As we look at the military behemoth blowing up, beating up, killing a much smaller country, we realize almost all other people are as horrified as we. We're capable of empathy. Russia is committing some sort of war crime against Ukraine.
"Honesty, sir, is still the best policy, if you can find it" - adopting Ben Franklin's pattern used when a woman asked what sort of government the Foundling Fathers had come up with.
"A republic, ma'am, if you can keep it," he supposedly replied.
No one will want to hear this. Looking honestly at Russia, Ukraine, how we and the world see this, we also have an honest look in the mirror of how the world saw us when we attacked Iraq. Remember Iraq?
We need to remember Iraq even stronger than we remember Pearl Harbor. With Pearl Harbor, we were the innocent victim. Our attack on Iraq was its Pearl Harbor, and we became the Japanese. Iraq will likely never forget.
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While we're being honest, add Vietnam. And Afghanistan, which we could've done differently. We said we're only after Al-Qaeda, not the whole country of people.
I don't bring this up to put our country down; I do it to try "making my country greater," without using hats. Like an alcoholic, an OxyContin addict or a money addict who refuses to admit the problem, we cannot begin the cure until we see and admit the problem.
Maybe we need a "12 Steps for Governments." I "served" my country, as did my three anti-war brothers.
We must find honesty before we are forced to accept an intervention. We must recover our true and real morals, rather than junk morals created from misinterpretations of the Bible, or anyone else's "book."
It's just wrong. And so is Russia.
A. Martin,
Merrifield
