As a former Navy Corpsman, I’m not a big fan of a lot of weapons. The business end of war is not a good end to be on, and it would be wonderful if everyone agreed to paintball tournaments with safety gear to settle matters.

That’s not the world we live in.

The choice of the United States – our choice – to send cluster bombs to Ukraine bothered me a lot for some time today. The duds have a tendency to linger, later hurting civilians long after the conflict. Those who survive them become walking wounded, losing limbs and other functionality most of us take for granted. This is why some people are uncomfortable around people who have been physically disabled – because we know, deep down, that it could be us and we don’t want to confront that. It’s damned scary.

I completely understand why Human Rights groups are against them and are being vociferous about the United States sending them. I do. It’s not a hard thing to understand.

And.

In the case of Ukraine and Russia, both sides have been using these sorts of munitions. Russia has made it a point to target civilian facilities as well, and I’d link examples but I don’t feel like facing that stuff from over 500 days ago in that 3 month special operation. Ukraine is protecting it’s sovereignty, and it’s taken a heavy toll on Ukraine in people, in infrastructure… It’s mind boggling.

So to retain their sovereignty, and since these nasty explosive devices as well as other nasty things are still in use by Russia, do we tell Ukraine, “Well, we could help you win, but our conscience would be muddied”, and so allow Russia to expand it’s borders into Ukraine at the cost of all those lives? Do we say, “We don’t want to feel bad! We’ll feel better if Russia takes your territory after it has killed so many Ukrainians!”

Hell no. I’m sorry, but hell no. Russia has been threatening everything up to nuclear war, it’s been transporting civilians without consent to parts of Russia – illegal, they say, but who enforces law during war?

No. I will accept that there is some responsibility for future injury and death among civilians who will be doing so in their own country, and Ukraine has accepted that responsibility as well.

I’d rather cluster munitions, white phosphorous, and all manner of terrible arms didn’t exist, but that naivete has no place in such conflict. Human rights have been out the window for 500 days, and the country that started it is likely to take more if the Ukrainians roll over – historically, the Bolsheviks did the same in 1922 to begin forming the Soviet Union.

I’m sorry. I honestly am. Yet I am not going to ask Ukraine to fight by schoolyard rules when the street has no rules. Ukraine has persevered. Ukrainians have put up with a lot, including the world not seeing them until this conflict.

I hate it. I endorse it. That’s life, unfortunately. We can’t have human rights without humans, and Russia has done it’s damnedest to kill civilians throughout this conflict. They could just go home.

They should just go home.

But instead, there will be fields of sunflowers, if things go right. And that, you see, is where the real problems are. The Peace that is being negotiated through war is just the beginning of the unpredictable future of a Russian Federation.

Human Rights groups – I get it – but maybe write Putin, too, and tell him to pull out.