Vladimir Putin is desperate

“The most important lesson I learned was the winner of gunplay usually was the one who took his time. The second was that, if I hoped to live on the frontier, I would shun flashy trick-shooting as I would poison. I did not know a really  proficient gunfighter who had anything but contempt for the gun-fanner, or the man who literally shot from the hip.”

 — Wyatt Earp

In the spring of 1879, the wicked little town of Dodge City, Kansas “There is seldom witnessed in any civilized town or country such a scene as transpired at the Long Branch Saloon, in this city, last Saturday evening, resulting in the killing of Levi Richardson, a well known freighter, of this city, by a gambler named Frank Loving.

Putin is desperate to win his war. Just as in the Old West he has been challenging the West to take the first shot. He is itching for a war with NATO and the United States. Putin said on Saturday that the sanctions introduced on his country are “equivalent of a declaration of war.” If he believes that then his next step would be to start shooting at NATO nations. Or is he trying to goad the West to start shooting first and then claim he is merely defending his nation.  President Joe Biden and other NATO nations are not taking the bait.

Threats of a nuclear war that would kill half the world’s population make no sense.  The real question is Vladimir Putin of sane mind?