Western Standard - March 03, 2022


OPINION： The Russian Invasion. Cory chats with Dave Makichuck.


Episode Stats

Length

13 minutes

Words per Minute

154.39807

Word Count

2,073

Sentence Count

169

Hate Speech Sentences

8


Summary

The world has been on edge since the news broke that the Russians have invaded Ukraine. What are the implications for Canada and the rest of the world, and what will they do about it? We talk to journalist and author, Dave, to find out.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 got the whole world on edge. So let's bring Dave in and see what's going on. Hey, Dave,
00:00:03.860 how are you doing there? I'm good. I'm good. Quite a day. The world has changed overnight.
00:00:11.440 Yeah. Well, and as Marco was kind of saying towards the end, he wrote and predicted a lot
00:00:16.760 of what was coming. We talked a few weeks ago and basically it was as much as the Russians even then
00:00:21.300 were still saying, oh, it's just a training exercise. Everybody knew they're going to invade
00:00:24.460 sometime probably shortly after the Olympics. And here we are. Exactly. I think with all the leaks
00:00:31.200 from the CIA and the MI6, which kept us informed of what the Russians were doing all the way,
00:00:43.240 I think they were totally right on. They nailed it. They told us what was going to happen and exactly
00:00:49.440 what they said happened. And the red, they told us about the red flag, a method that Putin was going
00:00:59.640 to use. And they told us about the buildups on the border, about bringing in aircraft,
00:01:06.900 about bringing troops into Belarus, about bringing ships into the Black Sea, which could land troops.
00:01:13.600 And it was a fait accompli. It was a fait accompli. It was obviously going to happen. And all the
00:01:25.840 denials and all the lies and everything else the Russians have said. I mean, really, there was no
00:01:34.540 reason, absolutely no reason to attack a peaceful country, which meant Russia no harm. It just makes no
00:01:42.700 sense. And I'm sure a lot of people are shaking their heads wondering why, like, why did they do
00:01:48.920 this? And the only person who knows that is Putin. Yeah, well, they've now really passed a giant
00:01:55.880 point of no return. Some people are still speculating, oh, he's just going to go into those
00:02:00.060 areas where there were some secessionists that declared independence. But they're already been
00:02:05.360 shelling, I believe, Kiev and moving out that way. I mean, some of it's strategic. But at the same time,
00:02:09.920 I got a feeling he's not going to stop with just part of the country.
00:02:13.640 Well, if you've I mean, I've probably everybody yourself, everybody's watching CNN,
00:02:17.740 apparently 16 different regions or cities, or bases, facilities, military facilities have been
00:02:28.200 attacked. They started out with aircraft, airstrikes with helicopters and jet fighters,
00:02:37.520 and they have advanced jet fighters. And then they brought in the tanks, and the troop movements.
00:02:45.120 And then they brought in their artillery. And then they brought in these really lethal, lethal
00:02:53.020 weapons, these incendiary missiles, and these hyperbaric tipped missiles, which cause tremendous
00:03:05.740 collateral damage. If they're, you know, the fact they're using these alone, is a war crime on an
00:03:14.520 innocent nation. It just is beyond belief. And there are those, the theory that I'm getting is that
00:03:22.400 Putin was around when the wall came down. And that destroyed the old Soviet Union. And the theory is he
00:03:31.980 wants to revive it and bring it back. And as Zelensky, the President of Ukraine said, what's next? Who's next?
00:03:43.020 Will it be if I was if I was on the border of Russia, I'd be very worried. But again, the US the night,
00:03:52.300 the United Kingdom, other nations, including Canada, are all reacting to it, the whole world.
00:04:01.340 Biden was just on TV saying that Putin will be a pariah. But we shall we shall see if sanctions if
00:04:08.940 these sanctions are tough enough, they have to be harsh, they have to be really harsh. And that's what
00:04:14.860 is key here. Because basically, Biden is playing every card he's got. He's not a wartime president. He's
00:04:22.700 not a he's not a Ronald Reagan. And as much as I love General Milley, who's a great joint chairman of
00:04:34.940 the Joint Chiefs, I think he's a good man. And I think he has our backs on this. He's not a Curtis LeMay.
00:04:41.420 And also times have changed. The West could very well be in decline.
00:04:53.180 Yeah, well, and now getting back to our domestic response. And I mean, you know, Trudeau is in a
00:04:58.780 difficult position altogether. I mean, we're not a military power. We have some influence, but limited
00:05:04.380 trade with Russia and the Ukraine. There's not too much pressure we can exert. But still, we've got
00:05:11.180 a large, particularly in the West, you know, a population of Ukrainian immigrants and descendants.
00:05:16.940 He wants to speak up on their behalf. But what can Canada do? Or what should they do in this
00:05:22.060 circumstance?
00:05:22.940 Well, I'm glad you asked that. That's a very good question. I just did a piece on that a few days ago,
00:05:28.860 and I was a bit harsh on Trudeau. I thought they could have done much, they could have been much,
00:05:34.540 much tougher. As far as I'm concerned, some of those things that he announced should have been done
00:05:40.700 already. And sending artillery troops in 30 days. In 30 days, this thing will all be over. What's the
00:05:49.580 point? And saying we support our NATO allies. That should have been done a month ago. And also,
00:05:56.700 and I bring this up in my column, the Magnitsky laws, which we passed in 2017, could be easily enacted
00:06:07.100 against Russians who have a connection to either war crimes or human rights abuses. We could have gone
00:06:16.060 after these guys 100 times, and not a single thing was done. The foreign affairs people did nothing,
00:06:26.780 and Trudeau did nothing. And we, not a single person has been targeted by those Magnitsky laws,
00:06:33.420 which are on the books. We can actually hurt them. But, and there was a veiled reference to,
00:06:41.980 well, we'll go after some of their people and some of their banks. Nothing was named. Absolutely
00:06:47.020 nothing was named. Which, you know, when you compare that with speeches from Biden, and especially
00:06:53.100 Boris Johnson, if you get a chance to watch the 10-minute speech given by Boris Johnson in the House,
00:06:59.580 in London, it was absolutely Churchillian. It was amazing. And he hit them so damn hard, really hard.
00:07:09.260 And that's the way you deal with Putin. You hit him hard at the first go.
00:07:13.580 And I think, I was really impressed by that. I think Trudeau could do a hell of a lot more.
00:07:20.940 A hell of a lot more. And again, with our foreign affairs policy, it's been like this for years.
00:07:31.660 We're soft on China. We're soft on Russia. We're soft on everybody. We talk a big game,
00:07:38.300 but what do we do about it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Those strong words from Trudeau meant zip.
00:07:47.740 So I hope, okay, the second round of sanctions are much tougher.
00:07:53.660 Yeah. And then beyond sanctions, we get into containment, I guess you could say. I mean,
00:07:59.260 as you said, weeks from now, even if we send arms, it's going to be over as far as, I mean,
00:08:03.420 it's just such an overwhelming force coming into there with Russia. There's concerns, of course,
00:08:08.140 is this expansionism going to keep going? So I imagine we're going to see a NATO build up in
00:08:12.940 neighboring nations. I mean, that's some of the stuff that Canada contributes a degree to,
00:08:16.620 and then we put some good feet on the ground in those exercises. But that just brings me back to
00:08:21.900 the old days of building up a Cold War and having a border with people massed on each side. And wow,
00:08:27.260 what a terrible time to go back to. Absolutely. And one of my good friends,
00:08:30.780 his son is in Latvia and serving with Canada and serving valiantly, I might add. And we're all
00:08:41.020 proud of them. Absolutely. If those troops are over there, they're doing their best,
00:08:45.020 and they're supporting NATO. But your question is actually very good. What do we do now looking down
00:08:50.620 the road? Okay, because we all know Putin is going to sue for peace as soon as this is over. And he's
00:08:57.500 going to sue for diplomat diplomacy. And he's going to try and calm everything down and get away with
00:09:04.220 this. And we have to not let him do that. But to get back to your question, what do we do next? Well,
00:09:15.420 there was a recent study by the RAND Corporation, I think it was just announced recently. And the RAND
00:09:21.660 Corporation, the RAND organization, I should say, is actually helping the United States government
00:09:27.820 through this current situation. And they said that, how do you contain Putin? But also, how do you not
00:09:40.700 get the Russians upset? How do you strike a balance? And they said that what you do is,
00:09:47.340 the last thing you do, or the last thing we should do, is move a whole bunch of NATO troops right to
00:09:53.420 his border. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Because that will just fuel the fire and give him reason to retaliate
00:10:01.980 against those countries. So what they suggested, the RAND Corporation study, is that we place small
00:10:12.460 batches of troop concentrations in these countries close enough to Russia, but not on their doorstep.
00:10:19.260 Because that is just going to anger them and feed into Putin's future plans, which we don't really
00:10:25.660 know what they are. We're not sure. Does he want to go after these other countries? Does he want to
00:10:30.620 restore Russia's greatness? Possibly? We don't know. We don't know the end game. But he may be playing
00:10:37.500 the long game here. Yeah, well, I mean, we got a lot of delicate and nuanced diplomacy to have to work
00:10:44.460 on and deal with in the weeks and months to come here. But I mean, we've never seen a military action
00:10:50.380 like this in our adult lives and in Europe. And it's, you know, we can't help but be very, very
00:10:56.140 concerned about it. So we'll have you back on Monday. We'll have a much better idea, I guess,
00:11:01.740 on how this goes. Hopefully, as far as invasions go, it can be, I mean, it being pretty much inevitable
00:11:07.820 that Putin's going to take as much of Ukraine as he chooses to at this time, I just hope it's with the
00:11:12.140 least amount of bloodshed possible in such an awful circumstance. Me too. I know there are pockets
00:11:18.460 of resistance and there's fierce fighting reported. I don't think we know a hell of a lot. I just know
00:11:23.820 what I'm hearing on Twitter or seeing on Twitter and hearing on CNN and so forth. Pitch battles.
00:11:30.940 But I think that eventually they'll just be overwhelmed. They'll just be overwhelmed. And I
00:11:36.140 think in a few days and God forbid, no more killing. Let's just get this over with and
00:11:42.540 and I hope it ends soon. I have a buddy in Kyiv who's reporting for ABC Australia. And he wants to,
00:11:51.420 he's sheltering in place. And he's hoping to get out of there soon. He was reporting on everything.
00:11:57.820 And he said Kyiv is quiet. There's not a person on the street. But let me just say this before we go.
00:12:04.620 There are protests in St. Petersburg and Kremlin as we speak. And if you go on Twitter,
00:12:13.100 you'll see videos of those protests. And Putin tried to quash those protests by saying,
00:12:18.940 if you do this, your future is going to be in question. We're really going to come after you.
00:12:25.420 So I credit those Russians who have nothing against Ukraine, who are the brothers of Ukrainians,
00:12:33.900 basically. And I'm Ukrainian. And I say that too. There, there's no animosity from Russians against
00:12:41.980 Ukrainians. It's this man who is doing this. And he's going, he may pay a heavy price.
00:12:49.020 Well, I should say the Russian people will pay a heavy price. He's not going to pay any price,
00:12:54.220 because he doesn't care. And that's, that's, that's my final word on that.
00:12:59.260 You bet. Yeah, no, that's another interesting element. We just didn't have time to go into it.
00:13:02.860 But we'll see how, I mean, resistance within Russia goes on this, because no, not everybody
00:13:07.180 is favorable about this, this whole idea on the part of Putin, and he's going to have to answer to
00:13:11.500 them to some point. And, and Russian politics are, are never an easy or straightforward thing.
00:13:17.260 So thank you very much. And we'll be watching it over the next few days. And I'll talk to you again
00:13:21.660 soon, Dave. Okay. Thanks, Corey. Take care now. Great. Thanks.