Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

It's hard to get off the subject of Ukraine, as catastrophic as the tragedy is. Putin's decision to do this will go down in history as one of the worst mistakes ever made, right up there with the decision by Kaiser Wilhelm to make the first military incursion of World War 1, or Hitler's decision to invade Poland.  

What is happening to Ukraine and to Russia right now, since the  world is so united against it, is unspeakable. And it was completely unnecessary because Russia was in no imminent danger from Ukraine. Even though they didn't like their intention to enter NATO, it was just an intention. There was no need for this drastic action. 

So, what I have to think is that this is a mental problem of Putin's, that he has lost his mind. And because he is such an autocratic ruler, no one in Russia can stop him. Apparently, Putin is to Russia what Saddam Hussein was to Iraq and Kim Jong-un is to North Korea.  Putin is the Emperor there who wears no clothes, and no one can stand up to him. Putin did great things for Russia, raising the standard of living there tremendously. But, he's 70 years old, and he may have some early dementia going on. It impossible to construe how he could think that this was necessary or good for Russia. 

In the long run, this is going to be more devastating for Russia then for Ukraine. 

Putin had a strong argument that U.S. has never tolerated Soviet or Russian intrusion in its hemisphere, for instance, the Cuban Missile Crisis. But, Ukraine didn't attack Russia and had no plan or intention to attack Russia. I honestly think that this whole thing happened because one man, Vladimir Putin, had an uneasy feeling about Ukraine that was causing him a lot of psychological discomfort, and to alleviate that psychological discomfort, he resorted to this. Ultimately, the ones who are going to suffer the most over this are not the Ukrainians but the Russians.