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Not long ago, Donald Trump—never one to let nuance sidetrack a soundbite—likened the war in Ukraine to a playground spat between children. It was a callous comparison, that President Zelensky wasted no time in calling out:  “We are not kids in a playground,” he told ABC’s Martha Raddatz, but “Putin is a murderer, and he is killing kids.” Zelensky’s words landed like a punch, exposing the moral rot in the White House.

But let’s not fool ourselves. Putin isn’t out there pulling triggers or dropping bombs. He’s killing via remote, sending other people’s kids—barely out of childhood themselves—to do his dirty work. Reports from the front lines are grim: Russian soldiers, many forcibly drafted, are dying by suicide in droves, their parents left to grieve in silence or face arrest if they dare to protest. The Kremlin’s war isn’t just a crime against Ukraine; it’s a crime against its own people.

Meanwhile, our own sad, strongman is playing a different but equally cynical game. Our commander-in-chief is dispatching Marines and National Guard troops—not to defend democracy, but to suppress dissent in American cities and to enforce a mass expulsion program that legal scholars and everyday people alike are increasingly seeing as illegal, immoral,  un-American,  and in urgent need of being stopped. 

This is not law enforcement. This is political theater, with the military cast as the president’s personal muscle. As if to underscore the point, millions are being funneled into a military parade—timed, conveniently, to coincide with the president’s birthday, while slashing funding for veterans’ health, and the epidemic of veteran suicide rages on. Some seventeen veterans take their own lives every single day in this country. That’s not a crisis; that’s a catastrophe. A damning indictment of a nation that wraps itself in the flag while abandoning those who have served.

Back in 2022, Zelensky showed it was possible to stand up to a bully. Even as the pundits were predicting a fast defeat after the world’s second largest military superpower invaded his country, president Zelensky addressed his people from Kiev. As the actor/director and writer, Liev Schreiber says in a recent documentary,  “His message was simple. I am here, we are here. But the sentiment it evoked struck a nerve, not just in Ukraine, but with millions of people around the world. With the face of increasingly authoritarian regimes we’re now seeing that it was possible to face down bullies, that this was the function of a democracy.”

I had a chance to talk with Schreiber about war, democracy and his meeting with Ukraine’s actor-turned-president, in an interview about the film, “Meeting Zelinskyy,” which was released not long ago in the UK. We spoke just as US Marines were arriving in Los Angeles and the US Army prepared to march in Washington.

What is our Zelinsky-esque message to our troops?

We are here. Patriotism is not blind obedience. The real crisis facing our nation isn’t an invasion. It’s here at home, in the form of moral injury, mental health neglect, and the soul-crushing knowledge that they may be asked to enforce policies that violate the very values they swore to defend. The military isn’t a prop for presidential pageantry. It’s not a tool for rounding up the vulnerable or flexing for the cameras. It’s comprised of people who deserve better than to be used as pawns in someone else’s power play.

The measure of a nation isn’t how loudly it can thump its chest, but how fiercely it defends its principles. If we let our leaders turn our military into a private security force, if we let them sacrifice the well-being of veterans for political spectacle, we are complicit.

Zelensky’s words are a challenge, not just to Russians, but to us: Who do we serve? What do we stand for? 

You can watch my interview with Liev Schreiber and see clips from the documentary, Meeting Zelinskyy on Laura Flanders & Friends on YouTube or PBS stations starting this weekend, or listen to my uncut conversation with Schreiber by subscribing to our free podcast. All the information is at www.lauraflanders.org.

The suicide hotline # for help is 988.

This post was originally published on Laura Flanders & Friends.