Now that Trump’s favorite dictator (after himself of course), Putin, has invaded democratic Ukraine and attempts to assert the same kind of brutal rule that he has over Russia, it’s time for everyone to stand up to and speak out against this kind of blatant aggression.

I have never understood why a people that have given the world so much greatness in the form of music, dance, the arts, and sciences, have perpetually let themselves be taken in and allowed to be ruled by strongmen throughout the centuries … They seem to pathetically only be happy to be led around by the nose, as cattle, and need to have a czar to bow down to. In 1917 they threw off the royalist shackles during the Russian Revolution, only to allow themselves to be subjugated by Lenin, and then worse, Stalin, for over 50 years. Then after the Soviet Union fell in the early 1990s, they could only manage a mere 10 years of “freedom” before taken in by the sinister ex-KGB agent and dwarf, Putin. Yes, a few brave people have tried to speak out and stand up to the tyrant and his cronies, but they have either been killed, imprisoned (as in the case of Alexi Navalny), or otherwise silenced.

I’m glad that our government under the strong leadership of Joe Biden, and most nations of the world, are standing up to this bully. I wish that we could have responded militarily, but imposing the strictest sanctions against the Russian state that can be imposed will hopefully have an impact. I don’t care if it causes the worst hardships on the Russian people. If they don’t depose Putin, then they deserve it. I was against the Iraq war, because it was based on lies fabricated by G. W. Bush, who should have been tried as a war criminal. Whatever we do to stand up to Putin is justified.

If Trumpty Dumpty, Putin’s pal, had still been president (god forbid), he would be praising the dictator right now, as he has already done numerous times, no matter how many Ukrainians lose their lives. This is why we need to be vigilant, because Trump, much of the Republican party, and those MAGA morons want America to be like just like Russia is now, an autocracy.

Bruce Acciavatti

Salisbury