
A reader sent me a cartoon idea this morning and it wasn’t bad. Thomas, a nice guy it seems, suggested I draw a cartoon of Edward Snowden being drafted by the Russian military now that President Vladimir Putin has granted him Russian citizenship. Not bad, Thomas. Of course, I’m not going to draw Thomas’ idea because I don’t use ideas that are not my own and…I predict at least two other cartoonists will draw it. In fact, my friend Quannah commented on this cartoon on Facebook predicting Snowden will be drafted.
Thomas was thinking like a political cartoonist, seeing Putin’s desperation as he’s losing the illegal war he started in Ukraine. Putin lied to justify his war but even if Nazis were running wild in Ukraine, that wouldn’t justify bombing schools and hospitals. It also doesn’t justify the sham vote occurring in Russian-occupied territories to become a part of Russia. I’m sure after all the results come in showing they do want to leave Ukraine and join Russia, Donald Trump will call and congratulate them.
Putin is desperate and has ordered a draft he claims is only a “partial mobilization.” In a national address, he said, “We are talking about partial mobilization. In other words, only military reservists, primarily those who served in the armed forces and have specific military occupational specialties and corresponding experience, will be called up.” Unfortunately for Russians, that’s a lie. Putin is a liar.
Russians are fleeing the nation to avoid the draft. They’re crossing borders into Finland, Georgia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan, and flying to Turkey.
One young man who has been drafted is fleeing Russia despite the fact his wife will give birth next week. He said, “I will miss the most important day of my life. But I am simply not letting Putin turn me into a killer in a war that I want no part in.”
One group that helps Russians leave the nation so they won’t have to fight Putin’s war estimates that over 70,000 men have used their service to leave Russia with many purchasing one-way tickets. Returning to Russia may land them in prison…or dead in Ukraine.
Russians are against this war and the “partial” mobilization. One young man shot a recruitment officer today at a military enlistment station in Russia’s Irkutsk region. He was distraught because his best friend has been drafted to fight in Putin’s war despite having zero military experience. See? Putin is a liar. The recruitment officer survived.
With so many Russians against this war against a nation they don’t hate, how can they stop it? The only way may be by removing Putin from office. That will not happen politically. Russian politicians lack the intestinal fortitude to confront Putin. They’re unwilling to speak against him let alone attempt to remove him. Putin’s critics have bad habits of tripping out of windows and accidentally drinking poison.
The only way Putin will be removed will be by a military coup. The more territory Russia loses to Ukraine, the more the military destabilizes, and the more Russian soldiers die fighting Putin’s war, the more the military will want to get rid of Putin.
Putin, like Hitler before him who also wasn’t a military genius, may find himself in a bunker.
As Soviet troops entered a destroyed Berlin in 1945, Hitler hid in his Führerbunker and eventually killed himself. I don’t see that happening with Putin but I do believe the military will remove him.
Let’s just hope that Putin is removed before he gets to the point of drafting children to protect him, which Hitler did because that’s all that was left to fight for Germany.
There are still men left to fight for Putin now, but there are not a lot of them who want to.
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