Thanks for reading and commenting, Martin! Apologize for the delay in responding but -- life just keeps happening.

I'm mad as hell at what my country's greed and thirst for hegemony has wrought. However, sad as I am about the loss of life on all sides of the conflict, I refuse to be guilted into thinking Ukraine is an innocent bystander in this shit. The ungrateful, beggar of a president Zelensky, his wife and his cohorts are the ones playing with people's lives IMHO and I'm sick of it. Folk tell me, "Well, Deb, you just don't understand how diplomacy works!" Apparently, I'm not the only one because he's shut down any and all attempts by Putin to sit down diplomatically and end this thing. He's getting weapons (able to be re-distributed on the Black Market for a helluva fee, not to mention the gazillions of dollars in foreign aid being funneled into the country -- gazillions HIS OWN PEOPLE need to just stay alive, not even thrive!!

Yes, as you say, "Everyday people get sucked into arguments that they haven't started." And they die too, because of that.