“I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars.” E.M. Forster

“War does not determine who is right, only who is left.” Bertrand Russell

“There is no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war, except its ending.” Abraham Lincoln

“There never was a good war or a bad peace.” Benjamin Franklin

“I do honestly think that if women were running the world there would be more investment in peace, because basically as women we do not want to see our children killed. Maybe I am completely idealistic, but until we see women in equal positions of power in the world, I just think that we are doomed.” Meryl Streep

“War doesn’t make winners, only widows” Unknown

These are among the many quotes, famous and otherwise, that get chosen to chastise humanity for the inhumanity of war. So we find ourselves now again in such a situation.

But let me be clear, what is happening in Ukraine in recent weeks is not a war, it is a slaughter of innocents, as described in the Bible when King Herod sent out his forces to kill the messiah whose birth had been foretold. This genocide is indeed of Biblical proportions, akin to the tyrant obsessed with killing his arch enemy, God’s chosen one. It is not a war between contending armies.

The Meryl Streep quote echoes what British author E.M Forster said decades earlier, but is best in this age coming from a woman. The International Women’s Day celebrated this week was a good occasion for dialing up on YouTube Streep’s timeless 2010 commencement address at Barnard College. She continues as one of the most relevant voices of our age, one next to whom Putin, like Trump, shrinks to the level of J.R.R. Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings” fantasy character in his end days, Gollum.

Tolkein invented Gollum around the time that Hitler invaded Poland kicking off World War II and perhaps the greatest genocide, of six milion Jews, in history.

It was on September 1, 1939 that poet W.H. Auden penned his famous poem named for that infamous date which only in the ensuing years did humanity learn was just the opening shot of a grievous world war.

“I sit in one of the dives on 52nd Street uncertain and afraid,” Auden began. “As the clever hopes expire of a low dishonest decade. Waves of fear and anger circulate over the bright and darkened lands of earth, obsessing our private lives. The unmentionable odor of death offends the September night.”

He blamed the start of the war on “the error bred in the bone of each woman and each man craves what it cannot have.”

Auden later said he despised this poem of his because of its fake optimism at the end evoking humanity’s “affirming flame.”

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine appears an ominous echo of Hitler’s invasion of Poland to start World War II. There is nothing in what Putin seeks that is justifiable. He has made himself into the architect of pure evil.

I remain astounded by how leaders of the Republican Party in the U.S have bought in to Putin’s aggression. They set the stage for it, with all their praise for Putin and attacks on the President Biden. Only after the invasion began did they begin to sing a different tune, because of the overwhelming public response generated largely due to President Zelensky’s resolve, but by then their work had been done.

Never forget the people at the CPAC convention in Florida last week chanting, “Putin, Putin, Putin!” They, of course, changed only when the world began to see how horrendous the Putin assault on Ukraine was becoming.

So now they blame Biden for not doing enough. These disgusting traitors will soon be exposed for who they really are, craven enemies of the U.S.

The entire Republican Party will now be held accountable in what will become the biggest U.S. popular mobilization in history to end the war and rid this nation of its pro-Putin menace once and for all.