“FREEDOM MUST BE ARMED BETTER THAN TYRANNY” --Volodymyr Zelensky

The relatively brief but bloody war in Ukraine is entering its fourth and possibly decisive  phase.

For those of us born after World War II, this is the most consequential war of our lifetime. Upon its outcome rests the future of European stability and prosperity.

The Russian military—revealed as inept at tactics, unimaginative in operational design, obtuse in strategy, and incompetent at basic logistics and maintenance—can do only two things well: vomit out massive amounts of firepower and brutalize civilians.

Putin and his senior advisers, as stewards of a military that cannot adequately care for its wounded and that abandons its dead, don’t care about the human price they are paying.  And so Putin will order offensives that, if confronted by a well-resourced Ukrainian foe, can effectively destroy his own army.

The challenge for the West is to ensure that this is its fate.

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Winston Churchill famously called Russia "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." A more accurate description of the current Russian Federation is a forgery wrapped in a deception inside a lie.

Numerous analysts have focused on Moscow’s campaign of disinformation to undermine the West, but they have barely noticed that the most important subject of disinformation is Russia itself. Moscow has a long record of deceiving Westerners and depicting its empire as invincible.

In a previous imperial incarnation, Soviet communism and socialist internationalism were supposed to ensure salvation for all humanity. Until, that is, they were exposed as a fraud. Today’s Russia has created an image of great power status, economic strength, and military power that is rapidly unraveling in Ukraine. This is revealing that the Russian state structure itself stands on rotting foundations.

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Last Thursday (4/07), the NATO foreign ministers met in an emergency session about Russia’s increasingly horrific and atrocity-filled invasion of Ukraine. However, unlike most NATO meetings, this one was substantive. The main issue on the table was weaponry. Quantity, quality, and purpose were all concerns. To date, the weaponry supplied to Ukraine has been defensive.

No more.  Game-changing weapons began to flow to Ukraine immediately after the meeting.

Further, the attendees were not only NATO nations; there were also observers present: the European Union, Sweden, Finland, Georgia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Ukraine. If Putin was afraid of being surrounded before, he should take a quick look at his map now.

A very insightful statement came from Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba: “I think the deal that Ukraine is offering is fair. You give us weapons, we sacrifice our lives, and the war is contained in Ukraine.”

All of the actions taken by NATO countries indicate they have agreed to Mr. Kuleba’s deal.

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Title 42 is the last remaining tool the federal government has to control record-high levels of illegal immigration.  Every other policy the Trump administration implemented to secure the border has been rescinded or neutered by Biden, and on May 23, Title 42 will be gone too.

What’s coming, in other words, is a border surge of historic and almost unimaginable proportions, and it is happening as a direct result of Biden’s policy choices. The crisis about to unfold is 100 percent avoidable, and 100 percent Biden’s fault.

If Abbott were serious about securing the border, he wouldn’t announce a plan to transport migrants to Washington but a plan to take them back to Mexico -- immediamente.  Here’s how he can.

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