Playing With (120mm Smooth-Bore) Fire:

I graduated Officer's Candidate School at Ft. Knox, KY as a Second Lieutenant with the title "Small Unit Tank Commander". Then I attended the ARMY'S "Rotary Wing Flight School" as a Commissioned Officer.
I know just enough about the Armored Beast pictured above to be dangerous.
Brandon, our Fearless Leader, is sending 31 of those to Ukraine to kill Russians. They are, arguably, the "top of the food chain" in the world of tanks.
Thinking the U.S. had weak leadership, Putin assembled his troops on the border and invaded Ukraine almost two years ago. Lots of lives on both sides have been snuffed out since. Many innocent non-combatants in Ukraine have died.
It would be nice if PEACE would break out there. Will the addition of Abrams and (German) Leopard tanks there help that happen?
I don't know. I'm frightened.

I DO know this-
Putin WILL NOT give up Crimea. To do so would be a loss of face the "little man" cannot stomach.
In my opinion, this addition to Ukraine's combat capabilities is literally.... Poking the Bear.

How does this conflict end?
I'm not clued into any intelligence information. I hope those folks who are know what they are doing.
But it sure seems to me the way this comes to an end will be similar to the conclusion of our effort in Viet Nam and Russia's Afghanistan experience-
It will become politically untenable.
It seems to me that's the only way Putin backs down. (And is replaced?)

We are playing with fire.
I think the Russian people are the key to ending this tragedy.
I hope they're getting enough "News" to understand that.
And "sooner" would also be nice.
Please.

How Often Have I Said This?

(But he's MUCH more clear.)

Brilliant.

Water- The Good. The Bad. The UGLY.

We came home the day after Christmas to Niagara Falls in three of our downstairs rooms.
(If you don't know what I'm talking about, drop down a couple posts and catch up, you slaggard!)
I slogged underneath the house and got the water (mostly) shut off, then called our insurance company-
(Take into account... this was the day after Christmas at 2000 hours.)
"All our agents are busy. Your call is important to us and will be answered in the order it was received."
90 minutes transpire. And when I actually got a chance to chat with a real human being she was professional, nice, and sympathetic to our situation. We discussed our dilemma for an hour.

Next morning, trying to get in touch with a plumber I called DOZENS-
"This is (blah, blah, blah) plumbing. We are out of the office until January 4th. Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!"
I knew these facts:
The temperature in our area had dropped WELL below zero. The likelihood that many (hundreds) in our area were dealing with the same problem we had was not gonna be in our favor.
We had no water for 48 hours. I suspect we've all been in this position...
Coffee! Go to the faucet with carafe in hand and reach for the faucet only to realize that's a futile effort.
This happened SEVERAL times before I went to (evil) Wally World and bought a few gallons of distilled water.

We don't realize how spoiled we are until we are deprived of certain things-
Flip the switch and illuminate the room so you don't bust your derriere.
Push the lever down to make that bad smelling stuff you just sat down and deposited go away.
(I won't sicken you and tell you what we reduced ourselves to doing while we had no water.)
Fortunate- we had a pro plumber show up about two days after our incident. And he didn't charge us an arm and leg to find and fix our problem. He even crawled beneath our house twice!

And how odd it felt... looking at the damage to three rooms in our (formerly comfortable) home, knowing what the future held with having to tear the place apart in order to get back to something like "normal".
But... we could take the carafe to the tap, turn the handle, and make coffee.

Thinking of folks long ago who had to make coffee over an open campfire after they fetched water from a "crick"...
I said a prayer and thanked GOD for my many blessings.

Silly Question?

Like Forrest Gump, I know "I am NOT a smart man".
So I need an answer to my silly(?) question.
Thousands and thousands of "undocumented future democrats" are crossing our Southern border on a daily basis. I've been watching the videos of this chaos/fiasco, and it seems to me most of those crossing are solo, young, (military age) males. Here's my question:
If they are coming to the U.S. because they are dissatisfied with the conditions in their own country... instead of risking their lives to make the terrible, life-threatening, several thousand-mile journey here, why don't these healthy young males use their energies to CHANGE the conditions in their own homes?
Instead of making life better for themselves, that action would make life better for THOUSANDS of their countrymen.

It's a puzzle to me.
But I am not a smart man.