CommentsTHE DOCTOR IS IN - To My Fellow Americans:
The United States of America has been, remains now, and always will be a source of inspiration for freedom, safe harbor, justice, and civil rights not only within our own borders but throughout the world. The nations covering our entire planet look to us in times of peril to provide leadership and courage when the world needs us the most.
We now face an unnecessary and frightening specter of a regional if not global conflict occurring within Ukraine from a world leader who appears unhinged and intent upon expanding his nation's borders through war, aggression, and cruelty.
That man is Vladimir Putin of Russia.
And the more the world responds, the more unhinged and intent upon expanding his nation's borders Putin becomes. The courage and resistance of the Ukrainian People is an inspiration for America and the rest of the Free World.
But this is not something new. We stood up to Hitler, we stood up to Tojo, we stood up to Stalin, and we stood up to Saddam Hussein. They, too, sought to create untenable and fascist empires using guns and weapons of mass destruction to those who wanted no part of those empires, and who ultimately relied upon the United States and the Free World to rescue their hapless victims.
Mr. Putin, you are nothing new, and you are nothing special. Insanity, delusions of grandeur, and wanton cruelty are nothing new, and nothing special. They appear to be a sad and essential part of human nature.
Yet the ability to resist, fight, and overcome the wanton destruction of dictators is also an essential part of human nature.
Mr. Putin, you will never win over the people of Ukraine, and you will never win over the people of Europe, and you will never win against a united NATO that endures exactly because of people such as you, your oligarchy, and your military leaders who have no place in our enlightened, peace-loving, and democracy-loving twenty-first century world.
Mr. Putin, the United States and its NATO allies stand committed to arming the Ukrainian people who have shown immeasurable and indefatigable resistance against your ruthless invaders, and are doing so at the expense of their own lives. That will not end.
Mr. Putin, the United States and its NATO allies will starve your empire within weeks to months until your people realize that your military ambitions have no role in the future of Russia.
Mr. Putin, neither Europe or anywhere else in the Free World will be reliant against you or your cronies in Iran or Venezuela with respect to energy or other natural resources. To this end, the United States will pragmatically revisit and build without any delay the Keystone Pipeline that my Administration previously chose to end for environmental purposes.
Mr. Putin, our nation's green environmental concerns and alarm against Global Warming must be balanced against the more immediate threat that is your military and warring environment and its accompanying dangers of creating a fascist and dictatorial world that is without hope or human rights.
Mr. Putin, you have forced me to go against my green environmental principles to confront your own terrible environment in Ukraine, the West, and the rest of the world. You will not win.
Mr. Putin, an American airlift to the eastern borders of NATO and the western borders of Ukraine is now under way, and will carry the day to as many Ukrainians and their neighbors as a previous airlift against your predecessor Josef Stalin did in West Berlin and West Germany.
Mr. Putin, you will lose. You have nuclear missiles, but the West has as many if not more pointed at you.
Mr. Putin, you will not win through either conventional, non-conventional, or even nuclear weapons that the United States wants no part of. But Mr. Putin, you will lose.
Mr. Putin, the United States stands willing and eager to address your concerns through negotiations and dialogue if you will restrain your military, fall back to Russia's current and rightful borders to the east of Ukraine, and stop your widespread killing of Ukrainian men, women, and children.
Mr. Putin, the choice is yours.
Mr. Putin, the United States and its allies will resist in ways that even Hitler, Stalin, and Tojo never dreamed of, and we will not stop.
And therefore, Mr. Putin, if you do not stop on your own, the United States and its allies will have no choice to stop you.
You will not win, Mr. Putin. You will lose.
The choice is yours, Mr. Putin, but the final decision will be made by the United States and its allies if your choice is one that demands bloodshed and misery to your neighbors and the world.
Stop this unnecessary war, Mr. Putin, because you will lose that war.
I am President Joe Biden of the United States, and the United States is committed to defeat you.
Turn back, and fall back, Mr. Putin, because you will lose.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father to two cherished children and a wonderful wife. He was termed out of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) twice after two stints as a Board member for 9, years and is also a Board member of the Westside Village Homeowners Association. He previously co-chaired the MVCC Outreach, Planning, and Transportation/Infrastructure Committees for 10 years. He was previously co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee, the grassroots Friends of the Green Line (which focused on a Green Line/LAX connection), and the nonprofit Transit Coalition His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)