We’re nearing five years of the Ukraine war — and no one knows how to stop untold slaughter
Victor Davis Hanson / NEW YORK POST
After crossing with his army into Asia, Alexander the Great stopped at Gordium (in modern-day Turkey). He approached the famous Gordian knot — a tangled mass of bark tying an ox cart to a pole, so intricate and tight that no one could unravel it. When told that anyone who could untie the mess would rule all of Asia, Alexander simply pulled out his sword and cut through it — solving the problem and fulfilling the prophecy.
The Ukraine war may be our Gordian knot, but — in our current nuclear age — it is dangerous to cut rather than unravel it.
No one knows exactly how many people have been killed in the Ukraine war, which has now lasted four years and eight months — longer than World War II in the Pacific, the American Civil War, or World War I. There is still no end in sight. Estimates of the human toll vary widely, since it is in the interest of both sides to exaggerate the losses of the enemy while underreporting their own casualties. Read more, see video, and photos here.
