Posted on 02/05/2014 4:31:44 AM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
Despite our endless blather about democracy, we Americans seem to be able to put our devotion to democratic principles on the shelf, when they get in the way of our New World Order.
In 2012, in the presidential election in Egypt, Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood won in a landslide. President Obama hailed the outcome.
One year later, the Egyptian army ousted and arrested Morsi and gunned down a thousand members of his brotherhood. The coup was countenanced by John Kerry who explained that the Egyptian army was “restoring democracy.”
Comes now the turn of Ukraine.
In 2010, Viktor Yanukovych, in what neutral observers called a free and fair election, was chosen president. His term ends in 2015.
Yet since November, protesters have occupied Maidan Square in Kiev, battling police, and howling for Yanukovych’s resignation. The United States appears now to be collaborating with Europe in bringing about the neutering or overthrow of that democratically elected government.
Military coups, a la Cairo, and mob uprisings, at la Kiev — are these now legitimate weapons in the arsenal of democracy.
What did Yanukovych do to deserve ouster by the street? He chose Russia over Europe.
In the competition between Vladimir Putin and the European Union over whose economic association to join, Yanukovych was betrothed to the EU. But after an offer of $15 billion from Putin, and a cut in fuel prices to his country, Yanukovych jilted the EU and ran off with Russia.
Yanukovych felt he could not turn down Putin’s offer.
Western Ukraine, which favors the EU, was enraged. So out came the protesters to bring down the president. And into Kiev flew John McCain to declare our solidarity with the demonstrators.
Kerry has now joined McCain in meddling in this matter that is none of America’s business, declaring in Munich that, “Nowhere is the fight for a democratic European future more important than today in Ukraine.”
We “stand with the people of Ukraine,” said Kerry.
But which people? The Ukrainians who elected Yanukovych and still support him or the crowds in Maidan Square that want him out and will not vacate their fortified encampments until he goes?
Kerry is putting us on the side of mobs that want to bring down the president, force elections, and take power. Yet, Americans would never sit still should similar elements, with similar objectives, occupy our capital.
Reportedly, we are now colluding with the Europeans to cobble together an aid package, should Yanukovych surrender, cut the knot with Russia, and sign on with the EU.
But if Putin’s offer of $15 billion was a bribe, what else is this?
While he rules a divided nation, Yanukovych has hardly been a tyrant. As the crowds grew violent, he dismissed his government, offered the prime ministry to a leader of the opposition, repealed the laws lately passed to crack down on demonstrations, and took sick for four days.
But the street crowds, sensing he is breaking and smelling victory, are pressing ahead. There have now been several deaths among the protesters and police.
Putin is incensed, but inhibited by the need to keep a friendly face for the Sochi Olympics. Yet he makes a valid point.
How would Europeans have reacted if, in the bailout crisis, he, Putin, had flown to Athens and goaded rioters demanding that Greece default and pull out of the eurozone?
How would the EU react if Putin were to hail the United Kingdom Independence Party, which wants out of the EU, or the Scottish National Party, which wants to secede from Great Britain?
Ukraine was briefly independent at the end of World War I, and has been again since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Still the religious, ethnic, cultural and historic ties between Russia and Ukraine are centuries deep.
Eight million Ukrainians are ethnic Russians. In east Ukraine and the Crimea, the majority speak Russian and cherish these ties. Western Ukraine looks to Europe. Indeed, parts belonged to the Habsburg Empire.
Pushed too far and pressed too hard, Ukraine could disintegrate.
Security police who have questioned jailed rioters seem to believe we Americans are behind what is going on. And given the National Endowment for Democracy’s clandestine role in the color-coded revolutions of a decade ago in Central and Eastern Europe, that suspicion is not unwarranted.
Nor is Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov entirely wrong when he says, “a choice is being imposed” on Ukraine, and European politicians are fomenting protests and riots “by people who seize and hold government buildings, attack the police and use racist and anti-Semitic and Nazi slogans.”
If, as a result of street mobs paralyzing a capital, a democratically elected Ukrainian government falls, we could not only have an enraged and revanchist Russia on our hands, but a second Cold War.
And we will have set a precedent that could come to haunt Europe, as the rising and proliferating parties of the populist right, that wish to bring down the European Union, learn by our example.
I would rather have king that respected my individual rights than 60% of the population that don't.
There is nothing mutually exclusive about democracy and tyranny. One of our underlying problems is that our media thinks democracy is a synonym for freedom.
But when the topic is something else, he is often logical and spot on and such is the case here.
Amen, brother. Amen.
>>>I would rather have king that respected my individual rights than 60% of the population that don’t.<<<
Too bad. That is a kind of thinking leading to tyranny.
King is not obliged to respect your individual rights, he is a master and you are his subject. It is pure stupidity to subdue yourself to something like that, which can respect your rights or not depending on it’s own will.
No matter how flawed a democracy can be, it has a mechanism to protect freedoms of individuals.
As any other tool, democracy might be abused or used improperly but it doesn’t mean you have to reject it for that reason.
Syria? Not a problem. Just send in a little clandestine help to bring down the governing body which was put in power and is acting “illegitimately”. Result? Hundreds of thousands dead, region in chaos, threat of the unrest spreading far beyond the borders of Syria or even the confines of the entire Middle East.
The Ukraine? Also not a problem. Just send in a little clandestine help to bring down the governing body which was put in power and is acting “illegitimately”. Result? That is still being written, but the forecast is not so good, considering the example of Syria.
The Current Regime now squatting in the White Hut situated in Washington, one-time capital of the nation once known as “the United States of America”, has pursued perhaps the most reckless and incompetent foreign policy since the Persian Empire under Xerxes I went to war against Sparta and the remainder of the Greek city-states. Alas, in this world of high-tech warfare, they have, wittingly or otherwise, engineered perhaps on of the greatest plunges back into the depths of decivilization since the fall of Rome.
The eclipse of “democracy” is probably the least of the treasures humanity shall have lost.
Looks like the people of Ukraine may just have to fight about it(amongst themselves).
Ditto for an unrestrained democracy. I think you might have stumbled into my point.
It is pure stupidity to subdue yourself to something like that, which can respect your rights or not depending on it’s own will.
Ditto for unrestrained democracy. You have definitely found the kernel.
No matter how flawed a democracy can be, it has a mechanism to protect freedoms of individuals.
Oh, you are so, so wrong. It is a mechanism for determining what the majority will do, there is nothing about it that ensures or protects freedom. At its worst, it is nothing more than the Hell's Angels showing up at your local beauty pageant and taking a binding majority vote on who is going to have sex with who. In the words of the Founders, it is not a single tyrant 10,000 miles away, but 10,000 tyrants a mile away.
As any other tool, democracy might be abused or used improperly but it doesn’t mean you have to reject it for that reason.
I didn't reject it as a tool. I rejected it as a synonym for liberty, which it clearly is not.
And yes, if I can't live in a free society that respects my individual liberty, then I would prefer to be in charge of the unfree society, because when a majority of people decide to abuse you, I reject that they have a moral imperative through percentage of numbers to do so.
After getting elected, Yanukovych: imprisoned Yulia Tymoshenko, his principal political opponent, on highly questionable grounds; abused state assets and power to campaign for the election of his allies to Parliament, which led to international criticism of the election as tainted and irregular; approved brutal police tactics and the use of thugs against peaceful and well-disciplined protesters; enacted a set of laws that effectively criminalized opposition to the government; and, in a reversal of policy, rejected a previously negotiated affiliation agreement with the European Union and made an agreement with Russia that will subordinates the Ukraine to Russia and the circle of corrupt oligarchs that support Putin and his corrupt regime.
At the least, the omission of these facts makes for a false account of what is happening in the Ukraine. Or, is it that Buchanan regards such conduct as acceptable in a democracy or at least not a basis for criticism?
What did Yanukovych do to deserve ouster by the street? He chose Russia over Europe.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What did Obama do to deserve ouster by the street? He chose socialist welfare dependency over capitalist enterprise freedom.
Word.
People everywhere so tire of tyrannical socialist bureaucrats to the point where civil disobedience is inevitable.
The natural state of human kind is freedom from tyranny.Obama and religio-fascists take notice!
Democracy is a great tool for people to decide on issues that have nothing to do with freedom and liberty.
When people start voting on issues of freedom and liberty, then democracy is a tool for tyranny.
Hitler overwhelmingly won a plebiscite in what was by all accounts a fair voting process. Do you think the Jews were therefore better off than they were under the Kaiser? What is the majority opinion in Muslim countries concerning individual religious liberty? Wiping out the minority is self reinforcing to a tyrannical democracy. Yes, the majority (of any particular moment) won't vote to kill itself, but the minority is totally at their mercy (or lack there of).
As a moidest reminder to Mr. Buchanan, Thomas Jefferson remarked that when governments become tyrannical, the citizens are entitled to remove it.
>>To simplify.
Democracy is a great tool for people to decide on issues that have nothing to do with freedom and liberty.
When people start voting on issues of freedom and liberty, then democracy is a tool for tyranny.<<
No argument here. That is why there is Constitution. Democracy requires mature minded responsible population to function.
Ignoring that fact was the major reason of neo-con nation-building blunder.
>>Yulia Timoshenko <<
..is as guilty as Yanukovich is. East European politics is a cesspit. You won’t find any decent person there.
If you have seen a “House of Cards” on Fox you should know that in their part of the world a person like Spacey’s hero won’t even make it into a City Counsil, let alone any federal office.
You have to be 100 times more thuggish to make it into national government.
+10,000 for your excellent post.
A Constitution that recognizes natural rights is a fundamental requirement.
However, I’ve come to realize that at the end of the day, the Constitution is completely voluntary for the majority in a democracy.
The majority must have good reason to believe that the consequences of not following the Constitution are so horrific that whatever they can vote themselves isn’t worth the backlash.
Buchanan gets it right here...best for US to stay out...but the Liberal Globalist mentality of our govt....and many on FR...is to intervene on behalf of the EU.
Russia is NOT going to let Ukraine go, if the EU and Obama push it to far Russia may very well do the same thing it did with Georgia and send in the Russian Army...
>>Russia is NOT going to let Ukraine go, if the EU and Obama push it to far Russia may very well do the same thing it did with Georgia and send in the Russian Army..<<
Or better invite Panama and Egypt to their customs union and tax all US cargo traffic passing via their channels.
The United States firmly believes that people have the right to freely chose their own future. As long as those people are in some foreign country. Try it in the United States and you'll get the General Sherman treatment.
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