As Russian shells exploded on the outskirts of Lysishansk, a city in eastern Ukraine, a journalist asked nine-year-old, Masha, "Are you afraid?" She smiled, and said, "Nyet." He asked her, "Why not?" Still smiling, she responded, "I am the oldest girl."
There is no courage anywhere more profound than what I saw in that little girl's demeanor - in her eyes, in her posture, in her certainty. My heart broke. What people would not fight forever for such a child?
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The other day, I heard this on the Science Channel: Our Milky Way galaxy is on course to collide with the Andromeda galaxy, the Milky Way's nearest neighbor. Both galaxies are estimated to have over 400 billion stars, each. The scientists note that during the imminent collision, there is a 100% chance that none of the Milky Way stars will actually collide with an Andromeda star.
Of all the mind-boggling prospects in the universe, what could be more mind-boggling than that?
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The U.S. is sending billions of dollars worth of advanced weapons systems into Ukraine with a goal to not only "weaken Russia" but to defeat it. (And we will fight to the last Ukrainian to get it done." This is the dilemma: The closer we get to what we really don't want - the launch of Russian nuclear warheads onto Ukrainian soil.
Besides a response in kind to a Russian tactical nuke, what other option have the NATO nations left themselves? They have already sanctioned Russia to the hilt, so much so that, besides crushing Russia's economy, the head of the "sanctions snake" is turning on its master, and slashing at the economies of those NATO nations, as well.
But, who among NATO would have the guts to do more? Certainly, not France, for fear that Russia would nuke Paris, next. England, likewise, would not risk London for Kyiv. Only the U.S. would possess the wherewithal to respond to a Russian nuclear escalation, except we simply do not love the Ukrainians that much.
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