Today, Russia invaded Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have known for a while now that Russia was pondering invading. Ukraine, though not a perfect democracy<\/a>, has expressed an interest in aligning more with the free countries of Europe and has been getting more democratic recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a result, Russia’s dictator, Putin, has decided that it needs to ‘protect’ not only those in the east who consider themselves Russian, but also those in the rest of the country who consider themselves Ukrainian. This sounds very similar to the behavior of Hitler in 1938 as he captured Austria and the Sudetenland of modern-day Czechia<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In world affairs there is always subtlety and there are shades of gray. There may be more at play here than the madness of one man. But this might also just be what it looks like: A larger country bullying a smaller one before they become unbullyable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The USA and NATO<\/a> generally, has the world’s most powerful and well-funded military. The US spends more on the military than the next ten countries combined excluding China. The US spends more than ten times as much on military spending than Russia, which only spends slightly more than the UK. Nato could have chosen to stop Putin, not by force, but by a show of force. As I write this, people have already died who might not have died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n