Russia, if you are listening, I hope you can find all of those missing ...Nazis.
Russia has become Europe's present day equivalent of what the Goths were to the Roman Empire. Some of the elements are exactly the same: Savage brutality, an unquenchable thirst for blood, poor planning, and success only coming, if it comes at all, after many defeats and after years and years of very painful trying.
Vlad the eviscerater meets heroic Volod the giant killer, stocked with plenty of ammunition for his slingshot. At unfortunate costs, the storybook plot is suddenly playing out well for the good guy and oh, so poorly, for the miscalculating assailer. Volod's homeland defenders are losing lives and infrastructure, but Vlad's pawns and pieces are also falling like rain. The quick, three-move checkmate failed, and the counter attack is being rewarded with territory, respect, and a hefty dose of motivation. But no checkmate is yet in order. Europe and the world wait to see if the corrupt, lying Vlad will resort to his illegal weapons.
"What we've got here is a failure to communicate." --Captain, Cool Hand Luke
Vlad's only interest in talking is for the distraction and time wasted. But lucky for the Good Guys, there is a haven called Poland, where lessons long learned by the equally heroic, translate into action for the disenfranchised.
"The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on." --Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address
And democracy lives on to fight another day.
