March 26, 2022

Day 1, Phase 2

There's something about senseless destruction in this photograph, which evokes the Eternal Struggle, the 1923 American silent drama film.

Reginald Barker, we recall, also co-directed the famous anti-war feature, Civilization, a story about a submarine commander who refuses to fire at a civilian ocean liner supposedly carrying ammunition for his country's enemies.

Which brings me to Eric at The New York Times, who gives us a preview of what Phase 2 of Putin’s Special Operation in Ukraine might look like:

Sounds like the perfect theater of operations for Tyler and members of the Sheikh Mansur Battalion. But the “Russia-backed separatist” bullshit is old, misleading and serves no journalistic purpose. Let’s bounce around more accurate descriptions of the enemy, please.

Belarus. The Belarusian soldiers who want to further invade Ukraine can simply join the Russian army. That way, we can pretend it’s just another Russian invasion. Not complicated.