“A sensitive question. What do you think about the war?”

Or maybe the guy said “about Russia”. I don’t remember exactly.

Last week I was having a business lunch in Newport Beach, California. I was with my boss. The guy we were meeting was an executive at a private equity company. We are bankers, trying to get deals. There was business talk and there was small talk. We shared glimpses into our life journeys and how we moved from state to state or across countries.

In this fairly lavish setting, I was asked the question about my opinion on Ukraine. This goes beyond “small talk”. I don’t mind sharing my views, but it’s never easy to fit a complex topic into a few sentences.

Actually, it’s not complex.

First of all, it’s a terrible tragedy. Some nations seem to be perpetually at war with each other. There are centuries-long conflicts. Not that these wars are more acceptable, but the perception is that — they are constant war zone, nothing new.

With Russia — Ukraine, it’s different. The expression “a brotherly nation or neighbor” wasn’t a figurative one. The two countries were very close, and millions of families have blood connections.

How it had come to this is surreal.

Now the substance. The war is the consequence of the cruel and megalomaniac mind of a single person who has accumulated a lot of power, needs to hold on to power, wants more power, is preoccupied with empire-building, and sees himself as having a…