As David Treadwell said in his commentary on March 25 (“As Putin goes, so goes Trump,”), “bad things happen when a megalomaniac takes control of a country.” Rightly so, the two megalomaniacs he chose to spotlight were Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, both woven from the same nihilistic cloth.
The sad reality is that these individuals were “allowed” to reach the pinnacle of their depravity by us….yes…..us. They learned over time that they could get away with their evil deeds without suffering any relevant consequences.
In Trump’s case, he eluded law after law instilling in his mind a sense of invincibility. What did America do…..it made him President. Using that power given to him on a “gold” platter, he divided our country, alienated our allies, emboldened our enemies, and nearly destroyed our Democracy in a coup attempt. God bless America…..let’s do that again.
Putin has used his power to get involved in 9 wars and meddled in at least 27 countries carrying out numerous acts of political interference (our elections twice), dirty tricks and cyber attacks. He has assassinated opponents and squashed political dissent. Until now, NATO, including the U.S., had done little in response other than imposing minor ineffective sanctions. Seeing that, along with the crumbling of our own Democracy, Putin decided he had an unfettered opportunity to invade yet another country.
Additionally, the West has continued to do business with Russia buying, and in some countries becoming dependent on, Russian natural gas, oil, and other resources. We have literally helped to finance his wars and subversive behavior.
So here we are, with a cataclysmic war of genocide in Ukraine, illogically and absurdly hoping for a negotiated peace with a serial liar and megalomaniac. There is no hiding from the fact that only a complete regime change in Russia will make a viable difference. Hitler promised Chamberlin at Munich that he would not continue to invade Europe if he was given the Sudetenland. How did that work out? Will we ever learn?
Jeffrey Runyon,
Brunswick
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