Headline Mysteriously Missing: ‘Putin Prevents Slaughter of Estimated 1 Million Innocent People

There's one headline which has been conspicuously absent. While we understandably lament the breakup of Kim and Kanye and his subsequently being suspended from Instagram, are enthralled by the prospect of Volodymyr Zelensky making a cameo appearance at the Oscars, are alternately stunned and overwhelmed with giddy patriotism as The View calls for the investigation and arrest of news icon Tucker Carlson and former congresswoman and major in the National Guard Tulsi Gabbard, one headline has at least so far been missing in action. At least I haven't seen it on CNN, MSNBC, in the NYT, WaPo, LA Times, Boston Globe, Bloomberg, WSJ, HuffPo, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Enquirer, Baltimore Sun, San Francisco Examiner, Houston Chronicle.

Prior to the military operation initiated by Vladimir Putin on February 24, approximately 14,000 Ukrainian citizens in the breakaway republics of Donbas had been killed by the Ukrainian army. Immediately after the 2014 Euromaidan insurrection February 14, which overthrew a democratically elected government, persecution of those living in this region began. The population there is of Russian extraction, speak Russian, were actually a part of Russia for centuries. Indiscriminate bombing of schools, neighborhoods, hospitals, killing innocent women and children never let up for eight years. Though a path for peaceful resolution of the conflict was put in place in 2015 in the form of the Minsk II Agreement, the government in Kiev ignored it, making its focus on a military solution evident. A troop build-up of 100,000+ on the line of contact in the months leading up to the Russian intervention, an increase in the intensity of shelling of the breakaway republics, belligerent public statements by stand-up comic and president of Ukraine, Voloymyr Zelensky -- including his announcement that Ukraine might become a nuclear power -- the pouring of lethal arms into Ukraine overall and the conflict zone itself by the US and its NATO allies, the setting up of camps by US and NATO and increased presence of "trainers" to hone the talents and tactics of the Ukrainian armed forces, made it obvious that an assault on the Donbas was inevitable.

While abhorrence of war is amply justified, there's such a thing as a just war, and Putin may have launched one on Feb. 24th. We live in an imperfect world, and evil sometimes must be confronted.

For anyone who would suggest that all of the evidence is "circumstantial" and in fact just hollow justification for Putin's sinister desire the crush Ukraine and fold it into a new empire, ORIGINAL documents were discovered by the Russian military in areas taken over early in the operation. These documents, signed at the highest levels of the Ukrainian military, describe in detail their plans for an assault on Donbas in March. The Russian military prevented the genocidal attack by only a few weeks.

There are 3.5 million people living in Donetsk and Luhansk. Despite the determination of the "rebel forces" to defend the population there, if the Ukrainian military had mounted a full-on assault, it would have been a bloodbath. It easily could have resulted in the death of up to a million people.

Civilians would be targeted. This is not speculation. They have been targeted all along. This it the product of a virulent hatred of Russia and Russians by the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, Aidar, Right Sector, and other ultra-nationalist Ukrainian organizations. These fanatic militias [are direct descendants of similar formations in Ukraine with] a well-documented history of collaboration with Hitler's Third Reich, and the genocide of Jews in the region.

Intervening to prevent the massacre of a million people is a messy business. It's not a decision made lightly, as Putin himself has stated. In this instance, the courage to do the right thing came at an enormous price for Mr. Putin personally, for the Russian economy, for the Russian people who overnight have been vilified as embodying All That Is Evil in the world.

But isn't such fearless determination in the face of real evil what the Nobel Peace Prize would customarily reward?

Or maybe not. Maybe the poisoning of the Western consciousness, the bankruptcy of our values, the inversion of good and evil, the replacement of truth with cheerleading and jingoism, have reached some point of no return. Maybe the beast is simply so sick, there is no cure.

If that's the case, the Nobel Peace Prize goes to the best liar.