It’s an important statement.
My take is that there is more grounds for and therefore also more possibility of convincing people that a third world war with China is likely unless the Russian regime is ended than that a Russian attack on NATO countries in Eastern Europe is likely unless Ukraine’s “recipe” is adopted:
The recipe for this victory is clear: it is restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the withdrawal of the remnants of Russian troops, the punishment of war criminals, reparations, the introduction of the amendments to international law that will prevent similar aggressions in the future, and participation of Ukraine in the architecture of international security.
I don’t think it is plausible the above could really be achieved without ending the Russian regime. Some war criminals might be caught and punished and some Russian assets located outside of Russia might be seized as reparations but if the regime remains in place NATO including Ukraine as well as the Russian peoples will still be faced with fascist terrorism and Chinese fascists will only learn that they need to be better prepared than Russia was.
It is basically absurd to permit a regime that openly threatened nuclear attacks to destroy civilization to remain in existence after it is militarily defeated.
The statement has a good reminder of a Western view of history:
In 1938, striving to prevent what would become the second world war, an infamous agreement was signed in Munich, transferring the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to the Third Reich. We know from history that this did not stop Hitler. Soon the Third Reich had complete control over what was left of Czechoslovakia, including its considerable military arsenal, which later played an important role in the invasion of Poland and France.
The reality was actually much worse, but I won’t provoke that argument right now.
More immediately relevant is that the lesson learned from that infamous agreement was not just that there had to be restoration of territorial integrity by withdrawal of Nazi troops, trials of war criminals, reparations and amendments to international law.
The lesson learned then and forgotten now is that there had to be unconditional surrender of the Nazi armed forces and the Nazi regime had to be completely dismantled. An entirely new system of international law had to be established with the allied powers who defeated the Nazis forming a Security Council empowered to direct all other member states of the United Nations to contribute forces under the command of its Military Committee to combat by land, sea and air any power that launched another war of aggression.
That lesson still remains forgotton. Current US and NATO posture against taking the war into the territory of the aggressor state and ending its regime is in direct opposition to all the lessons of history.
Remembering it requires clear statements that the aim is unconditional surrender to end the regime. Nothing short of that is likely to impress Chinese fascists.
