WWTD? The Teddy Bear War heats up

Imagine what Teddy Roosevelt might say — were he alive today — about the heightening tensions between Sweden and Belarus. Between Sweden and what?

Teddy might say “Bully” or he might say “Bullshit!” He reportedly didn’t like the nickname “Teddy.” Of course, were he alive today Roosevelt would be 154 years old and who knows what a 154-year-old ex president or anyone 1.5 centuries old would say or how they would say it. And Belarus? The former president might have known the history of the area known as Belarus, which was under the control of Russia until ceded to Germany during “The Great War.”

Nonetheless, the fuzzy-wuzzy Teddy Bear, a cozy little bear-like companion was named after Roosevelt in the wake of a Mississippi bear hunt. A bear had been tied up and was brought to the president after a hunt in which he yielded no black bear, according to a Wikipedia account. Roosevelt reportedly refused to shoot the animal but asked that the bear be put out of its misery. A political cartoon of the incident in The Washington Post led to the creation of the Teddy Bear.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, almost 1,000 Teddy Bears bearing pro-democracy messages were dropped into Belarus by a couple of Swedish PR executives who flew in a small plane wearing bear masks. Okay, they could have been pig masks but I don’t think they were really pig because they were bombing Belarus with Teddy Bears. Some Synder’s of Hanover logic there, if you please.

Belarus has a man called Europe’s “Last Dictator” and a untold numbers of human rights groups have denounced the nation’s strongman, President Alexander Lukashenko. The country reportedly has a strong air defense system but, luckily, the Swedish (m)ad men from Studio Total flew under the radar. As a result, Lukashenko sacked his generals in charge of air defense and border security. Now, Belarus reportedly has expelled it Swedish ambassador.

What next a full-blown conflict? Meatballs versus dranki (potato pancakes)?