It will define the world we all live in for a long time

Friday evening I actually went to a theater to see a play. The play was Home and the venue was Ann Arbor’s Power Center. This show was part of the University Musical Society that has been showcasing touring talent for (I think they said) 144 years. This play was originally scheduled for April 2020 – and didn’t happen then. I’m glad it was rescheduled. Home is about the place we call that name and the ordinary things we do in it, so there isn’t a plot. The show begins with a guy starting to build the house. I wondered how they will construct a two story set, do it quickly, and have it strong enough to not fall apart as they act on it. Short answer: they don’t, the main walls of the first floor, the stairs, and the floor and outer walls of the second floor appear as a unit. Then there are a lot of workmen who hang interior doors, then bring in kitchen cabinets and appliances, bathroom fixtures, and all the furniture upstairs and down. The rest of the show was about daily living in a house – waking up, preparing for work, taking out the trash. All of this is without talking. The routine of the bathroom in the morning was a delight with the entire cast seeming to use it all at once including one person climbing into the shower and a moment later another climbing out. This was all finely choreographed. There were several incidents of this swapping, such as one person getting into bed and a moment later another getting out. Much of the second half seemed to be a series of parties all rolled into one – wedding, baby shower, New Year’s Eve, birthday, and several more. During this the actors spoke, but they did not project or have microphones so what they said wasn’t clearly heard, which seemed to be the intent. During this the actors came into the audience and brought people on stage as more people coming to the party. There were eight people listed in the cast, and this more than doubled the size of the party. The first guy brought on stage really seemed to know his way around the set – such as which drawer to open in the kitchen – that I thought he must be someone actually a part of the cast. But then more and more people were brought onstage. I quite enjoyed the evening. It was an imaginative concept done well with an imaginative set and imaginative lighting with finely timed choreography. The small annoyance was the singer who appeared every so often. I didn’t always understand what he was saying and when I did I wasn’t sure what that had to do with the action around him. The singer played both guitar and autoharp – and I don’t think I’ve seen one of those since my youth. Kos of Daily Kos wrote about Russia deciding not to continue to waste troops to try to take the Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol. Instead, they’ll divert most of those troops to the Donbas fight, though I think they are continuing to shell the factory. Kos said that’s actually a good tactic by Russia. That factory is huge, covering four square miles. The perimeter is nine miles. Russia won’t be able to take it over or to keep forces stuck in the factory from coming out and attriting the city’s occupiers. Because the factory is so huge and because so many of the buildings are connected by tunnels, the Ukrainians, both troops and civilians, could stay there a good long time – if they stockpiled enough food, which was the plan. Mark Sumner of Kos said what is going on in Ukraine is not the World War III people had anticipated. Even so, the West has recognized we win this war or Putin will try again and we’ll have another war. And that future war, like this one, will come with massive war crimes. Russia can’t manage the battlefield, but it can pulverize cities and lives.

Unless, of course, someone makes them stop. Which is where we are now. Not “Does Ukraine have the weapons it needs to stand against Russia in a fair fight?” but, “Does Ukraine have what it needs to destroy Russia’s ability to kill civilians in their homes?” Which is a very different thing. ... To really win this thing, Ukraine can’t fight the Russian army to a draw or force them to halt their advance. Ukraine has to destroy the Russian army in a way that keeps it from committing mass murder of civilians, not just right now, but for a long time to come. That is a very big task. What’s happening in Ukraine is not World War III. Except in the sense that it will define the world we all live in for a long time to come. Which … okay, maybe it is.

Sumner objected to a CNN opinion piece on how the US should try to reach a peace deal – we should give Putin what he wants so that he’ll stop killing civilians. One objection, which the piece mentioned only briefly, is that Putin would need to be willing to make concessions, and there has been no evidence he would. The other is the piece didn’t mention that Ukraine should have a voice (and the loudest voice) in how the war ends. Giving Putin what he wants is not an option. The biggest problem in all that is Putin wants Ukraine. Charles Jay of the Kos community wrote that Ukrainian officials say satellite images show there is a mass grave near Mariupol in which up to 9,000 people may be buried. Kos reviewed the mistakes Russia made before it withdrew from around Kyiv. Then there were attacks along four fronts, none done well, and there were exposed supply lines, on which Ukraine feasted. Kos mentioned all this because in the Battle of Donbas they are attacking along five fronts and their supply lines are exposed. This looks like Groundhog Day.