For the first half of my life, Russia was America’s bogeyman, the place where liberty and freedom went to die. The Reds were our Cold War, nuclear-armed rivals in everything from military arsenals to business to sports. They were bad. We were good. They had the bomb. We had the bomb. The world was scary but simple.
With the 1991 fall of the Iron Curtain and Glasnost, Russia was supposedly made over into a bastion of free market, live and let live peaceniks. At least that was the image makeover President Putin-the former KGB-agent in charge-used to convince Gen X commentators like Tucker Carlson to sing the praises of the Moscow subway. Who’s singing now?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was just about what old timers like me expected from the neo-Coms and their vicious leader of the moment. Whether Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev or Putin, these were the people who threw their rivals out of airplanes or over balconies or put sulfuric acid in their enemies’ drinks.
It is perfectly in keeping with the last two centuries of Russian life that their current president is an indicted, war-mongering war criminal whose military has suffered over 1 million casualties, dead and wounded in three years of aggression. Putin contemptuously does not even believe Ukraine is a real country.
The frantic diplomacy this week in Washington will hopefully be in the direction of peace. I was disappointed the talks in Anchorage, Alaska, did not yield more positive results.
Even if the promise of peace prevails, how will the world forgive and forget? There are said to be 20,000 to 40,000 Ukrainian children who have been kidnapped and transported to Russia or Russian-held parts of Ukraine. Snatched, transported, Russified.
Tough to see any meaningful talks on ending this war without the resolution of the issue of stolen children. Russia downplays the allegations, claiming they were merely keeping the children in war zones safe from the violence of combat. Russia has not yet replied with specificity to further allegations that the children are being trafficked in an organized way.
Our first lady, Melania Trump, issued her own heartfelt plea for a positive outcome of this war directly to Vladimir Putin in a lovely ‘peace letter’ hand-delivered by President Trump and read by President Putin as aides for both men watched.
‘Dear President Putin, every child shares the same quiet dreams in their heart, whether born randomly into a nation’s rustic countryside or magnificent city center, they dream of love, possibility, and safety from danger…”
The meat grinder of war has destroyed vast swaths of Ukraine and its people.
Putin has sacrificed Russia’s international reputation by indiscriminately targeting civilian hospitals, neighborhoods, daycare centers, and apartment complexes. Putin’s snatching of Ukraine’s children and allegations of organized trafficking of those kids would be proof that Putin and Russia are beyond the pale.
