By Tim Gamble
3-28-2022 - I know people in my personal life who immigrated to the USA from Ukraine. Likewise, I know people in my personal life who immigrated to the USA from Russia. I have a good friend who is Russian and still lives in Russia (he is ex- Russian military). I also know a couple of folks (not as well) who live in Odessa, Ukraine.
Needless to say, I have heard from all sides in the current Russia-Ukraine War, and have even had "reports on the ground" from inside both Ukraine and Russia as to what is actually happening. Comparing what I am being told to what is being reported in the media is sickening. The amount of bad information, misinformation, and out-right propaganda is staggering. My opinion of Western media, never high, has sunk to all-time lows.
War is horrible. War terrible. But those words aren't sufficient to describe war. What is worse is that war is always hardest on the innocents - the common folk who were just trying to live their lives before their "leaders" took actions and made decisions that destroyed their world.
I take no sides in this war. It is a European war, and one of a long cycle of wars in this region. My opinion is that the USA has "no dog in this fight," so let the Europeans fight it out. The more the USA interferes, the greater the chances this escalates into World War III. If it does, the suffering to the entire world will be greater than anyone can imagine.
Knowing the history of the region, and the politics of this particular conflict, I will say that neither side is completely right, or completely wrong. We Americans like things to be "black and white," therefore easy to understand. We want the Good Guys and the Bad Guys to be obvious and unambiguous, so we can root for Team Good Guys. But in this conflict, the truth is very ambiguous - open to many interpretations. Another reason to stay out of this war, in my opinion.
The leaders on both sides are to blame, not the people. Pray for peace. Pray for a quick end to this conflict. Pray for the people - both Ukrainian and Russian - who are caught in the middle of a war they didn't start.
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"The first casualty when war comes is truth." -- Hiram W. Johnson
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right that we have no dog in that fight.