The real concern behind the Poland-Missile crisis
On the evening of November 15, reports began to hit social media of an alleged Russian missile that was targeting a site on the Polish-Ukrainian border. The stories continued to state that the missile had landed in Poland, not Ukraine, and killed two people.
Poland and NATO members quickly convened under NATO Article 4 to discuss the situation. Leaders attending the G20 event in Bali even veered from their schedules to hold talks; Lavrov, who went to G20 in Putin’s place, returned to Russia.
Social media responded as you would expect: absurdly.
I say this because what was revealed is that the missile that landed in Russia was of Ukrainian origin, and came from an air defense system that missed its target and accidently landed in Poland, killing the two civilians.
Poland’s President, Andrej Duda, even backed up this statement.
The reason this situation is absurd — and is a reflection of mindset that needs corrected in the West and Ukraine — is based in how people were responding to the incident before they knew the truth. Take a look at some examples:
These are only three examples, but they demonstrate a strange extreme from pundits and politicians. Before facts are even discovered, we have thought leaders and foreign policy decision makers calling for various escalations to the war in Ukraine.
The rhetoric has always held the baseline of military and financial aid, but calling for direct action against Russia — in clear or vague terms — is absolutely erroneous behavior.
The thing that bothers me most is the people who are prone to such sensationalist, erratic statements are those who are also claiming to be ambassadors of peace; they tweet all day about how badly they want the war to end, and the instant something new happens, they become Warhawks. And, in classic Warhawk fashion, they’re the last who would take up arms to fight the war they so desperately think needs to happen.
The real concern for me is the immaturity of those who are shaping the narrative behind this war. We cannot justifiably preach peace, de-escalation, and nuclear disarmament but, at the same time, make unsubstantiated claims the basis behind decision making. There is too much at stake to let that slide.
The bottom line is this; we should be involved in the war in Ukraine in some capacity (aid, weapons, command and control, training), but that capacity resides on a very thin line. The event in Poland has shown just how perpetually close we are to crossing it.
But who knows, these are only preliminary reports. It could be that in the end, it was a Russian missile. That certainly changes things.
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