They Ran From Lysichansk...

 ... And, of course, they have been "caught". By Russian artillery. 

The issue, however, is in this calming music and also weeping of some people who still have ideas that these are someone's sons and fathers. Well, let's face it--it is now much more complex than this, especially when you see a command core of a brigade of VSU (10th mountain assault brigade) abandoning their personnel and trying to escape--a familiar story by now, told by Ukrainian troops themselves. So, it is not Russian propaganda. It is a complex issue, the one I call "Lieutenant Dan" issue from Forest Gump. 

 

But in a historic dark irony--it is impossible to explain to some Washington swamp creature that the United States, for all its huge failures, has a much more realistic claim to actual military history than whatever is called today Ukraine. Some people cannot even wrap their brains around this dark historic irony, if not sarcasm, because military history was never a strong point in the US. As the good acquaintance of mine from Baku, Colonel, the veteran of Afghanistan, told me:"Everyone wants to live." I witnessed it myself too. Is 404 worth dying for? Those who planned it for them never faced any real danger in their life--they tend to congregate in Washington D.C.

On Some Silver Linings

Dostoevsky wrote in his Diary about Cervantes' immortal work this: "In the whole world there is no deeper, no mightier literary work. This is, so far, the last and the greatest expression of human thought; this is the bitterest irony which man was capable of conceiving. And if the world were to come to an end, and people were asked there, somewhere: “Did you understand your life on earth, and what conclusion have you drawn from it?” – man could silently hand over Don Quixote: “Such is my inference from life. – Can you condemn me for it?” 

When viewing today a wasteland that modern American art has become, I recall the interpretation of Dostoevsky's thought on Don Quixote: When the humanity will be called for a final judgement, a lot will be forgiven because Don Quixote was written. I watched recently Arrival. Amy Adams is as always stunning and apart from being a superb actress is one one of the last vestiges of true femininity and beauty in art. And then it occurred to me to steal Dostoevsky's lines in regards to Hollywood: When the United States will be called for a final judgement a lot will be forgiven because Forrest Gump, Walle-E, Interstellar and Arrival were made. This is my Silver Lining thought of a day.