SPEAKING OF SCORPIONS
Friday, February 11, 2022
Do you remember that movie from 1966, The Russians Are Coming?
It was a comedy – far removed from the scary consequences of Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938.
Now, Ukraine is experiencing its own ‘The Russians Are Coming’ dilemma – while the world watches and the world forgets. Remember Germany pre-World War II? Hitler met with UK Prime Minister of appeasement Neville Chamberlain to give assurances that war was not imminent, they signed a peace agreement in fact over Czechoslovakia, and then Hitler promptly pressed on to take the Sudetenland and later Czechoslovakia as steps in his ambitions to take over Europe and rule the world …
Now the Russians want Ukraine, and the world watches while preparations are made on both sides of a border, like setting matches and gasoline close to one another, expecting nobody will play with matches. Every day the news media report on how a Russian invasion is imminent. Perhaps it is.
However this plays out, there can be no question that Europe/NATO/United States are being played like marionettes on strings.
It might not relate exactly here, but I can’t help thinking about the story of the Scorpion and the Frog :
“A scorpion asks a frog to carry him over a river. The frog is afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that if it did so, both would sink and the scorpion would drown. The frog then agrees, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When asked why, the scorpion points out that this is its nature.”
Mr. Putin is an autocratic leader, and to many, he is a horrible stubborn menace; to many, he is an altruistic leader. To some, he is a hard negotiating non-diplomat, but first and always, he is a scorpion.
Reader feedback:
Mark. Hope you are okay. I can’t see you staying down. You are a prize fighter my friend, JR, Calgary, AB