Vilnius Conference

Vladimir Putin had a selection of entrees he hoped to see on the menu tonight, but his personal chef was unavailable to cater the meal. That’s when the Council of Vilnius stepped up to the plate, so to speak.

Vladimir Putin had a number of items he hoped to see on the menu, but the NATO Council of Vilnius stepped into the kitchen and served Mr. Putin with the house special: A steaming shit sandwich on a pumpernickel shingle with a side of French Flies (as in French F-16 training) and garnished with Turkey’s Heroes of Bakhmut. Putin must surely know that his Ukrainian Waterloo is over and the clock is ticking.     

Russia’s attempted conquest of Ukraine by subterfuge; by blunt military attack, and by indiscriminately murdering civilians has reached a point of diminishing returns for Russia.  Ultimately, the free world will pry Mr. Putin’s cold, dead fingers off of Ukraine’s shoulders, and Vlad’s body will be treated like Mussolini’s for a few days before an ignominious funerary ending.  By signaling a firm, united, long-term commitment to supporting Ukraine with a membership guarantee; by providing almost unlimited military hardware with whatever it takes to win; and by admitting Finland, Lithuania, and Sweden to NATO  …well, Mr. Putin, this marks the beginning of the end of your Napoleonic escapade.  It will leave behind the smoldering rubble of a once-vibrant, emerging democracy. …but unless China is prepared to start World War III on Russia’s behalf, there is absolutely no way Russia can win in Ukraine now.  Russia’s economy versus the economic might of Europe, North America and their allies in Asia? …and Russia wins that?  Nah, hardly …and the sooner the Russian people understand that they cannot win, the sooner they will stop murdering old men, women, and children and go home.

Unfortunately, Mr. Putin can’t see the writing on the wall yet.  His last best hope is helping elect Donald Trump to a second term, but Trump was always a long shot; but now, even that possibility is slipping between his fat little fingers.  While I haven’t spent so much as one second at his trial, I suspect that Mr. Trump is going to prison.  As artificial intelligence (AI) and Cambridge Analytica-style Facebook shenanigans gradually seep into the daily consciousness of an unsophisticated American population, Putin’s chances of manipulating our electorate a second time are being reduced to a much, much lower order of probability.

I can only offer Mr. Putin this advice:
The sooner you stop the war, the sooner you can start running for your life. You will need to get a pretty good head start on the Russian people because, if past is prologue, they will be right behind you with bad breath, torches, and plowshares. Remember, they wanted this conquest as badly as you did …maybe worse.  Now they will blame you for the end of their empire even if you manage to claw off a tiny piece of Ukraine to show for your folly …but if you start now, you might just make it to Iran before they catch up with you!