Wars and rumors of war

I've been looking at this Associated Press (Vadim Ghirdă) photo this morning ---  Valentyna Konstantynovska, 79, holding a weapon during basic combat training for civilians in Mariupol, Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, late last week. And counting myself lucky to be safe and warm and under no threat on this fine Sunday morning here in the deep U.S. Midwest.

Relieved that Kyiv remains under Ukrainian control; fearful about the long-range outcome of the Russian invasion.

Several lists of talking points, intended to show why Americans should care about this flashpoint in central Europe, have circulated since the invasion. All very well and good. But the answer is simple.

Putin is a madman capable of genocide and he is armed with nuclear weapons. There's no way to predict what he will do.

The world learned before and during World War II that madmen cannot be appeased.

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A friend asked, "but can't we mourn for Ukrainians without committing our children?" Hopefully, that will be possible --- if the Russian threat can be contained and defused, Ukrainians supported, encouraged and armed to fight on and strong worldwide alliances committed to peace maintained --- and that's the goal.

On the other hand, our children already are committed to sorting out the follies that our 20th and 21st century generations leave behind.  There's no escaping that.

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It's useful to remember that the Biden administration was able to predict accurately the Russian invasion and to maneuver Putin into the position of pariah --- even increasingly among his U.S. fan base.

That means U.S. intelligence services are functioning effectively and I'm glad to know that. I'm a long-ago graduate of the U.S. Army Intelligence School. Our motto was, and remains, "Ex veritas et vigilantia victoria," out of truth and vigilance victory.

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If you're headed for church this morning, as I will be eventually, consider this, too: If your community divides humanity into the "saved" and the "damned" based upon a magic-thinking formula that plants you and yours on one side of the divide, everyone else on the other --- you're part of the problem. It's called, among other things, tribalism. Get over it. We're all in this together on equal but sometimes precarious footing.