Hi Ben, looks like long story so I'll read tomorrow. For now, I'm sure I'll find a lot of what you said interesting and true. If you read my earlier pieces you will see that I believe this war could have been avoided (I expect you will have said same, I'll see later).

To me, that's all water under the bridge. Russia is now obliterating the parts of Ukraine it wants to mine or populate, the East and specially the South (they have much work to do there). I don't care what their reasoning is. I see the same 10 Russians in Putin's inner circle, year after year. It isn't a real government. It's a small mafia that is completely out of touch with reality. But again, don't care what they think anymore.

I see all these people, both Russians and Ukrainians, getting killed by shrapnel and psychopaths and I lose my appetite for geopolitics. I wrote it's a rant because, as you pointed out, it's a super oversimplification of a lot of things. Like global income inequality, energy righteousness, Western provocations, etc., etc. Nevertheless, Russia INVADED AND CONTINUES TO DETROY Ukraine.

I was for the first Iraq war. I wasn't for the 2nd one. Yeah, stuff that gives me pause. Still, two wrongs don't make a right. I look forward to reading your piece tomorrow!