Servant of the People

 I discovered yesterday the there is one season of a 2015 TV series on Netflix where the protagonist is President Volodymyr Zelensky of the Ukraine.  The series is "Servant of the People".  I have only seen part of one episode since you have to read subtitles because it is in Ukrainian.  Still, what I have seen was indeed pretty good, especially when the main character, Vasily Petrovich, a high school history teacher, suddenly and quite unexpectedly becomes President of the Ukraine.  This appears to have happened because of a video recording of him ranting about how bad everyone in government really is these days.

I was talking with my wife about this and showed her some of it and then something occurred to me.  Putin's worst nightmare would be that Russia and Ukraine would actually become united as one country, but Zelensky would be named its President and Putin would be alive to see it happen!

 I intend to watch the series (23 episodes) when I have time to read it!

Scream

 Today I just want to scream!

I have spent quite a lot of time lately watching the latest news about Putin's Special Military Operation, no, let's call it what it is, WAR in Ukraine. I have watched information from Russian civilians, and interviews with random people on the streets in Russia.  I have watched what the Russian government has told and not told its people.  I have watched the news reports from multiple journalists across Ukraine.  I have watched interviews with Ukraine civilians.  I tried desperately to understand what is happening and why it is happening.

What has become abundantly and overwhelmingly clear is that this is one man's war.  It is the direct result of one man having too much power for too long.  It is one man who is absolutely following in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler.  All of this because he has too much power and literally no one can talk to him candidly and tell him he is wrong without literally risking being killed.  His closest advisors cannot "advise" him because all they can really do is tell him everything he thinks is correct and everything he wants to do is the right thing to do.  No one can advise him on any negative consequences of anything.  Then when his actions go horribly wrong, like invading Ukraine, he removes his advisors for being wrong or misleading him.  How warped is that?  He is a man no longer living in reality and no one can help him.

Somewhere deep inside Putin knows all of this, but he is a prisoner of his own thinking.  He knows what he is doing has gone wrong.  However, for him it must always be someone else's fault because he cannot be wrong.  Yet he even knows everything is so wrong that his own people, those who actually know him, have to be removed from their positions because he realizes those are the people in the best position to remove him from office on a permanent basis.  The only way to survive is to limit the number of opportunities to remove him.  No one can be trusted.  Putin is and has always been KGB.  He knows how the system works.  He knows that he can be removed with prejudice in the blink of an eye.  One wrong move, one thing overlooked and it can all be over.  He has to eliminate all opposition and somehow make everything work because he has to be right and somehow make sure that everyone sees that he is right no matter what.

Yes, that above paragraph makes no sense, but somehow that is what is going on in Putin's mind.  He is desperately trying to rationalize the irrational.  He will ultimately fail, but at what price?  How many people will it cost?  How much destruction will it take?  How much collateral damage will there be?

 I just want to scream!

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

So what is my perspective on the whole Russia entering Ukraine with it's military and trying to take control? My perspective is that there are a whole lot of people in positions of power, authority and control who are acting like 3 year olds throwing temper tantrums with people's lives in the balance. 

So who do I believe?  I believe a little of both sides and I disbelieve a little of both sides.  Is Ukraine, NATO and the United States in general blameless?  No.  Is Putin liberating Ukraine? No.  Is Putin trying to rid Ukraine of Nazis?  No.  Are there neo-Nazi's in Ukraine?  Yes.   

Regardless of all the posturing and name calling the bottom line is this, Russia, under the leadership of Putin, is invading another sovereign country and attempting to eliminate its government and put them under his control.  Does that sound like anyone else we remember?  Yes.  Has the West been guilty of doing similar things?  Yes.  Does either one doing such things make it right for anyone else to also do them?  No.  

In the mean time, there is documented evidence of Russian attacks on civilians throughout Ukraine.  This includes attacks on residential areas, apartments, and public areas including memorials, hospitals and schools.  There is no moral high ground to be claimed here by the Russians in behavior fitting of someone else in the mid 20th century.  Then at the same time cutting off his country from any news that isn't "state owned and operated."  

Putin is a war criminal.  The Russian military is perpetrating war crimes.  What the Russians are doing is NOT a "Special Military Operation" it is a WAR initiated by Russia on the Sovereign country of Ukraine.  It needs to stop and it needs to stop now.  It is time for 19th century thinking to come to an end.