‘Great leadership’ is not the same as ’showing bravery’

There are photos of Ukraine’s president in combat gear, circling the internet now, with all sorts of headings about great leadership…

I do not believe ANY of these leaders, be it Putin, Zelenskyy, Biden, Boris Johnson, Macron, have demonstrated great leadership. Could Zelenskyy not have come out more forcefully, sooner, to ask for an open assessment of what Putin had issues with? Yes, we can all say it’s all Putin’s fault, but is it? And even if it is, could this all have been de-escalated much sooner? Preventing military intervention must be everyone’s SOLE goal. Where is all the tough-talks now, when ordinary civilians are the ones paying the price for this madness???

None of these leaders have shown great leadership. We simply should not be having these kinds of outcome. Yes, many would argue that attempting diplomacy with Hitler turned into concessions and placation, then war anyway. But surely we now have enough examples to indicate the outcome of wars ain’t great. Should leaders not have a clear approach to these kinds of situations? If sanctions destroy Russia’s economy and their people start to feel the discomfort, their reaction may well be, to support the war instead of opposing it. As was seen with Hitler, it could become a ”see what the world is prepared to do to you” kind of situation…

These supposed ”Leaders” appear to lack the capacity to lead. If you want sanctions to pre-empt a situation, you issue the sanctions BEFORE, as a deterrent, and not AFTER the horse has bolted. The current sanctions will only lead to Russians feeling isolated and that the west treats them differently – after all, we know of other countries that have invaded other countries and those were supposedly ok. Great leadership is when leaders prevent wars!

This morning, we’re reading that some demographics are receiving preferential and hateful treatment in Ukraine. Well, why should that be surprising?