Watch Robert Strock’s video address in which he delves into a possible solution for what is happening in Ukraine today, and perhaps even more likely what can be done to unite the free world to prevent a genocidal invasion of any country in the future.
As you watch let yourself imagine the United States, NATO and the free world uniting in a way that it never has to isolate any country severely in a way that is crippling to dissuade any country from taking this risk to be permanently isolated. Putin’s heinous attack on Ukraine highlights the dangers we are in in the 21st century of the nuclear age. However, it also highlights the unity that has been created and it is time to capitalize on a cohesive response.
It is vital that you see this centrally as a prevention for the future and a small likelihood that it has a small chance of saving hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian lives if Putin sees the wisdom of not being as isolated and humiliated by continuing as he has.
Read the transcript
Robert Strock:
I want to thank you for joining me in this incomparable, crucial time in world history. My name is Robert Strock and I’m the Co-President of the Global Bridge Foundation. I’ve been a psychotherapist for 50 years, and I’m going to be talking about our policy in Ukraine. Because I believe it needs to have a psychotherapeutic lens so we can deal with the unprecedented dangers to the world. Because in the final analysis, this is both a military decision, but it’s also a long term, psychological decision of what’s the best strategy with someone that is addicted to power and is utterly showing himself to be demonstrating genocide in the world today. And the big question we’re going to be addressing today is what is the best strategy to not have someone like him or he himself repeating this action? How do we set boundaries today so that we can make it almost impossible for it to be duplicated? Or on the other hand, how do we appease his actions in a way that makes it almost inevitable that this will be repeated?
So, today we’re going to be talking about Ukraine, the United States, NATO, and a proposal, a policy, for long term safety of the world. I want to acknowledge that I’m not an expert in military strategy. That what I am an expert at is psychology and I’ve been practicing it for 50 years. And part of my study has been looking at characters that are genocidal and what is needed to stop, not only their actions, but actions in the future of history. Because now we’re in the nuclear age. And being in the nuclear age, we have to come up with a completely different strategy or else we’re all going to die.
So, we are currently facing a clear and present danger that genocide is not only happening, but also a future danger that we’re going to be encouraging it to continue to happen. So, we can’t be so lost in the present that we don’t recognize that our future is as important as our present. But we’re starting with the assumption that President Putin is not going to cooperate and that at the very best, he’s going to be willing to make a compromise to the Donetsk region and the Donbas region.
Now, what we’re really proposing is that there needs to be a no-fly zone in a very narrow corridor, starting in these two regions, where humanitarian aid could go in one way and anyone that wants to leave can go out the other way. And that we, as NATO and the United States promise, we will not be bringing in military aid. So that will enable Putin to potentially cooperate. And the other reason why we would be having the corridors be so narrow is to make it easier for the Russian pilots to not come anywhere near the zones. And again, for Putin to potentially cooperate. Now, the obvious common sense and human decency is utterly universal that anyone that’s not willing to allow for a corridor for people to be rescued with supplies or to leave, is committing genocide. Even the Russian people would not allow that.
So, we’re proposing this to maximize the chance that he will cooperate, save face in the eyes of the Soviet Union and be able to say, I have added these two regions to the Soviet Union. And at the same time, the citizens there will be able to either leave or decide if they want to, to become guerillas, if that’s what they choose to do. Now in the event that President Putin refuses to narrow the ultimate agreement to these two regions, then we want to apply the exact same principles to all of Ukraine. Where Ukraine would decide where are the two, three, four regions in the country that would be near the heart of people to allow the masses to leave the country in these corridors and allow humanitarian aid to come to rescue those that will utterly die within the next few weeks if they don’t have supplies. We don’t have time to waste. We need to make these moves now, and we need to think of the future as well as the present.
It is totally critical that we make it clear to President Putin that we will not bring in military supplies through these corridors. And that does not mean that we’re promising not to bring in military supplies in other directions. What has happened in the world today which makes this possible is that through COVID and the awareness of our mortality as a world and the interconnectedness of the world and the threat of nuclear war being so prevalent in the minds and hearts of Americans, of people throughout the world, that we’re finally ready as a free world to take a stand against insane genocidal war. It is utterly clear that we are the time of world unity. When in the United States have we had bipartisan passion? When in the world have we had a whole world coming together in the way they have?
And this is the time where the world can make a statement that we will cut off all trade ties with you if you violate this sacred commitment to life, to some kind of survival for all peoples, and that you do not have the freedom to commit genocide. This is a time where, paradoxically, Putin’s action has united the world. This has given us a chance to finally make such a strong stand as a world, that we have the power through cutting off trade, to threaten and maybe even thwart the ideas in the mind of anyone to have world domination. I truly believe psychologically we’re at that inflection point where if we do it now, we will be able to set a precedent for this to discourage any future leaders, including Putin, to do this. Because it will be obvious that he’s invading a country that doesn’t want him, or he has to free them. And if he’s not willing to do that, or if he’s not willing to allow humanitarian aid through these corridors, then Russia itself will want to revolt.
They won’t believe in the goodness of their own leader. This is an utterly powerful strategy that, granted, there’s no guarantees. This is scary as hell. I’m not pretending that I know the answers. But I know this is one of the very key options that all the free leaders of the world need to consider. I personally believe that Putin does not want to create complete annihilation. I believe he’s addicted to his public image. And he will not threaten that by refusing an utterly reasonable proposal of a narrow corridor, where he still will have an off ramp of having some kind of a gain with being able to capture these two regions. In exchange for this, we can offer to reduce the sanctions. And please hear it, no matter which side of that you’re on, I’m not saying eliminate the sanctions, if you’re afraid we’re going to reduce them too much.
And I’m not saying we’re going to keep the same sanctions and lose the incentive. We’re going to have to find that middle point where he can say yes, and we can say yes. That’s beyond my pay grade. So, I’m asking you to really take this in, talk to all your friends about it and people of influence it throughout the world to consider the importance of setting boundaries and see we can’t afford to appease Putin or Putin like characters and need to set a precedent that they are going to have to face realistic humanitarian limits. And when those are presented clearly, and by the way, when I say clearly, we need to have very close monitoring so that it can’t be easy to fraudulently say, no the American planes were not close here, or the Russian planes were not close there. We need to have international boundaries where there are people on the borders, where there are satellites zooming in, where there is press coverage, where it is clear that there’s a truce for a period of time to allow for this possibility.
If we do not set boundaries, we are setting ourselves up for a precedent that we’re going to be allowing genocide and no chance for the people that are being invaded to be able to get out, or to be able to be saved with humanitarian aid. Once any leader invader sees that this option is where the free world lies, it’s going to cripple their thinking. Because they’re going to realize they’re going to be exposed because what’s being presented is so utterly humane that any dictator, any genocidal terrorist, would be exposed as that if they said no to this kind of reasonable proposal. I hope that if you’re a person of influence, that you will take action on this. I hope if you know of a person of influence, that you will expose it to them. I hope that if you don’t know anybody of influence, you’ll expose it to everybody that you know.
And again, I want to be very clear. I’m not presenting this as an expert. I’m presenting this from a psychological angle. And I am quite convinced that if we don’t set boundaries, that we will be encouraging this forever. What’s going to stop up anyone that has significant nuclear power from putting us in this same risk forever? So, we can’t afford to be so obsessed with our present danger of all out nuclear war that we don’t realize it’s going to be the same next year. It’s going to be the same in five years. So, we have to act now. Not only for our future, but for the present and the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Ukrainians that will die if we don’t act quickly. Thank you for this consideration. I hope that it makes sense to you. And may we all live in peace and do the best we can to give our world a chance to be sane and make a turning point to utterly cripple, to do our best to utterly cripple anyone that’s thinking like Putin. Thank you.
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