Article 5-Pilled in a Time of Global Anxiety
Direct NATO involvement against Russia would feel like arelief, until it didn't.
"At worst, Mars or the OPA would make a statement by throwing a rock or a handful of nuclear warheads at the station. Or by blowing a fusion drive on a docked ship. If things got out of hand, it would mean six or seven million dead people and the end of everything Miller had ever known.
Odd that it should feel almost like relief.
For weeks, Miller had known. Everyone had known. But it hadn't actually happened, so every conversation, every joke, nod, and polite moment of light banter on the tube had felt like an evasion. He couldn't fix the cancer of war, he couldn't even slow down the spread, but at least he could admit it was happening." - James S. A. Corey, Leviathan Wakes.
I can relate to this passage.
Watching Russia's war in Ukraine over the past few months, there have been moments when I've felt a fairly deep anxiety about the potential for a full-scale mobilization of NATO forces against Russia. First, on March 10th, a Russian drone carrying explosives crashed in Zagreb. Then, on March 13th, Russian missiles struck within 15 miles of the Polish border. And more recently, with the capture, show trial, and death sentence of British nationals Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner - as well as the even more recent capture of US nationals Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh. So, reading this line in Leviathan Wakes, I felt a sense of familiarity.
It's not that I want an escalation in the war. I genuinely don't.
Anything expanding or extending the brutal and devastating war in Ukraine would be a horrific turn of events for all involved.
But it's hard not to feel a little Article 5-pilled as this war grinds on, with NATO shipping in weapons systems and munitions and fighting the war without doing any of the fighting.
NATO member states have made no bones about supporting Ukraine's fight against the Russian invasion.
But without direct involvement, this support feels evasive and even somewhat dishonest.
So, against my better morality, I am gripped by a sense that triggering the worst conflict seen in eighty years might, in some ways, feel relieving. If only for a day. The next day would almost bring new anxieties of a higher order of magnitude from my present feeling altogether. Knowing this, I stick to my hope that a full-fledged war between NATO and Russia does not break out due to events in Ukraine. I hope this for the sake of us all.