A couple of things need to be said.

The American revolution was fought to establish a man's
right to liberty and to restrain the power of his
rulers. The American revolution thus created a concept
of law, which was, and is foreign to the system resulting
from the Bolshevik revolution in communist controlled
lands. The distinction is one between freedom, liberty,
and the right to the pursuit of happiness as opposed to the
interest, control, and domination of the state over the
individual.

Therefore to compare the US with the Soviet regime is absurd.
The conceptual differences between democratic legal
traditions and a totalitarian communist system which uses law
as a political weapon are so great, that it is
inconceivable in any matter involving political issues and
human rights. Putin understand this very well.

He has grown up under a system that continued the operation
of their concentration camps, and expanded their draconian
systems to include psychiatric wards, thereby raising
torture, suppression and murder to a science. The fact that
the process persisted was vividly disclosed to the free
world by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

It is also important to be aware of the accomplishments of the
Soviet secret police - a system under which Putin grew up. Which
brought death to so many.

V.I. Lenin made it clear that, in his political philosophy, law
has but one primary goal: "A law is a political measure, it
is politics." No Soviet authority or communist leader has
abandoned this concept. It has been applied in the territories
"liberated" by the Bolsheviks during the October revolution. In
the captive nations occupied by the Red Army during World War II,
and in the lands won by military force or "wars of liberation"
in Asia, Africa, the Far East, and the Caribbean. Now attempts
are being made in the Ukraine.

"Therefore to compare the US with the Soviet regime is absurd."

Foxy, fyi, the USSR collapsed in '91.

Hi AC,

I see it as a war. Russia will probably lose more troops before year end than the US did in the entire Vietnam war. How do you think Putin will weather the poor performance of the Russian army? I think that has been one of the biggest surprises in the conflict. As with Vietnam, casualties are making the war in Ukraine a hard sell.

The loss of troops on both sides is sad. The war, itself, should not have been.

Hi AC,

Putin is trying to resurrect it - starting with Ukraine.

David,

I don't buy the idea of Russia being provoked into invading Ukraine any more than I believe that Nazi Germany was provoked into invading Poland. Judging by Polish support for Ukraine, I don't think they miss their WW2 liberators so much. I think the view of the Ukrainian army is that Russia will not have a nice winter.

It is good to see that the Russian army continues to show great care in not harming Ukrainian civilians. When is Bronwyn's mate Jules going to join a Russian tank crew and put on a firework performance?

https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3582797-death-toll-in-russian-missile-strike-on-humanitarian-convoy-in-zaporizhzhia-climbs-to-25.html