Russia

Joe! Give Zelensky what he asks for! Ukraine has earned it! It’s a matter of Pride!

Posted on by taharkin

Joe! The MiG-29s from Poland are planes Ukrainian pilots can fly RIGHT NOW!

They are a symbol of national pride, of being able to stand up to Russia toe to toe.

We are at war, and RIGHT NOW counts! Russia is advancing on Kiev, the capital RIGHT NOW!

Russia is advancing into the south of Ukraine RIGHT NOW!

Russia is indiscriminately bombing schools and hospitals, killing women, children, grandparents, and a respected American journalist, Brent Renaud , RIGHT NOW!

Your Secretary of State, Press Secretary, and Pentagon spokesmen say we are already sending Ukraine effective weapons for air defence. But that is all defensive. Send Ukraine MiG-29s and start training their pilots on American aircraft so they can go on the offensive RIGHT NOW!

Let Ukrainian pilots be bad-asses! If they are willing to die for their country, so be it. Give Ukrainians something to be proud of when they look into the sky and see Ukrainian aircraft going on the offence!

One Difference Between Today and 1939

Posted on by taharkin

My dad, an Irish immigrant’s son who by dint of hard work and good luck became a seaplane instructor from Stamford, Connecticut, could take a crowded train down to Arcada, Florida, and teach British farmboys how to fly on Stearman biplanes, incredible planes that are still flying. After learning how to take off and land in one piece, the British cadets quickly graduated to aerobatics fifty feet off the deck. The ones who survived were well-prepared to move on to Spitfires, the planes they used to drive back the mighty Luftwaffe. To this day, British families of pilots who died at Arcada gather once a year to honor them.

President Biden! In the time we’re wasting nitpicking how to get Russian MiG 29s from Poland to Ukraine, we could be picking up Ukrainian pilots at the border and having our Top Guns train them on American fighters that the Ukrainian pilots can fly back to their homeland. It would be like delivering big Javelins, which we are already doing.

They don’t call me the Idea Man for nothing!

UNPUBLISHED LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES

Posted on by taharkin

March 1, 2022

To the Editor:

As an author of serious historical military fiction, I must ask why the US has not fast-tracked Ukraine into NATO? 150,000+ Russian troops surrounding it and the US pulls out its embassy staff and military trainers? I once had great hope for President Biden’s leadership, but he is not showing it.

It mystifies me why Finland and Sweden are not already members, sharing as they do the values of the founding members of NATO. As shaky a member as Turkey might be, NATO should be actively surrounding Western Russia right now, even without Finland.

With 150,000+ Russian troops already making incursions into Eastern Ukraine, this is no time to be deploying a few thousand US troops here and a few thousand there. It’s time for US aircraft to be flying eyeball to eyeball with the Russian air force.

Has anybody in Washington studied Russia’s history? This is the country that starved out Napoleon’s army in Moscow and Hitler’s army at Stalingrad, despite enduring horrendous losses. How can Biden and Secretary of State Blinken expect an embargo to stop Putin?

Terence A. Harkin, author
The Big Buddha Bicycle Race
In the Year of the Rabbit
taharkin.net