John,
As someone that has spent the majority of my life in war, I can attest that all war is ugly.
All war, every last bit of it, is fought by poor men and women at the behest of the rich and powerful. Many times, the young soldiers don't even know why they are fighting.
At the end of World War II, the Soviets used blocking troops to keep frontline units from retreating. What that means – and I do apologize in advance for the mental image, but it’s the ugly truth – is that Soviet soldiers were assigned to shoot other Soviet soldiers in the back if they retreated or swayed in any way from the mission.
Just think about that for a second, and you will understand what type of mentality we are facing. Vladimir Putin longs for the days of the Soviet empire, and that's what this war is all about. He is trapped in a time warp and thinks this is still the 19th or 20th century.
Well, I’ve got news for Putin, Russia, and the GOP talking heads that have joined forces with them: The year is 2022 and Democracy will prevail like it has time and time again. The only question is, how?
As a warrior, I can tell you nothing is more powerful than diplomacy.
The United States and our allies are going to defeat Russia and send them back retreating without firing a single bullet.
It is time to crank up the pressure, and President Biden today told us how we are doing exactly that. Together with our allies, we are going to make sure that Russia is cut off and isolated, a pariah on the world stage, and that the ongoing cost will be too great for them to bear if Putin continues this aggression.
I am so grateful that President Biden is in the oval office right now. No one is better equipped or prepared to handle this type of situation than he is.
Things are bad right now, and they will likely get worse for the Ukrainian people. We Americans must continue to support them and provide them with everything they need to survive this, while pushing diplomatically for a peaceful resolve.
I can't complete this email without sharing with you the complete and utter disgust I have for something happening here in the United States right now: Republicans, including Trump, are praising Vladimir Putin. That is all you need to know about who they are.
At a moment when thousands of Russians are risking arrest, imprisonment, beatings and worse as they take to the streets to protest Putin’s actions, these thug-worshiping slimeballs are praising him while daring to call themselves Americans. It’s disgusting.
Real Americans do not and have never supported authoritarianism, dictatorship, and fascism, and that’s a campaign message we can run and win on in rural America.
If we show folks in rural America clips of what is happening in Ukraine alongside clips of Trump praising Putin, then maybe, just maybe, that will finally break the brainwashing he has done throughout so much of this country.
I know the markets are tough right now, and I know we are bracing for the cost of oil to go up. That’s exactly what the GOP is counting on, they want to crush us in the midterms by blaming President Biden for high prices and the hit to our 401(k)s.
Well, we Democrats are a resilient bunch and now more than ever, we need to stick together – and bring the rest of America together, too.
We’ve weathered hard times for righteous causes before, and I know we can do it again. We just need to remind our fellow Americans of what what’s at stake … and this time, it’s not just the future of our country, but the future of the world.
Sappers clear the way, Airborne all the way!
--Retired Major Richard Ojeda
