Russia

By hosting Putin on U.S. soil, President Trump extended a level of diplomatic validation that most critics argued was misplaced. After years of isolation from most of the Western world, the elaborate red-carpet welcome and a fly-by by U.S. fighter jets offered Putin a significant public relations victory.

Since ancient times, a major provocation for war was persistent dispute over property lines. Land was the precious commodity of every nation. Those in control of the land determined who could farm, hunt and mine, or even cross the land to reach other areas.

Blacks have been protesting against racial abuse in America for centuries. White discrimination against Blacks is considered to be endemic. Only recently have Blacks become aware that violence by whites is even more extensive. Some of those supporting the Black Lives Matter campaign were surprised to learn that the police also kill a substantially greater number of unarmed whites than Blacks.

So many American Republicans have canonized a dictator who has established a kleptocracy that deprives its citizens and wages war to annex the sovereign state of Ukraine.

The conventional definition of war requires bombs, tanks and artillery. However, we know that in modern times cyber war can be just as violent. Malfunction of the power grid, the banking system and democratic elections would inflict even more destruction than a bombing raid.