End of the halt

Once upon a time, the old Prince Bolkonsky said to Pierre Bezukhov, confident in the imminent triumph of universal peace: “Pour out the blood, pour in the water, then there will be no war.” There will be war. If not today, then tomorrow, if not here, then nearby. The twenty-first century cannot do without it. This was again recalled by the situation around Israel, the bombing of Iraq, the mass enrollment of Iraqi volunteers “to fight the stronghold of Zionism”...
You must have noticed that in Russia either domestic or international news is interesting. We are not able to connect this. Either we have a thaw and glasnost, and the world views us with condescending contempt, or we have order and stability, but the world begins to look askance at us with caution. And no matter how terrible it sounds, Russia, in which there is a mess, is really dangerous mainly for its inhabitants, while Russia, in which the appearance of a barracks routine has been created, poses a threat to those around them.
There has been no internal news lately. It can’t be all about Putin and debts. But international life was in full swing: first, the exacerbation of the eternal Arab-Israeli conflict, then the election of Sharon as prime minister (in fact, Israel chose war - and our compatriots played a significant role in that), now here is our very likely way out of sanctions against Iraq. The State Duma has already recommended this, and, knowing Putin a little, we have no reason to think that he will refuse such a spectacular step. The Americans have been rude to us several times lately, and Bush Jr. has clearly demonstrated his reluctance to play in a multipolar world. Moreover, the rhetoric of both young and energetic presidents leaves no doubt that friendship between the superpowers is impossible.
The halt, which lasted fifteen years, is over. Pull yourself up, refuel, level up. And how can a war end if the main battle between good and evil, freedom and unfreedom can never end? “The devil fights with God, and the battlefield is the hearts of people,” wrote one deeply Orthodox writer (a big opponent of murder, by the way). “The battlefield is the earth,” our contemporaries added. This battle will never end. Another thing is that the leaders of the warring armies do not care about evil, or good, or even freedom. They solve their problems. And America, which undermined the Soviet empire, never, in essence, cared about Russian dissidents and Russian democracy. One superpower gradually wore down and destroyed another superpower, that’s all.
But what in this war depends on private people? But nothing depends. Which side you were born on is the side you fight for. Or you run before it’s too late.
Dmitry Bykov.