Russia is the largest country in the world. It has enormous amounts of oil, gas and other raw materials. Russia is an armed to the teeth nuclear power. No nation will ever invade Russia, unlike what Russia is doing to Ukraine, without risking total annihilation.
Putin can claim NATO is a threat in order to justify his war, but everyone knows, and surely Putin himself knows, that NATO will never invade or attack Russia. This is not about supporting or opposing NATO. It is simply a recognition of the limits of NATO and the reality of Russia.
There are no existential threats to Russia's existence. Unlike some other nations in the world that face real threats to their existence, Ukraine being one of them, the only wars that Russia fights or will fight in the future are offensive wars of Russia's choosing.
There is only one reason for Putin's war against Ukraine. And that is Putin. He can brainwash his people into supporting the war based on ridiculous assertions, such as the Jewish president of Ukraine leading a nation of Nazis. But as Putin himself knows, the Nazis were genocidal aggressors following a demented, power hungry man that were militarily defeated over 70 years ago. Right wing extremists in Ukraine are no percentage higher than that of right wing extremists in Russia or the United States.
Abusive people, when they are in positions of power and authority, are convinced of their own grandiosity, importance, and infallibility.
A fatal human flaw is the eagerness to blindly follow, without questioning, people in authority, no matter how sadistic, corrupt or deranged they may be. The willingness to submit without question to authority, be it to a person, religion or ideology, leads humanity often down dark paths.
Putin plays the same drum that leads endlessly to war. Demonize the enemy. Dehumanize the enemy. Blame the enemy for everything. Take responsibility for nothing.
For far too long Putin has poisoned, murdered and imprisoned his critics. Far too many on the inside and outside of Russia have willingly accepted and gone along with whatever Putin does. Much of this is the greed and selfishness that comes from pursuing business as usual no matter the cost. Eventually the cost of business as usual, when dealing with abusive people in power, becomes unacceptable, but by then it is too late.
One day this nightmare will be over for the Ukrainian people, and also for the Russians that see the injustice in the Putin regime and his senseless war against Ukraine and that are being punished for protesting or resisting fighting in the war. Will anything have been learned so that history does not once again repeat itself?
This is not a battle of authoritarianism vs liberalism. This is about unchecked power. This is about no balances to that unchecked power. This is about the systems in place that allow abusive people to stay in power. This is about people that blindly follow without questioning. This is about the willingness of people to demonize and dehumanize the other, to cast away personal responsibility and morality while pursuing the destruction of the demonized other. Today it is the Ukrainians. Tomorrow it will be another group.
Free presses that are not tied to government interests, to parochial corporate interests, consisting of real journalists, a near extinct breed, and also average people that seek the pursuit of truth, not propaganda and the perpetuation of entrenched interests, are vitally important to keep war at bay. Even this important check on power is eroding.
Putin's war on Ukraine is a war that never had to be. And now millions suffer because of one man and his circle of cronies.
In Russia, where news of the war is suppressed, the day will come when practically everyone knows the truth. Millions of refugees, millions of Ukrainians that are suffering the bombings, the shootings, the artillery strikes, the abductions, the misconduct by those Russian soldiers committing lootings, murder, rape, beatings and torture are voices that will speak louder than propaganda and the suppression of the truth. The Russian soldiers that have a conscience also are witnesses to the senselessness and cruelty of the war that never had to be.
The Russian soldiers, treated as disposable cannon fodder, including the ones that dug trenches and stayed in the radioactive Chernobyl area, will one day know how little regards their higher ups had for their safety, if they do not already know this.
Abusive people in authority see their subordinates as inferior, dispensable and insignificant human beings. They care nothing about their enemies, and they care nothing about those on their side that serve under them.
This is Putin's war. Somewhere along the line, it should have been prevented. Appeasement was once again chosen, and all it led to is a full scale war. The opposite of appeasement does not mean war mongering. Appeasement can just as easily result in war as does war mongering. Neither is good.
This is the war that never had to be.
