I encountered this news item recently:
I have no doubt the report is true.
Joe Biden is a careful man. It may have gotten him to where he is today.
But, honestly, Joe, as realtors are fond of saying: “Time is of the essence.”
If there was ever a time to act with relative haste, this seems to be one.
Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine.
This is not a thawing of the Cold War.
Putin is not even a Communist.
This is something else.
This is an act of an aging (Putin is closing in on 70) man with delusions of grandeur. He rues the breakup of the former USSR and seems to long for the glory days of old. If he can get countries like Ukraine back in Russian sphere of influence, so much the better.
Some express concern Putin has had a break with reality.
The pandemic has only contributed to his isolation.
He has always been cunning and ruthless, but rational.
But reckless and paranoid?
We may be seeing a new side.
If Ukraine falls, who’s next?
The Baltics?
That prospect might get Putin salivating.
Probably no one knows the ends he will go to to achieve his goal.
He has hinted darkly about Russia’s nuclear arsenal which, numerically in the world order, is 2nd to none.
It’s one thing to saber rattle.
It’s quite another to raise the specter of an itchy finger with which to press a nuclear button and unleash not Pandora’s box but the gates of hell.
The USA (and NATO, comprised of 29 other nations) is unwilling to put boots on Ukrainian soil. That is all well and good. I understand the reluctance to start WWIII. No one wants that weighing on them (if they survive and have a conscience left to weigh on).
But why dither (if that’s what’s being done) about the legality of sending weaponry to a country that clearly:
