By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
An event has a way of acquiring a life of its own. When that happens it will not just go away. It will keep going on independently of the will of the people involved.
Take the war in Ukraine. There are now so many parties involved that ending it might not be possible just by the say so of a few people.
The only person who can stop the war would be Vladimir Putin, but will he do it? He will not do it as he committed numerous war crimes—genocide– already and it would mean his being tried and perhaps incarcerated forever. With a greatly weakened Russia, now in social chaos, he would not be untouchable.
And as he pursues the war, the more galvanized are the western countries against Russia which will become more and more isolated from the rest of the world, and the more will its economy go down into an abyss.
As its economy gets weaker and weaker, Putin’s enemies at home will get emboldened to challenge his hold on power. Not just them. The Russian people in general are expressing their opposition to the war. So thousands of them are being sent to jail, even weakening whatever is left of Putin’s supporters.
Putin, therefore, is in a “damned if you do, and damned if you don’t” situation. Meantime, the war goes on, the pulverizing of Ukraine will continue, and people around the whole world will continue to endure economic hardships.
Some military generals interviewed on TV channels covering the war had said that Putin has already lost. He committed a big miscalculation by presuming that Ukraine would surrender in two to three days from the start of the invasion. It is now the 11th day and Ukrain is still going strong as Russia’s economy continues to bleed, proportionately with the erosion of Putin’s political power.
But let us not kid ourselves. We will continue to watch bleary eyed TV reporters trying to look fresh even after many sleepless nights of covering the war. And we will continue to suffer while Ukrainians, including helpless children, women and very weak elders will continue to indiscriminately die on the battlefield.
More and more countries are expressing support for Ukraine enabling the flow of war materiel into that country. Many able-bodied men, like war veterans and former special forces from all over the world are also going there to help out. They are not mercenaries. They just have big hearts and the capability to fight the bad guys.
Such a spirit of volunteerism at the risk of the lives volunteers’ lives are indeed admirable but it means more and more countries are getting involved and that is how a war widens.
Hopefully, we will not end up facing again another world war.
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