Dear Editor,
I am concerned by the menace represented by this man Vladimir Putin, who the more I study him, the more there is recalling of a German leader from 90 years ago. The parallels are there; so, too, are the imminent dangers that could mushroom from the mind of a man increasingly cornered, and left with less and less options to claw at and get back at his tormentors.
I think the largely unified front of Europe caught him off guard, and the fact that it continues to hold, is a source of distress for him. He is playing the Iranian card gingerly, while fully at home with China and North Korea being as one with him. The former works with any ally to break the Yankee hegemony, while the latter houses another megalomaniac in the image of the Russian strongman. He is a strongman unlike Nikita Khrushchev, who had to contend with a Kremlin politburo that was less handpicked, and vigilant about ‘red lines’ being crossed. The German leader that was alluded to earlier surrounded himself in identical fashion with those who would follow into the gates of hell without question or limit or conflicted state. And look where that nation (and the world) ended up, with the flower of Europe’s youth bled on the battlefields.
Unlike the German (considered incorrect by the purists actually to name him, so I disguise), who had only bombarded and battered London, Comrade Putin possesses the ultimate weapons. When men are cornered desperation may trigger the urge to get first jump, and unleash the unthinkable and unwinnable on the world. The German didn’t hesitate with his V-1 and V-2 rockets; and it is all but guaranteed if he had those mushroom cloud ones, he wouldn’t have hesitated. I loathe saying this, even thinking about it, but I am wary regarding where Comrade Putin could take this. As a judoka, and one with that fearsome KGB aura, I think he has gone past the stage of bravura. He is now fully committed to seeing this through to wherever it leads. It is more than Ukraine, and now Europe has to be growing increasingly unsettled. After all, Sarajevo was that little spark that led to the first global conflagration. This is severely troubling, for we are not immune though all the way over here.
Editor, I sense a man believing that the walls are closing in, and this is regardless of the next developments in Ukraine. The more sanctions there are, and the deeper they pierce, the less he has to lose. He is so far gone already, there could be the greatest difficulty stopping, much less turning back. His history is that of a man, who will fight to the death; his story is that of someone, who feels isolated, and the world is against him. Stronger men have made mistakes under lesser circumstances, and the pressures they inflict. Mr. Putin has not been cautious, and he is growing more nervous, definitely increasingly callous. This is a leader who will take serious risks and gamble with the winds of destiny. Better men than him have made the same mistakes.
Currently, we are still in the throes of pestilence, but now we have war, and from that comes creeping levels of starvation. It is the perfect storm of the frighteningly devastating.
Though I am less inclined to subscribe to, or prioritize, any talk about the end, the chalkboard is there, and it has some alarming writing. Some are experiencing the realities of that writing. They are feeling the first pinches in flour and gas, with more certain to come, even if only trickledown and crosscurrent effects; except that trickle is not the best of words, given how some Guyanese already exist. Thank God the PPP/C Government provided respite in electricity and water bills. Those will help, but for how long and how much is still a work in progress. Guyanese take whatever they get, and grimace under the duress of the rest. As I break my wilderness fast, I don’t like where the world is poised today.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
