Bullies picking on a kid behind the bike sheds

I wasn’t going to do a blog this week. Life’s been full of first world problems – first emptying, then ripping out the old kitchen and putting in a new one with new appliances. And while that was going on, online access was limited because (of course) the power had to be switched off on a number of circuits. I’ll leave it to you to imagine the grot and dust and shavings and plastic packaging. So we’re busy cleaning and putting stuff in the new cupboards and cleaning and trying to remember where we put stuff and cleaning and coming to terms with things not going where we’d like them to go. And of course it didn’t go entirely to plan.

Anyway, what jarred me into action was the bully boy, televised on media, heap-on in the Oval Office. Trump, Vance, Hegseth (at least) versus Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Here’s the video.

I thought it was absolutely disgraceful. Zelenskyy is a hero, Ukraine’s version of Winston Churchill. Trump and Vance appear to be siding with Putin. Zelenskyy conducted himself with dignity in response to being talked over and shouted at. It was rather like a bunch of bullies picking on a kid behind the bike sheds. Putin and Xi must be hugging themselves with glee. Zelenskyy is being asked (told) to accept that the Russians get to keep their ill-gotten gains, and accept that Ukraine caused the war.

Europe absolutely has to pull its finger out and fix its own problems. Putin certainly won’t stop at Ukraine. It’s clear the Americans won’t be stepping in to act as the cavalry. And (let’s face it) that’s fair enough. It’s not their fight.

Which makes one ponder about Australia’s position. At the moment we haven’t got enough of a military to man the few ships we have in our navy – which is why a Chinese naval task force can circumnavigate Australia with impunity. Maybe it’s time we introduced conscription. It might also help to solve our growing juvenile crime problem.

Slava Ukraine!