Non-questions

 

Non-questions

Europe is clawing back to the Europe we all love and remember: Putin has moved into Ukraine. A big, well-armed country attacks a smaller, poorly armed one. Power attacks weakness. One plunders another's goods. No one is willing to say why--maybe in search of some Kulaks. And it reminds many of the Sudanland invasion right before Hitler invaded Poland. So the act has some historic symmetry. Maybe it has something to do with the Chinese, maybe there is a testing or diversion there. And, of course, one of the warring parties, is led by an autocrat who sounds a bit weird.

It's strange, all this surmising. There is really only one question here: how much will Putin be allowed to take? Many factors might be involved: price of gas, naval ports, grain. But some questions will not be asked: isn't this an independent country, how many will be killed, how many families destroyed, how many refugees created, how much rape and pillage, isn't the attack of civilian centers a 'war crime,' isn't the U.N. supposed to do something about this kind of international behavior?

And, of course, can a culture completely submerged in its own narcissistic masochism see real rather than manufactured evil in the world?