It's not that Putin isn't a war criminal; he probably is. (Though we can't know so quickly in a battle where there are probably combatants hiding among civilians.)
The issue is: once you've said it, a) what does it mean; b) what are the consequences? For a), there is no way that Biden can enforce international law on Putin, short of a Russian revolution or a NATO defeat of Russia in what would certainly be a nuclear war, by which time we probably wouldn't be around to care. And for b), once you've accused someone of war crimes, you can't really negotiate with them, because then you become the devil's partner.
I mean, how do we even do the Iran deal with a "war criminal" regime? Plus, they have every incentive to go on fighting, because now their life and liberty are at stake, rather than just territorial gains inside someone else's country. So... Biden might yet again have made World War III a district possibility.
Unless Biden's not serious. Which... would not be a surprise. And it would also not be a surprise that he had risked World War III for gestural politics.
This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
Topics:
- The state of the economy
- The fight against crime
- The midterm election fight
- The struggle for peace between Russia and Ukraine
- The airstrike on the Venezuelan drug cartel
- The attempt to sink Kennedy
- The war in Gaza
- The case against Harvard
- The Trump presidency
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...
