By DARLENE VANN / Headline Surfer
EDGEWATER, Fla. -- I spent my youth and my early adult years in fear of what was the Cold War and waiting for the Soviet Union to fire nuclear bombs our way.
We went about our lives, but the threat of nuclear proliferation was on our minds -- starting with the duck and cover drills of my elementary school days and permeating well into my adult years -- always in the back of my mind. Then the Cold War with the break-up of the Soviet empire in 1991.
But what emerged as the largest and most formidable of the Soviet era was Russia and its new strongman -- former KGB boss Vladimir Putin.
Fast forward to 2022 and Russia is again Enemy No. 1 with an arsenal of nukes on Intercontinental ballistic missiles, which Putin has made clear is an option he won't hesitate to use should Russia's interests be compromised by the US and its NATO allies since he ordered the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in February.
Fast forward to 2022 and Russia is again Enemy No. 1 with an arsenal of nukes on Intercontinental ballistic missiles, which Putin has made clear is an option he won't hesitate to use should Russia's interests be compromised by the US and its NATO allies since he ordered the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in February.
So the fear is back and another generation is going through what I went through earlier in my life.
At age 75, I was hoping the threat of nuclear annihilation would never happen, but Putin is a scary man.
This is why I agree that American troops cannot directly engage the Russians in battle on Ukrainian soil. But I am wholeheartedly in favor of the continued military aid provided by America to help those brave Ukrainians fight off the Russian attempts to take over their country. We have plenty of weapons they are desperately in need of over there.
Certainly, we can manage to supply the Ukrainians with what they need.
I must say I admire the Ukrainian men who have beaten back the Russians from many of their cities, even though outgunned by Russia's tanks and long-range missile strikes on civilian targets - part of the Russian scorched earth policy as seen with Putin's past involvement in Syria.
I wonder if the same situation arose in this country how many of our men would send their wives and children away to safety in a neighboring country while they stay behind to fight for their country.
Many of those Ukrainian men are not military or ever trained to fight, but have stayed to combat the Russian invaders anyway.
I pray that the Ukrainians prevail and put Putin in his place with a humiliating defeat to show him he is not the god he thinks he is so another generation does not go to bed each night uneasily awaiting the possibility of an all-out nuclear attack that most certainly would result in the mutual destruction of Russia, the US and most of the world's countries.
Multimedia: YouTube video embedding / Nuclear WW3 against Nato is a ‘REAL DANGER’ warns Russian foreign minister.