Putin's attempts to crush Ukraine is not going well. Thank God. The entire western world is turning against this sick autocrat.
It was looking for the last decade or so that autocratic, authoritarian cruel and fearsome dictators were taking over the world. Putin was one of the leaders of that group. Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Hungary, Turkey, Venezuella, Philippines, etc. etc. "Strong men" ruling by fear. And the United States with a wannabe "strong man", the overgrown schoolyard bully, the Former Guy, enthralled by the strutting spectacles of manly, manly men around the globe.
Never forget that the Former Guy was thrilled by the Putin declaration of sending in "peace keeping forces". Oh boy! Tanks! How exciting. What a genius!
This seems to some to be their distorted essence of manliness - to scare people, threaten people, bully people, kill people. Manly, manly men. Guns, explosions, big bangy things.
But, a couple of real, adult men have responded to show us the contrast. Zalensky is defending himself and is inspiring the entire free world to cripple Putin's Russia. Biden is quietly leading NATO and the Free World in very intelligent and targeted sanctions and boycotts to cripple the tyrant's country.
There should be no confusion about what makes a man. Threats do not make a man. Causing fear do not make a man. Puffing yourself up and strutting around like latter day John Waynes and Clint Eastwoods do not make a man.
Will is one of the things that make a man. Zalensky and Biden are demonstrating will. Not will to dominate and crush another; not Hitlerian Putinesque brutality of will, but a noble will to protect freedom, truth, and goodness. The will of a soldier to respond to a demand to surrender or die by saying "Go fuck yourself".
By the way, if you think that Biden isn't leading this resistance, please remember the last president that crushed Moscow - Ronald Reagan, who once said it is amazing what you an accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit. The free world is freely crushing Russia financially and culturally. They all get the credit.
But it starts with Zalensky - who refused and refuses to be bullied. And it is also Biden, who is not operating as America Alone, or "America First". He is doing what the free world did in WWII, what America and NATO and the Free World did in the Cold War. He is reaching out to create cooperative, coordinated, intelligent responses to stop the slaughter of a weaker nation by a tyrant.
My biggest prayer at this point is that a humiliated and sick Putin does not start sending nukes all over the place to prove that he is really a manly, manly man after all.
