Russia's Purification

"Those who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it."

Winston Churchill

From his lips to our ears. Vladimir Putin, the 21st century's version of Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin, let the cat out of the bag yesterday. He wants to "purify" Russia. Seems that the population has a percentage of people in it who are not good Russians. Good Russians? What is that? In Putin's eyes, if you agree with him and his hairbrained ideas, you pass the test. If you don't, you might need to be "purified". Or as it was once known as - liquidated.

For years, it has been known that Putin respects Joseph Stalin. But now we find out, he would also like to imitate him. Stalin, one of the most evil men who ever lived, is believed to have killed millions in both Russia as well as Ukraine. Some were executed, some were starved, some were worked to death in prison camps. How they died did not matter to Stalin - the most important thing was to "cull the herd". Get rid of the undesirables. Some history books show that Stalin was more of a mass murderer than Hitler. And this guy is Putin's hero?

Churchill said, "Those who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it." I cannot think of a more appropriate example of this quote, than what is happening right now in the Ukraine. We are seeing Joseph Stalin, 2.0. The only difference is, Stalin did not have nukes. And Putin does. Let that sink in just for a minute. Putin, who wants to purify his country, has nukes. If he starts to imprison or kill his own citizens at random, what will prevent him from nuking those outside of Russia? G.W. Bush may have looked into Putin's eyes and seen his soul, but for most of us, this man has no soul. He is a stone cold killer.

Besides the similarities between Stalin and Putin, I can also see some similarities between FDR and Biden. Both had/have health problems, and both were/are absolute isolationists. If we had never been bombed at Pearl Harbor, we probably would not have been involved in Europe until Hitler was able to get bombers all the way from Berlin to NYC. FDR was just fine with the Lend/Lease Program. Biden is just fine with supplying weapons to Ukraine in a "hands off" manner. Pearl Harbor dragged FDR over his red line. Will Putin using chemical weapons be  Biden's red line?

We are all watching history being made. Heroes are being made. Villains are being made. In World War II, the "good guys" and "bad guys" were easy to identify. The same goes in Ukraine in 2022. Putin has now tattooed himself, with the most indelible ink. This is a stain which will never leave.

Yesterday on the news, a highly respected historian was asked how this is going to end. This man, a student of history, paused for a minute and replied, "I have no idea". Nobody does. Even though we know how Stalin operated, he did not have NBC weapons. Putin does. We are now in new territory.