I have been following the war in the Ukraine intensely; a week ago, before the fighting started, I was feeling distinct comparisons to September 1939, and Hitler’s invasion of Poland. The west had given in to Putin on the Crimea and the fighting in the border areas, which has led to the current affair, just as appeasement let Hitler to resolve the ‘Danzig question’ with force.

Watching a conscript army stalled for six days now, unable to push 30 miles to Kiev without hitting serious supply issues, my view has changed to that of the Soviet-Finnish war, where a massive conscript force ran headlong into a buzzsaw of highly-motivated regulars.

However this plays out, there is a new era coming, I believe. The Great European Peace that has existed (except in the former Yugoslavia) since the end of the Greek civil war in 1947 has been broken. Regardless of how this war plays out, a new Cold War is inevitable.

Troubling times.

As a footnote, I am still working on Grog 4 and a project that shall remain unnamed.