THINK About Right and Wrong Before Supporting, Justifying or Placating Acts of Evil Tyrants

I provided some advice to a friend who had adopted what he called a contrarian point of view regarding the Russia - Ukraine conflict, whereby he was saying that the Western Media was only providing a one sided view of the conflict and that there are, in fact, good reasons for Putin to be invading Ukraine.

I said, Dear XXXX, “I think you have to be a bit careful in your embracement of contrarian views of things like the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Certainly there is history involved and circumstances justifying different points of view. At this point some justifications would be acceptable only to defense lawyers trying to make a case against Putin’s war crimes. The reality is that at this point Russians leader Putin is the aggressor. Without his aggression there would be thousands, if not tens of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians still alive, and millions fewer people uprooted and made refugees. It is like arguing that there are mitigating circumstances for mass murderers who perpetrate death in American and Canadian schools, communities or workplaces. We can never condone mass murder whether it is in communities in North America or a result of Russia’s Putin attacking Ukraine. I once had a student who said that the children/students killed in the Kent State massacre in 1970 maybe ‘deserved’ it because of their actions - he was totally wrong - you can never excuse murder of innocent people - even if you can understand the reasons leading up to the incident.” Putin’s actions cannot be condoned or rationalized in a civilized society that believes in right and wrong.