On helping Ukraine

This is an edited extract from an email I sent to my local MP. 

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Dear Member of Parliament,

While I support actions against Putin’s regime and its supporters and enablers, including provision of munitions and other military aid, I am gravely concerned at the Minister of Defence’s statement that members of our military may be sent to Ukraine.

Presumably this is for training support, as the British and USA have done (although not on Ukrainian territory, I understand), and as reported. That I would support, on the proviso that it is NOT a ruse to entangle us in direct combat as was done in Viêt Nàm.

Further to that, if the members of our military are being sent for direct involvement in combat, that is a de facto declaration of war without debate - and thus a perfect example of why the current war powers campaign should result in involvement in wars that are not of direct, close defence being subject to Parliamentary debate.

Others are being eloquent on that, so I will say no more on that topic.

However, there is another matter: the fact that Putin that has felt enabled to undertake this second invasion because of:

(a) the lack of effective action against his violent expansionism, going back to his violent suppression and transformation of Chechnya; and
(b) our - the West’s - focus on cheap fossil fuels and business ties above all else.

The world now has a series of Magnitsky-style Acts as a result of one person taking determined, principled action against one of the Putin regime’s murders (when one of their attempts at corruption failed). That finally includes us.

It would be hypocritical in the extreme for us to take belated action against Putin now without also taking action against the other despots who are heading down the same path - people like the genocidal regime in Burma, the juntas who have stolen control if several nations in Africa and the corrupt actors reported on regularly by organisations such as “The Sentry”, and notorious ongoing abusers such as certain people in Saudi Arabia.

Such actions should place human rights considerations above economic.

We have an impending economic crisis, and a current food crisis, globally because we collectively failed to take action two decades ago against someone who didn't seem significant and/or it was harmful to the West’s short term prospects. It behoves us to stop future such crises NOW.

And I am mindful of Dr Martin Luther King’s admonition that a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

I urge the Albanese government to take action to address the threats to future peace and stability that are evident now, as well as genuinely considering the other issues I have raised.

I would appreciate a response to this email in due course, but understand that time will need to be allowed for the considerations I have urged. 

Yours faithfully