1,520 Russians A Day

 1,520 Russian solders per day. Last month. That's what Ukraine cost Russia in November.

That's the size of my entire high school. The entire student body. All of us, dead, every single day last month. Ghastly.

No wonder they have to pay North Korea to provide soldiers for the Ukraine meat grinder. The North Koreans (NKs) are somewhat trained, it seeems, but vastly overmatched. They're all going to die but no one has told them the truth about anything. In they march, singing the praises of their Dear Leader, until the drones find them. The Dear Leader still keeps the Russian money, of course.

It is within the power of people living right now to stop this carnage. They can just turn it off. And just like that, entire high schools of students don't die the next day. Or any next day in Ukraine.

I fought in Vietnam. Well, to the extent that helicopter pilots fight, which to say, not very much. But this isn't about me, this is about that damned war. 58,000 of my comrades in arms died there or as a result. So, thirty-eight of my high schools over a ten-year period. It's an ugly, depressing thought but it happened. I was there for a year. I saw it.

America wanted the Vietnam War to end. It said so, loudly. But it went on regardlesss. Leaders didn't listen. LBJ and his ilk had no idea what they were asking of their combatants or what they wanted to accomplish there. It seemed so easy from their perches. They held "targeting lunches" to discuss bombing strategy. And they thought is was normal, or, at least, met their definition of normal. 

There have been several wars since mine. None have successfully prosecuted a defined goal except, maybe, to kill Saddam. And what did that get us? America is still adrift in the morass of the military-industrial complex.

Russia is equally adrift in its own morass, the dictatorship of Vladimir Putin. He is completely out of touch with his people and his senior miliary advisors. He fires one or two of them every now and then just to show he's still in charge. Then the next one steps and says, "We can still win if we commit more troops," because that's what the boss wants to hear. More Russian children, prisoners, and North Koreans are thrown into the meat grinder. More high schoools are devoured. More families are destroyed.

The world, and the USA in particular, hasn't punished Putin enough. Sure, sanctions have changed some ways of doing business in Russia, but no one has hurt Putin. He continues to act without consequences. 

It's well past time to make it hurt, time to inflict some major pain on Putin and his family and friends. Don't allow billionaire oligarchs to do business with us or our allies, for instance. Stop the oil flow. Block some ports. 

Do SOMETHING or the war will end only on the terms Putin dictates. That is an unacceptable outcome for the world.