Zelensky Visits Washington

 

During a lightning ten-hour visit to Washington, D. C., yesterday, embattled Ukrainian President Zelensky - the Winston Churchill of our time - met with President Biden at the White House and also gave an address to a joint session of Congress.  The gallant wartime leader appeared haggard and hoarse, quite understandably, but remained resolute and defiant, as the Associated Press reports:

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy told cheering U.S. legislators during a defiant wartime visit to the nation’s capital on Wednesday that against all odds his country still stands, thanking Americans for helping to fund the war effort with money that is “not charity,” but an “investment” in global security and democracy.

The whirlwind stop in Washington — his first known trip outside his country since Russia invaded in February — was aimed at reinvigorating support for his country in the U.S. and around the world at a time when there is concern that allies are growing weary of the costly war and its disruption to global food and energy supplies.

Zelenskyy called the tens of billions of dollars in U.S. military and economic assistance provided over the past year vital to Ukraine’s efforts to beat back Russia and appealed for even more in the future.

“Your money is not charity,” he sought to reassure both those in the room and those watching at home. “It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”

I continue to pray for Ukraine's deliverance and peace.  I don't see how this stupid war can end unless we bomb the hell out of Russia, or Putin croaks, whichever comes first.  But we can't just abandon the Ukrainians to a grisly fate, either.  All of this gives me a new and deeper perspective on the fears and feelings people must have had in the lead-up to World War II, when the outlook was dim and the outcome was as yet uncertain.  Please God, there will not a third world war.  

Here in Texas, the arctic blast has arrived, and temperatures are steadily falling - it's 16 degrees as I write, with a wind chill of -5.  Brrr!  We won't be above freezing again until Christmas Day.  In our happy but drafty old bungalow, it's already quite cool, despite the gas furnace and the electric fireplace running continuously.  My thoughts and sympathies are with the poor Ukrainian people who now have no lights, heat, water, or in many cases, any kind of home to hunker down in.  All because of one wicked old man's twisted lust for power.

There has been talk in scientific circles of late about sending manned missions to the Moon again, or maybe even to Mars.  If it comes to pass, I've already got a short list of prime candidates to be given free one-way tickets aboard the first rocket going.

I've got a little list, I've got a little list,

Of societal offenders who never would be missed --

Who never would be missed!

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