianism, not just in the voting booth, but on the battlefield. It is not too much of a stretch to see the Ukrainians as colonial America, and Putin as King George.
- In the US, we have gotten used to wars where the active fighting phase lasts weeks, if not days. It is now clear that this war will drag on for years. We don’t have the “shock and awe” of the invasion of Iraq, so much as the grinding horror of World War II.
We find ourselves in a position similar to civilians on “the home front” in the Second World War; we want to help, but are far from the battlefield. We found ways to help then — involving how we spend our money, how we spend our time, and how we spend our votes — and can do so again. Here are some suggestions that go beyond our thoughts and prayers:
- Contribute to help those still in Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees.The Internet lists many highly rated non-profits that are helping, including UNICEF USA, World Vision and Catholic Relief Services. Non-profit oversight organizations like Charity Navigator and CharityWatch can help you find other transparent, efficient organizations.
- Lobby to get the US to accept more Ukrainian refugees on a temporary basis.
- Reduce Putin’s leverage by reducing his energy revenues.
- Use less natural gas: Eat more cold meals or cook on the grill (90% of our propane comes from the US, and 70% of the rest comes from North America).
- Use less gasoline: Drive less whenever possible. For some that might mean using public transportation, for others putting up with Zoom meetings.
- Lobby for energy policies that make us less dependent on foreign energy sources.
- Make clear that Putin is creating a long-term problem for himself. If people would pledge not just to stop buying Russian goods, but to refuse to buy them for a full year for every month that Russia spends in Ukraine, it might have greater impact.
- To make this threat more effective, we might pressure Amazon and other online retailers to identify products made or assembled in Russia, China, and in the US, NAFTA, or other allies.
- Boycott US companies that continue to do business in Russia.
- It might help if we made the boycott more visible. If people made a coordinated effort to stop buying a flagship product, like Honey Nut Cheerios, it might show up in Nestle’s P&L. If lots of people start returning boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios to the store as inedible, that might get even more attention.
- Defend against the threat of Russian cyber attacks by hardening our personal cyber defenses – use strong passwords, replace passwords periodically, move to two-step authentication, keep your anti-virus and anti-malware software up to date and scan regularly, be aware of tricks that hackers use to behind our firewalls and avoid them.
- Fight inflation by buying less. The War in Ukraine is one of several converging causes of the inflation we are concerned about.
- Conserving energy not only deprives Putin of revenue, it will reduce demand and tend to keep prices in check.
- Fighting the inflation of food prices by buying less food, particularly sugary or processed food, might have some useful side benefits.
- Fight disinformation. This war, like most, involves misinformation to create and maintain a will to fight. But the volume and potential sources of misinformation are exponentially greater these days.
- Find a reliable fact-checking tool. Some of the more widely known are FactCheck.org. and Politifact. To find alternatives, you might try MediaBias/FactCheck, which summarizes fact-checking done by other organizations.
- Keep track of how well your go-to news source does against the fact checker.
- Resist efforts to pull us apart as a nation. Fighting a war is tough enough when we are united; don’t allow saboteurs to separate us. Putin’s long-term strategy for winning in Ukraine will succeed only if we lose our focus and our will to fight.
- There is a lot of money to be made by polarizing issues, and lots of politicians and media outlets that take full advantage. When you see that someone is trying to push your buttons, turn them off. That is why God invented the TV remote.
- Keep listening and talking, respectfully, with those who disagree with you. Sometimes listening is the best medicine.
- Protect democracy. One lesson of the last century is that democracy is fragile. We can’t be so concerned about democracy in Ukraine that we ignore our own. Timothy Snyder in his short book On Tyranny lists twenty things we need to be doing to protect democracy in the US. Pay attention.
