After months of debate in Washington, Ukraine looks set to be getting its hands on this lethal Western fighter very soon. The first batch of F-16s will be arriving in Ukraine in late September, and NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said that the training of Ukrainian personnel has already started.
On the contrary, I value human life above all else, the issue that we disagree upon is how best to protect that life. I can see your standpoint of stopping the killing now to protect people now, but where I fall on this is that I believe it’s only a short term gain and that longer term more people will die as it’s clear that Russia intends on occupying the whole of Ukraine.
You seem to class Ukraine taking back its own territory as an offensive measure, but I’d class it as defensive. If someone breaks into your house and you push them out of your bedroom into your hallway, you don’t just stop there and say “Okay, lets stop the violence here, you can have the hallway”. You wouldn’t stop until they’re outside of your house again.
At least we can agree that the threat of Russia isn’t going away and Ukraine will have to defend its territory in future, but that’s all the more reason to push them fully back and reclaim all of the territory: If by the end of all of this, Russia has gained nothing, after all the cost and bloodshed, they’ll think twice before trying it again. Allowing them to “save face” now is setting them up to spin the whole thing at some point in the future - maybe 5 or 10 years from now.