in time of the breaking of nations

I wrote the article.

But I didn't publish it straight away.

I sat wondering for a moment if I had the right.

Could I be wrong about Putin?

If I was wrong about him, I was wronging him grievously.

I went back to the front room to check the television reports one last time.

Sky News and CNN were full of talk about fog, and old planes, and pilot errors, and Polish Presidents ordering their flight crew to keep attempting to land in spite of the dangers.

On Russia Today, Peter Lavelle was saying: "The Stalinist period was hard for all of us. Some healing can still come of this tragic situation."

It was all vaguely obscene.

No mention of the salient issue.

The issue every single intelligent person on the planet was worrying about.

I went back to the computer and published the article.

"Now Internet," I breathed. "Do your work."