One Small Voice: War is not healthy for almost everyone

by Lynn Mandaville

We’ve all watched for weeks as Vladimir Putin placed his armies all around the perimeter of Ukraine.

I recognized what he was doing right from the start, and I’m not near the military mind that is my fellow Townbroadcast contributor Army Bob Traxler.

It was like sitting on the floor at my son’s house, setting up the Risk board with my 9-year-old grandson, Jack, who already has a frighteningly good grasp on the concept of global domination.

I have watched Jack place his tiny, plastic “peacekeepers” around the two-dimensional game board in anticipation of beating the pants off me.  (Which he can already do, my ability to think two or three steps ahead being sorely lacking.)

Except what happened overnight on Feb. 23, was no family board game.  It was the real deal, with real consequences that will ultimately reach far beyond the borders of Ukraine and Russia, the fingers of war creeping into international finance, NATO, United States politics (and the politics of all European nations), and the lives of real, living, breathing human beings, making a royal mess of things.

Like many of you, I spent most of the day watching TV reports coming out of Ukraine and listening to the talking heads.

I shared some thoughts with friends on Facebook, all of whom were praying for a cessation to bombing and missiles, for peace for the citizens of Ukraine.

I, too, sympathized with the ordinary people caught up in this all too ego-driven game of Risk perpetrated by Vladimir Putin.

Since my thoughts and emotions are all over the place as I write this, I apologize for any disjointedness or rambling.  It is my brain run wild.

And let me be clear that all disclaimers apply.  I am no military expert.  I am no seasoned diplomat.  I have no credentials at all in interpreting international politics.  I have only a passing knowledge of Russian history.

What I do have are instincts and leftover memories of articles in “My Weekly Reader” from the 1950s about the Red Menace that was, and still is, communism.

I remember Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe on a desk – I think it was at the United Nations – while he threatened us with the statement, “We will bury you.”

One of the memories that sticks with me from that era was the idea that Russian communists were in it for the long haul, playing “the long game,” if you will.

Whether it took one generation or many, Russia was hell-bent on world domination, and we were being indoctrinated in the Domino Theory by way of those articles in “My Weekly Reader.”

Then a generation or two passed without incident.

I admit I was lulled into a sense of false security by the promises of glasnost as dangled before us by Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev.  I had visions of world peace (except the we still had to keep our eyes on those inscrutable Chinese).

I was lulled by, too, by perestroika, when Russia began its move toward a more capitalist society.

Clearly, I thought, those who taught us to fear the Soviet Union while I was a child were wrong.

But when Putin was “elected” president of Russia, all the old feelings of mistrust came rushing back, and I knew any thoughts I had of world peace were off the table.

The oligarchs began to amass their millions, again re-establishing an imbalance of wealth among the citizenry of Russia.

When Putin began placing his not-so-little armies all around Ukraine, I knew what was what.

Army Bob Traxler recently wrote his opinion that Russia was seated on the precipice of taking at least one-third of Ukraine, and I believed every word he wrote.

He was correct, except that Putin wants more than one-third of Ukraine.  He wants it all.

Mr. Traxler is no dope when it comes to assessing military situations.  Army Bob has extensive knowledge of military history and strategy.  I know not to doubt him when those areas are at issue.

Thus, I am not surprised that Putin and his “peacekeepers” have determined to make Ukraine’s military obsolete.

As this day has progressed, I find I can almost feel the Ukrainians’ physical and emotional pain of losing family members to the violence.  Not to mention the pain of losing their national identity to an invading force.

I know that the recent stress dreams I’ve been having over the trauma of being forced to give up my 3G flip phone for a smartphone don’t come close to the stress and anxiety people along the borders of Ukraine and Russia are feeling as they watch tanks, weapons, and armaments roll past them down the streets of their towns toward the havoc they will wreak on Kiev as Putin swoops in to take over the center of Ukrainian government.

President Biden announced the financial sanctions that will be imposed beginning immediately to punish Putin for his actions.

I know that I am not alone in thinking that sanctions have been too little and much too late to have any impact.

Biden and his administration appear to have been caught with their pants down, as Pop used to say, and some of us are beginning to have concerns about the looming war, maybe a World War III, and one that might include nuclear weapons.

It is my fervent prayer that it never comes to that.

Some say Putin will keep the destruction of infrastructure to a minimum, because he doesn’t want to take over a country that he has to completely rebuild.

Small comfort to those whose lives are being turned inside out.

It is also said Putin is merely trying to reassemble the old USSR, that he is fulfilling a narcissistic goal in his drive to redraw the geopolitical landscape.

Whatever his motivation, it hasn’t stopped young men from lining up outside the military enlistment office in Kyiv to defend their country.

Again, I reassert my disclaimers as to my abilities to assess the myriad aspects of these on-going events, and what will continue to unfold over the coming days.

There’s a whole lot I just don’t know.  And I don’t want to speculate.

The only thing I can say for sure is that this whole endeavor can only make for worse situations all over.  The scope of the humanitarian crisis to come is unimaginable.

What was it that was imprinted on my old Vietnam-era keychain?

Oh, yeah.

“War is not healthy for children and other living things.”

It’s still a gross understatement.

Wage Peace.