There is war in Europe again. Something I honestly did not expect to see. I think it's something that most of the world did not expect to see either.
When Putin started amassing his troops on the border of Ukraine, I just thought it was postering. Trying to get something out of the European countries and NATO. Unfortunately, they invaded, and the Ukrainian people are suffering. The Russians are suffering too with heavy losses. And the international community is suffering with rising energy costs due to boycotting Russian oil.
Most of Europe has gone the clean energy route, which is great, but in my mind, they went too far. They have a heavy reliance on Russian imports of Natural Gas and Oil. Green energy is all well and good and may be the future, but in my opinion, the technology is not quite there for our energy needs currently. Fossil fuels are still extremely important in the world market.
I still am trying to figure out what Putin's "end-game" is. The international community has shut him out of the money system or the most part. The US has installed some tough sanctions against them along with other countries. The price of the Russian Ruble has dropped a ton, so their economy has to be really suffering. I kind of understand that he wants to re-unite the countries that broke off after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but this is an old style of thinking. The world is much closer now with technology then it was during the Cold War. Countries are able to communicate better and faster and come together quicker to counter a threat. Plus, the people living in these easter bloc countries like Ukraine seem to HATE Russia because of how brutal socialism was in their countries. There may be some separatist regions, but the majority of these countries will fight to keep their way of life, no matter the odds.
I really don't have too much to say on all of this, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all. My heart aches for the death and suffering of the innocent civilians in Ukraine caught up in this. I also feel bad for the Russian people that didn't sign up for this war, and the Russian soldiers who seem really green and are just now realizing that they have been duped into this war. There have been many reports of Russian POWs that have talked about the mis information campaign their government has been waging. Putin is claiming that he is "de-Nazifying" the country and that the Ukraine is run by Fascists and White supremacists.
In general, I along with many other looks for this whole thing to end immediately. Putin must be stopped but at the same time, we don't want to be drawn into a war. It's not WW3 yet but it could easily come down to that depending on decisions made by some world leaders. I hope and pray for an immediate end to hostilities and that the pain and suffering of all the innocents ends. May God bless them.
