Putin

By hosting Putin on U.S. soil, President Trump extended a level of diplomatic validation that most critics argued was misplaced. After years of isolation from most of the Western world, the elaborate red-carpet welcome and a fly-by by U.S. fighter jets offered Putin a significant public relations victory.

Since ancient times, a major provocation for war was persistent dispute over property lines. Land was the precious commodity of every nation. Those in control of the land determined who could farm, hunt and mine, or even cross the land to reach other areas.

It was shocking to many Americans that Vladimir Putin could be responsible for a reign of terror against his own brother and sister Slavs. The provocation was that Ukrainians refused to bow and become subservient to the president of Russia. This inter-Slavic hostility brought to mind the continuing racial conflict in America.

So many American Republicans have canonized a dictator who has established a kleptocracy that deprives its citizens and wages war to annex the sovereign state of Ukraine.