The War in Ukraine Gets Crazier
Russians dropping explosive candy bars to 'feed' Ukrainian soldiers
Who doesn’t find a recently de-packaged Milky Way candy bar a sweet temptation too good to pass up? Whether you are a candy lover or not, the knowledge that just below the chocolatey surface lies an exploration of caramel and nougat. If you bite with your eyes closed, you can feel yourself drifting backward on a time machine of taste. The Milky Way has been filling our bellies since 1923.
Leave it to the evil genius of Russians to turn this delightful little snack, a favorite nowadays as a bite-sized treat for Halloween, the candy bar from Minnesota, into a bomb. The Russian air force has been making runs over the Ukrainian lines, but instead of dropping bombs, they are dropping Milky Way bars. If one thing unites all soldiers throughout history, it is a sense of being miserable and the ache of hunger.
Cold and needing a quick pick-me-up, the soldiers come upon the bars in the snow around their lines. Imagine the sense of luck a troop feels coming upon an unopened bar. Frozen through, tired, and hungry, you plan your evening with freshly brewed hot tea for later in the evening while in the fox hole; or, maybe, you decide to rip open your good fortune and eat it.
The Milky Ways, when opened, detonate in the hands of the soldiers, killing almost instantly.
My wife returned last night from Portuguese class; the government in Portugal offers courses for all people immigrating into the country, and in her class are six Ukrainians. They were all talking about the exploding Milky Way bars. Public service announcements are now going out in Ukraine advising people to refrain from eating any candy they might find unopened in forests or fields. The message also warns parents to inform their children.
When you think about how evil Russia is about the Ukrainian people, it stokes the embers of hatred for that nation. Some will say, “Well, Russians don’t really know what’s going on there. If they did, they would be against much of this.” I don’t believe this. Most, except the hardcore Putin haters, would cast doubt on the exploding candy bars’ story. Or, they would somehow justify it. “Well, they bombed Donetsk.” When Russians are propaganda-literate but overall ignorant, they always refer to how Ukrainians shelled Donetsk in 2014.
The Milky Way tragedy is a sick part of war. What is even more sinister about this deadly tainting of the candy bars is that almost, without a doubt, a child will come upon one of these unopened candy bars, and he will open it. Another innocent life will fall before the altar of Russian fascism.
The International Committee of the Red Cross considers the poisoning or tampering of food a war crime. I guess we just add this latest Russian war crime to the list of the ones we already know about, like Butcha.
If there was only somehow we could torture Putin so that he could feel the sorrow felt by the loved ones of every innocent person this war has taken. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Almost too incredible. But, all's fair.....this is war. Expect the unbelievable?