By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
First, I want to apologize to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel for borrowing the title of their great love song from 1970 that won five Grammy awards in 1971. Simon wrote it and Garfunkel was the lead vocalist, and it is one of my all-time favorites.
But that title works here because the Russian president spent almost $4 billion in public funds in building that land bridge to his captive land of Crimea, the object of his first act of international piracy.
But, as they have done so many times since the February invasion, the Ukrainians apparently outsmarted the Russians again and dropped large pieces of the Kerch Bridge into the Black Sea. This time it was a mysterious explosion that put the roadway and railroad tracks out of commission for an indefinite period.
Ole Vladimir is threatening retaliation on a large scale but that only means his military forces will bomb more civilian targets, torture more citizens and freedom fighters, all the while trying to replace the armored vehicles and generals that Ukraine has destroyed with American-provided munitions.
He must be close to hitting the panic button because he is suggesting that he may use nuclear weapons to defend his country. If you invade your neighboring country and they fight back and kick your butt back across the border, that must allow you to call it national defense.
Military experts on all sides are saying that unleashing nuclear weapons could trigger a global holocaust that would kill all of us, including Mother Russia.
Draft-age men are leaving Russia everywhere, protesters are marching in the streets, once-friendly politicians are shying away and the super-rich oligarchs who put and kept him in power are not returning his calls, according to various media sources.
Meanwhile, Russia’s military leaders are desperate to get that bridge repaired so that their soldiers fighting and fleeing in Ukraine won’t run out of bullets, food, and white flags.
(Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com).
