Explaining world affairs to children and spouses requires simple arguments. These are mine

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There are people in the world who benefit from wars, chaos, and the weakness of other countries.

Such people have controlled American foreign policy for decades. Vietnam, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Nicaragua, Libya, Syria, and now Ukraine have been detrimental to the people of all those places. Also to young Americans – look at the tales of woe about VA hospitals.  At the same time they have enriched the people who sponsored such policy.

This element within the United States hoped to control Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Once Russia started to manifest signs of independence, after Yeltsin's departure, the apparatus that had demonized the Soviet Union, then looted Russia, turned to demonize her again.

The United States military/diplomatic/media/Internet cabal controls information worldwide with the exception of Russia and China. That certainly includes public opinion here in Ukraine. Yanukovych is a corrupt and stupid man. It was not hard to set the population against him, and they certainly did. Ukraine was well to be rid of him. United States loudly took credit for his ouster. They had set the stage.

This led to Putin's first overreaction, the annexation of Crimea and sponsoring the "spontaneous" uprisings that led to the People's republics. He had not thought it through carefully, and the resulting armistice was never allowed to solidify into an enduring peace. Too many parties had an interest in continued conflict.

The United States media has been on a jihad against Russia and Donald Trump since 2016. They have consistently made false accusations of collusion between the two. They pushed NATO right up to Russia's borders. They supported biological warfare labs here in Ukraine.

Zelensky, as the first non-oligarch to be elected to the presidency, did not come into office with the support of an established and experienced team. Kind of like Donald Trump.

He was forced to negotiate from weakness and lack of knowledge with the various factions of oligarchs and parts of his government. My guess is that he was forced to tolerate the right wing elements within Ukraine and its military as they continually provoked Russia. That is the claim in this article. Search on Patrick Lancaster Ukraine for a (biased, of course) take from the People's Republics.

Putin suffered the weaknesses of the tsars before him.  He lived in his own cocoon. People could not afford to tell him the truth.  His previous gambles such as the wars in Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine had come out satisfactorily. He could and did overestimate his own genius.  But, pride goeth before a fall.

The constant stream of Western orchestrated provocations led Putin to wildly overreact with the invasion of Ukraine. Putin and the West both expected a short war. Putin expected to destroy the Ukrainian military and put an end to the provocations by the Ukrainian right wing. The Western bankers probably imagined riding in to save the day with usurious loans and dirt cheap asset purchases.

Here's where things went awry. Ukraine, all alone but under steady leadership from Zelensky and with a more competent than expected military and strong resolve from the citizenry, held off the Russians. When the United States volunteered to spirit him out of the country, which would have left it wide open to the bankers, Zelensky scoffed: "I don't need a taxi. I need guns!"

The whole punditry of the United States, both left and right, has egg on its face. Nobody expected the Ukrainians to be so tough. Ukraine did it without NATO troops on the ground. Zelensky proved he does not need NATO at all. Why should he now encumber himself promising to defend others when NATO would not defend him? Why does he need the EU? Soldiers in dresses - whatever sex - would not have won him this war.

There will certainly be a flood of offers the loan Ukraine money for rebuilding. Actually, the damage will probably not be that vast. My counsel to Zelensky would be to only accept money on the most favorable terms. These loans may not turn out to be that poisonous, because inflation will make them fairly cheap to repay. This world turmoil has only increased the value of Ukraine's greatest assets, it's agriculture and it's IT brainpower.

That's my take. Probably too complex for my wife or my son to fully understand, and far too simple to explain the whole thing. That’s the nature of compromise.

That's the second round of news for this Tuesday, March 1, 2022. I expect there will be an even more dramatic third round.

That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the children are missing their father as he spends his time glued to the news. Like all the other adults in the family.

Graham