How does one possibly portray the horrors of war? How does one possibly understand the mind of a tyrant?
For three weeks now, going on four, I am glued to news reports, television and internet images, and print news coverage of “war” atrocities taking place in Ukraine. Citizens in line to purchase food, lying dead from indiscriminate and purposeful artillery fire; a pregnant mother and her unborn child, bloodied from tank bombardments, and the medical staff trying to save them – without success.
Scores of buildings — homes, apartments, storefronts — and entire cities reduced to rubble along with the spirit of their inhabitants. Fear and the glaze of uncertainty are embossed in the eyes of those who survive. Large trenches full of bodies for those who don’t.
The picture of a father embracing his teenaged son’s lifeless body haunts me the most; what if I were there, what if it was my country, what if it was my son? These images of pain and suffering – of death and destruction — and the thousands more that detail the horrors of hostility are beyond comprehension.
It was only a few months ago, maybe November or December, when one of our national television news networks rebroadcast a heartwarming 2018 story about Vladimir Putin, showing a young blind girl from Russia conducting an interview and exploring the facial features of her country’s president through touch and feel. It was an endearing visual of compassion and sensitivity; this man of extreme power and wealth consenting to the curiosities of a vulnerable and disadvantaged child.
We were left with the impression, the belief, that this was a man of integrity and kindness, a man who embraced even the frailest of civilization; dare we say of humanity itself? For a moment in time, we saw the human side of a man who today may be considered one of the most despicable people to have ever lived.
On Feb. 24, 2022, the world saw a different side of Vladimir Putin, one that defies understanding and reason. The Russian invasion of its neighbor, the Ukraine — a former member country of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) — is simply an act of unprovoked aggression.
“War” implies mutual disagreement or a conflict between two or more parties. This isn’t a Russia-versus-Ukraine dispute. It’s a Putin land grab, pure and simple. His unbridled appetite for power and wealth supersedes any notion of human benevolence or decency.
One could suggest that he’s attempting to re-establish the geographical expanse of the former Russian empire, but nationalism is a poor excuse for slaughter and ruin. There is no political ideology or party platform to justify Putin’s assault. Instead, his rule draws striking parallels to organized crime with mafioso motives.
At best, as a former Communist, Putin has done more to discredit the party’s dogma than any other political figure since Hitler and his Nazi regime. Even Communist China should be horrified by his shameful and relentless attacks.
The carnage continues as the world watches, just as it did in the buildup to World War II. And Putin joins the likes of Hitler and Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-Un, Osama Bin Laden and a host of other notorious despots whose legacies will lie in the chronicles of evil forever.
— This is the opinion of Times Writers Group member Paul Bugbee, a Central Minnesota resort owner. His column is normally published the third Thursday of the month.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Putin throws his legacy in with the likes of Pol Pot and Idi Amin
