The images coming out of Ukraine produce a helpless feeling among those of us watching them. It’s hard for me to assess it in real time. I just know it when I sense it, when I feel it in my gut.
The Russians are committing what have been described as war crimes, or crimes against humanity. How? By bombing hospitals and targeting, apparently, civilian targets. The modern rules of war compel nations in conflict to limit their targets to the military establishments of their adversaries. That isn’t happening in this ground war.
Russian army and air units have dropped bombs and fired missiles at the softest targets possible. Hospitals, schools, churches. It is sickening to watch this, and to watch the 2 million (and increasing) refugees flee their home nation for unknown destinations.
What, then, becomes of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s standing as a world leader? He becomes a pariah. Putin has become persona non grata among many leaders of what we know to be the civilized world.
The carnage continues. Ukraine is fighting back and delivering extensive damage to the supposedly vaunted Russian war machine. It’s not enough to just sit here and wish the Ukrainians well in their struggle for survival. Sadly, that’s all I — as one American patriot — can do.
I feel helpless … and I don’t like feeling that way.