Eighty years ago, the bloodiest battle in human history ended. The German army surrendered to the Soviets at Stalingrad. More than one million human beings were killed in six months of fighting along the Volga River.

The defeat ended Hitler's totalitarian expansion, and 28 months later, he committed suicide.

Today we have Hitler's soul mate, Putin, trying to expand totalitarianism to Ukraine, a country conquered by the Nazis and located fairly close to Stalingrad, which is now called Volgograd. It's almost exactly the same story we saw in the 1940s; a brutal dictator waging war because he wants to see death and destruction. Putin loves that.

In the Pacific, we also have a similar threat from Communist China. The dictator Xi would like to annex Taiwan as the Chinese have done with Tibet.

Back in 1943, Tojo and the Japanese fascists were well on their way to a fiery defeat. The American Navy and Marines pushed the Rising Sun back after a series of bloody fights. All told, more than 30 million people died worldwide in World War II.

Isn't it ironic that the world is facing like-minded threats in 2023? Hitler and Tojo were savages. So are Putin and Xi. They both live to subjugate humanity.

The difference now, of course, is nukes. The major powers have the ability to destroy the planet. Thus, armed conflict is exceedingly perilous.

In 1947, Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, and other nuclear scientists came up with the "Doomsday Clock." The concept is a yearly update on how close mankind is to "global catastrophe."

This year the clock is just a few minutes away from midnight - doom. That's because of Putin's threats to use nuclear weapons in Europe.

Just that scenario alone should tell the world that old Vlad has to go. And that's what NATO and the USA are trying to accomplish through economic sanctions and sending weapons to Kyiv.

The arc of history repeats itself often. Eighty years ago, the world struggled against fascism and eventually defeated The Third Reich and the Empire of Japan.

Will the free world now do the same thing with the contemporary totalitarians?

As the cliche goes - it's complicated.

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