Is the House GOP about to give Putin a pat on the back for his barbarism?

by George Will,

“Russian occupiers … forced families to listen as they raped women next door, members of a U.N.-mandated investigative body said.” — Reuters

In March 2022, three weeks into the war, the Russians dropped two 500-kilogram bombs on a theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, where hundreds of civilians, their homes having been destroyed, were sheltering. On the pavement on each side of the theater was painted in giant Cyrillic letters the Russian word for “children.” Perhaps 600 people died. The implausible idea that this was an accident became even more so 23 days later when, after a missile attack on refugees at a railway station, the words “for children” — up to 9 children were among the up to 63 people killed — were found painted on fragments of the missile. Did this mean revenge for children killed, according to Russian propaganda, by Ukrainian military actions in Russian-occupied portions of Ukraine? Retired Army Gen. David Petraeus and historian Andrew Roberts think not. In their new book, “Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine,” they ascribe the missile attack not to revenge but to “a truly depraved psychology.”

A Russian military consistency has been barbarism:

More From The Washington Post (subscription required):