I am discovering that my education has been woefully inadequate.

Somehow, I missed the part about how the Ukrainians do not have the same rights that all other human beings have — that is to say, the right to freedom and democracy.  Apparently, "human rights" and "Ukrainian rights" do not intersect.  The only possible explanation is that the Ukrainians are not human.  Not sure how I missed that part in biology.

I also missed the part about how Russia owns Ukraine.  I realize that Russian tsars subjugated the Ukrainians for centuries.  I certainly have read about the famines deliberately imposed by Soviet Russia.  The victims are numbered in the millions.  But I did not realize that the Russians are to be held blameless for their atrocities.  I somehow did not know that it is permissible for one country to own another.  I suppose I need to study the works of Lenin more closely.  Didn't I read somewhere about human beings having the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?  Must be my imagination.  Can we not understand that the reason that the Ukrainians are fighting and dying for their country is that they have had a bellyful of Russia and would rather die than submit to tyranny any longer?

I must have been absent on the day that they told us that Russia and only Russia has the right to dictate the military force composition of its neighbors.  Somehow, I didn't see the part where they dictated to China.  China salivates at the energy resources of Siberia, so close and yet so far.  NATO can't even pull the plug on Russian energy, never mind invade Russia, even if they wanted to, which they have never and will never even have the intestinal fortitude to consider.  Quite the contrary.  NATO would not even exist except for Russian enslavement of the captive nations it acquired at the end of a previous war it started, when it allied with the Nazis to dismember Poland.

We are told the Russians destroyed Grozny and Aleppo, and nobody seemed to care, so why should we mourn the Ukrainian victims of Russian war crimes?  Is it because Ukrainians are Christians?  Isn't that racist?  Does their Christianity entitle them to special status?

Yes, it does. I am, or attempt to be, a Christian, so I am a brother in Christ to every Christian Ukrainian.  Together, we are members of the Body of Christ.  Christians have a duty of charity, that is, love, to our brothers in Christ.  Should we have sanctioned Putin for his undeniable war crimes in Grozny and Aleppo?  Absolutely.  Having failed to do so, do we now intend to give him a free pass for his murders of civilians in Ukraine?  Are we eventually going to restore relations with Putin and carry on as if he is were legitimate leader?  How low can we sink?  What are the limits of our cowardly depravity?  Is there no act that is beyond the pale?  Is there no number of murders at which we will not say "enough"?

The current war is between civilization and barbarism.  Either the rule of law will prevail, or we can forget the progress that we foolishly thought we had made since WWII, and regress to a world where the violent conquer while decent people cower in fear.  We can be certain that China will be confirmed in its military and economic ambitions if we once again treat Russian aggression as acceptable.

The men of the West will rise or fall on the battlefields of Ukraine.  The Orcs are upon us.

Image: Arnold Boecklin.