PUTIN IS A SMALL MAN

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

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Napoleon Bonaparte was a megalomaniac. Vladimir Putin is a megalomaniac. Napoleon was 5’6″ tall. Vladimir Putin is 5’6″ (but thinks he’s 5’7″). Napoleon met his Waterloo. Putin will meet his too, like every other invader who craved lands to control, resources to expropriate, and peoples to rule.

King David, Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great, Constantine, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Francisco Pizarro, Theodore “Manifest Destiny” Roosevelt, Hitler, George W. Bush.

All sacrificed multitudes to their vanity. In the end, all were repelled. All were humiliated.

Behold the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished! 2 Samuel 1.27

First comes chaos. Then comes cosmos. First comes destruction. Then comes creation.

After World War I the League of Nations was formed. It wasn’t great. But it was a step toward something new. After World War II the United Nations was established, the Marshall Plan was launched, Germany and Japan were rebuilt, and NATO was created.

After Ukraine, after the deluge, an opportunity for a new creation will open. Will we seize it?

The Cold War ended in 1989. The Soviet Union dissolved on December 31, 1991. The West had an opportunity to befriend Russia, boost its economy, and alleviate its angst over NATO. But the West did not. It snubbed Russia as it did Germany after World War I. (We know how that turned out.)

The West won the Cold War. But it didn’t disarm. Its arsenals grew. NATO crept closer to Russia. Putin panicked. (It’s hard to overcome 40 years of mutual paranoia.)

The arms race continued. Why? As TV producer Don Ohlmeyer once said, The answer to every question is MONEY. If peace broke out, who would lose money?

Putin is a small man with no stature. He’s made himself president for life. He’s glorified Stalin and Tsar Nicholas II. Really? Nicholas II?

Nicholas disputed with Japan over control of the Korean peninsula. Japan offered Manchuria in exchange for control of Korea. Nicholas insisted on neutrality. Japan refused. Russia invaded Japan in 1904.

The mighty Russian navy was routed, whipped and humiliated by a supposedly inferior opponent. Soon thereafter a revolution erupted in Russia. Nicholas and his family were executed on July 17, 1918. The 300-year-old Romanov dynasty ended.

Sow the wind; reap the whirlwind.

The bully’s picked a fight he will not win.

A billion sunflowers will bloom again.

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