The oldest "veterans" at the parade in Moscow today were in their early 90s. That means they would have been between 10 and 15 when the war ended or 6 and 11 when it started. Something tells me that these "boys" most likely weren't fighting. This does not mean they made no contributions; it just means Russia has run out of "heroes."

What do fascists do when they run out of heroes? They make more. American fascists, well, neo-fascists, during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Remember the story about the football player, Patrick Tillman, who supposedly died while saving his entire platoon? It was all fabricated. He was killed by friendly fire. The Army covered up the truth, gave Tillman a Silver Star and Purple Heart, and promoted him posthumously. He became a national hero. Then the truth came out, and his family resented that their son's death was being used to drive enlistment.

Weaving fascism into the national psyche is a delicate process requiring the well-oiled movement of many parts. One of those parts demands that some be viewed as selfless heroes who willingly give their lives to protect the greater good of the people in question. The Bush administration had big, messianic plans for "saving the world," so it needed everyone on board.

Vladimir Putin is a failed leader whose cowardice has led to the collateral deaths of hundreds of thousands of Russians since he took over the country in 2000. About mid-way through his first decade, when he realized how bad he was at being a leader but how sweet it was to rob the country blind, Putin decided to use the last remaining World War II vets to get the country on board in needing Russia's great national whine: Woe is us, everyone is always against us.

From about 2007 or so, the May 9th Victory Day celebrations went from local and nice, more family-oriented, to massive. Suddenly, the federal government was allocating huge budgets to cities to go all out in celebrating the "great victory" and in hyping up the notion that a "Russian's duty is never done. The world is so envious of Russia's greatness that another war is just a matter of time because no one will let Russia ever be truly great. The world fears Russia."

This is the narrative that now sits inside most Russians. Many elderly Russians have long ago grown immune to the propaganda, but most under 40 accept this lie to be the truth — the world fears Russia's greatness. The grand celebrations from 2007 to about 2015 or so were off the charts, and it was not uncommon to see young people whose only contact with World War II and that generation was on May 9th with the celebrations, crying hysterically over the "fallen soldiers." Men and women who had died 70 years earlier.

It began to get a bit odd, to tell you the truth, and even the Russian authorities felt that the energy being rekindled was taking on strange shapes. There is nothing wrong with May 9th being a day of great national remembrance, but Putin's fascist planners were making the day almost seem like training for some future event. A sort of "Hey, guy, get ready. If you like these celebrations and days of remembrance, we can make some more for you."

By 2020, May 9th, which was celebrated despite COVID, had become a day to go out, cry, get drunk, and remember that Russia's greatest moment as a united nation was in sorrow, death, and then a strange kind of conquest — millions of Russian soldiers died because of the criminal incompetence of the officer corps and Stalin's demands for a faster victory. Old guys donned uniforms, almost pretending that they had been the great heroes of 1945, and people with little or no knowledge of the war put them up on pedestals, things they didn't even do when the real veterans were alive and attending much more subdued celebrations decades earlier, the affair became almost perverse.

Many Russians began to prefer spending the day with family at barbecues in parks or at the dacha. By 11 p.m., everyone would be occupying some vantage point to see the fireworks, but oddly, Putin had lost the peak moment. To build his fascist empire, May 9th was deflating and losing its force.

So, on February 24th, 2022, he revived the glory of that day for all Russians. Today, throughout Russia, hundreds of thousands are dead, as many are disabled, and a million more are off fighting a war to build fascism, not to end it. Today, May 9th became the one that Russia had lost, and in the only way the devil could, his conception of something to "benefit" his people came down to launching a war of genocide disguised as everything they fell from the moment he began the re-education program in 2007.

Why does he do it? Because he is a greedy, cowardly, and sick son of bitch who is addicted to power. It has nothing to do with the Russian people.