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Jackson Doughart: Stumbling into an ethnic quagmire in Ukraine
National Post ^ | 2/27/14 | Jackson Doughart

Posted on 02/28/2014 5:14:25 PM PST by jimbo123

The argument over foreign intervention has become so radically simplified, so founded on theories and principles and ignorant of facts, that it has lost all grasp of reality. There is no better example of this than the present calamity in Ukraine, where Western internationalists have juxtaposed their narrow conceptions of liberal democracy and human rights onto a conflict that has little to do with either.

What’s really at stake here is a long history of ethnic division. Yet few commentators on the issue mention that Ukraine is not solely populated by Ukrainian nationals. The eastern and southern regions are populated by ethnic Russians, who speak Russian, identify with their co-ethnics in the motherland to the east, and are Orthodox Christians by confession. The ethnic Ukrainians, in contrast, speak the Ukrainian language, identify as a distinct nationality, and adhere mostly to Ukrainian Catholicism, a form of Christianity which observes the rite of Greek Orthodoxy while maintaining full communion with the Holy See.

-snip-

The All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda, an ultra-nationalist party, holds 8% of the seats in the parliament for the entire country, and thus represents a much larger minority among the ethnic Ukrainians. The party’s stronghold is the western city of L’viv, which is home to numerous monuments to Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists during the Second World War, a Nazi collaborator, and a participant in the mass murder of Ukrainian Jews.

The Svoboda claims descent from Bandera, and just last month held a march in his honour. The party’s leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, has announced in the Ukrainian parliament that the country is secretly controlled by a Jewish mafia.

(Excerpt) Read more at fullcomment.nationalpost.com ...


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To: okie01

The Ukrainian army is terrible and poorly trained and equipped. They’re not going to fight the Russians for the Ukrainian Nationalists. The Western Ukraine Bandera Nazis are the ones who want war with Russia and have been preparing for this since World War II ended.


21 posted on 02/28/2014 5:58:43 PM PST by jimbo123
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To: jimbo123

Sooner or later this was bound to happen. World history shows us that no country with a diverse population of different races, languages, and religion has long survived.

Countries don’t naturally form with a diverse population, and when in the past they’ve occurred it’s usually been as a result of armed conquest. These unnaturally formed countries have either melded together into a single population made up of one mixed race with one language and one religion or they’ve come apart, and they’ve usually come apart with extreme violence. The longer these diverse populations are forced to coexist with one another without mixing and becoming one, the more the hatred grows among them and the more violently they break apart, but break apart they will, or genocide will settle the issue once and for all.


22 posted on 02/28/2014 6:00:16 PM PST by DJ Taylor (Once again our country is at war, and once again the Democrats have sided with our enemy.)
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To: Revolting cat!

The Bandera followers are the vast majority of the ones with the molotov cocktails, the looted police weapons, the stockpiles of rocks in all the cities and towns not under Russian control. And they want to fight everyone, not just the Russians and Jews.


23 posted on 02/28/2014 6:01:06 PM PST by jimbo123
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To: jimbo123
The Western Ukraine Bandera Nazis are the ones who want war with Russia and have been preparing for this since World War II ended.

You're a regular one-note samba...

24 posted on 02/28/2014 6:01:49 PM PST by okie01 (The Mainstream Media -- IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: okie01

It’s true. And the ancesters of the Bandera Nazis have been fighting over that land since the days of Atilla the Hun.


25 posted on 02/28/2014 6:05:17 PM PST by jimbo123
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To: cunning_fish

Full source please.


26 posted on 02/28/2014 6:09:39 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: Jeff Head

“4) Immediately move to make the rest of the Ukraine a part of NATO.”

I don’t think the world is ready for a nuclear war.


27 posted on 02/28/2014 6:11:23 PM PST by Oliviaforever
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To: Jeff Head
So what do we do to keep all of Ukraine from falling in a a domino effect and eastern Europe being dominated by Russia?

Putin will not even try to take Western Ukraine. It cannot be done without Stalin at the helm, and without battle-ready troops that just came back after taking Berlin. That's what it took last time, in 1945, to defeat OUN and more or less pacify Western Ukraine.

Russia only can take control over the Eastern Ukraine. The population there is largely Russian already, or at least bilingual. The people there do not want a revolution every few years; they do not want corrupted bureaucrats (though Russia is not exactly a solution to that) and, most importantly, they do not want to be locked in a poor country that has limited resources, not much money, and practically no future as part of the EU. They will pick Russia as a lesser evil, and probably it would be a good decision for them. Western Ukraine has to be left to pure Ukrainians, who will be free to live as they want.

1) Immediately have the US and the EU confer with Ukraine and tell them to NOT attack the Russian troops in the Crimea.

At this point Ukraine does not have armed forces that could try to do that. The military was silent during the violence in Kiev. They will not interfere in any way. Besides, soldiers and officers are Ukrainians too, and they know what they want for themselves. If the change is gradual enough, and if it is properly supported politically (such as by election of right people who then immediately say the right words) then there isn't much that the army can do, unless laurels of Augusto Pinochet become very appealing to some general. (There are no such generals in Ukraine.)

2) The US should immediately start flying C-17s into Kiev (the Ukraine Capitol) loaded with advisors, provisions, trainers, and a a security force for those people.

That would be seen as occupation by many Ukrainians. Remember, Yanukovich was elected with something like 55% to 45%. Kiev is full of people who do not support the new government. Also, the police forces are pretty much gone by now, so any attack on US workers will not be investigated. There is a lot of serious firearms floating around, stolen from military bases earlier, and a lot of people drive around the city, armed and very dangerous. The "security force" that you propose to send is incompatible with the concept of Ukraine as an independent country; it's what occupiers do. Would you like it if China sends "advisors" here who would be driving around in tanks and shoot americans left and right just because they thought them suspicious? If not, why would Ukrainians like it? They are well armed now, and if need be the army depots will be opened again. They have a lot of hardware there.

Additionally, this is just yet another way to dump billions of dollars into the black hole that Ukraine is.

4) Immediately move to make the rest of the Ukraine a part of NATO.

It is not possible because a country has to be stable before it enters NATO. It wouldn't be very wise to start World War III over a border conflict that was instigated (or staged) by persons unknown. Membership in NATO is a large responsibility. Ukraine is not ready for that, just as it is not ready for EU. (On the other hand, considering the current state of EU, it may be a good fit.)

28 posted on 02/28/2014 6:11:50 PM PST by Greysard
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera


29 posted on 02/28/2014 6:13:55 PM PST by cunning_fish
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To: jimbo123
The ones in Western Ukraine with the molotov cocktails, the looted police weapons and stockpiles of rocks are.

Nonsense. You're just spouting disinformation. In the same spirit all the Russians are former Stalinists who massacred more than ten million Ukrainians and want to do the same thing again.

In reality there are lots of different viewpoints in Ukraine, just like every other nation. Many people opposed the corruption of Yanukovych's government, enough so his own party members voted against him in Parliament. Are you accusing them of being Nazis too?

And in case you haven't noticed, few of the people living today had anything to do with what happened in the 1930s and 1940s. Many of the protestors weren't even alive in 1980, let alone 1940. But somehow it seems the propagandists always go back to history and try to claim people today are responsible for what others did in the past.

There are surely some people with bad ideas on both sides of the dispute, as well as many people with good intentions.

30 posted on 02/28/2014 6:31:10 PM PST by freeandfreezing
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To: jimbo123

So, Russia is grabbing up it’s versions of “Sudetenland”?


31 posted on 02/28/2014 6:51:04 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
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To: freeandfreezing

>>In reality there are lots of different viewpoints in Ukraine, just like every other nation. Many people opposed the corruption of Yanukovych’s government, enough so his own party members voted against him in Parliament. Are you accusing them of being Nazis too?<<

You are right, sir! The problem there are no mechanism to exercise different viewpoints left. Yep, the government was bad and it was demolished and what next? Radicals got an upper hand as there is no one to enforce the law. Libya, Egypt anyone?


32 posted on 02/28/2014 6:58:29 PM PST by cunning_fish
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To: jimbo123

those Ukrainians LOVED being Nazi prison guards

they are not nice people and are cruel


33 posted on 02/28/2014 7:08:09 PM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Russia is protecting its Black Sea fleet and keeping the Western Ukrainian Banderstaat from entering Crimea.


34 posted on 02/28/2014 7:41:24 PM PST by jimbo123
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To: freeandfreezing

Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_Ukrainian_Nationalists


35 posted on 02/28/2014 7:55:49 PM PST by jimbo123
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To: 1rudeboy

Like I’ve said, Vlad is the modern day Hitler. He is just biding his time for now before he orders his red hordes to begin the exterminations and his Islamic allies led by Iran to attack Israel no doubt with nukes the Russian bastards helped them develop.


36 posted on 02/28/2014 10:06:02 PM PST by Red White and Blue patriot (USA all the way)
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To: cunning_fish

Thanks for the Wikipedia item on Bandera and his organization. I won’t comment on the anti-semitism of some of the OUN factions or Ukkrainians in general except to say that some served the Nazis as extermination forces and SS guard (among the cruelest I’ve been told by survivors). Others were not anti-semitic as they had lived alongside of Jews and Poles and Hungarians in Lemberg/Lvov (where my grandmother came from - she lost her whole family there or in Auschwitz).

What I wanted to mention are the Stetkos, the pupper fascist leaders of the Ukraine under the Nazis. How they escaped being executed as traitors and murderers I don’t know.

Met them in 1974. Madame Stetsko was an unrepentent fascist (just like Bill Ayers is an unrepentent marxist). Her husband was a bit more subdued (and learning about her I can see why. I got the feeling that she was the Ilse Koch (The Bitch of Buchenwald) equivalent for the Ukraine).

Also at this conference was Gen. Oberlander, the chief of the Werhmacht which invaded the Ukraine. He was accused by Moscow of being a war criminal but evidence showed that he defied Hitler’s orders to kill the Jews, stating that he was a German officer/soldier, not a murderer.

He was relieved of command and returned to Germany, WHERE HE WAS NOT EXECUTED, thus showing the judges and juries at the Nuremberg Trials that you could successfully turn down Hitler/Himmler’s orders to kill people not involved in combat.

I only point this out because I wanted it to be known by history that there were a lot of interesting sidebars to WW2 and the people in it, the Oberlander case being one.

Also, in a vote to condemn “communism, fascism and anti-semitism” (at the World Anti-Communist League meeting in DC in 1974), there were two anti-communist factions.

One consisted of the fascists from WW2, including the Stetskos and the Croatian Utashi fascists, plus anut from Guatemala named Guererra (a Latin American “gorilla” if there ever was one. We tangled, he lost.

On the side of the resolution condemning anti-Semitism were members/supporters of the Yugoslavian Chetnik movement, Alpha 66, the Cuban freedom fighter movement, and General Oberlander.

The KGB agent in the audience must have shit in his pants when he saw what was happening and who was involved. Hotel security kept him in his cage.

Just a little piece of history that I learned in a couple days at the conference.


37 posted on 02/28/2014 10:06:44 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: jimbo123
During its existence, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought against the Poles and the Soviets as their primary opponents, although the organization also fought against the Germans starting from February 1943. From late spring 1944, the UPA and Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-B (OUN-B) — faced with Soviet advances — also temporarily cooperated with German forces against the Soviets and Poles in the hope of creating an independent Ukrainian state.

Bandera and his allies fought against a lot of different forces, sometimes brutally. War isn't pretty, particularly when an insurgent force is caught between two other powers intent on subjugating its people. Present day propagandists are trying to tar the Ukrainians of today because some Ukrainians sided with the Germans temporarily during WWII.

Funny how nobody seems upset that the French, for example, did the same thing. Would you consider the French people of today Nazis because they supported the Nazis with the full force of their government and nation in WWII? Of course not, that would be as ridiculous as your assertions about modern day Ukrainians.

38 posted on 03/01/2014 6:12:49 AM PST by freeandfreezing
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To: freeandfreezing

Who Was Stepan Bandera?

As an uncompromising leader of the militant, terrorist branch of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Bandera became a Nazi collaborator who lived with his deputies under German protection after World War II began. In preparation for the attack on the USSR, the Nazis recruited Bandera’s followers to act as Ukrainian-speaking policemen and to serve in two Ukrainian volunteer army battalions. By working with the Nazis, Bandera hoped to free Ukraine from Soviet rule and establish his own government there. An independent Ukraine, Bandera promised, would remain friendly to Germany.

Historian Karel Berkhoff, among others, has shown that Bandera, his deputies, and the Nazis shared a key obsession, namely the notion that the Jews in Ukraine were behind Communism and Stalinist imperialism and must be destroyed. “The Jews of the Soviet Union,” read a Banderist statement, “are the most loyal supporters of the Bolshevik Regime and the vanguard of Muscovite imperialism in the Ukraine.” When the Germans invaded the USSR in June 1941 and captured the East Galician capital of Lvov, Bandera’s lieutenants issued a declaration of independence in his name. They further promised to work closely with Hitler, then helped to launch a pogrom that killed four thousand Lvov Jews in a few days, using weapons ranging from guns to metal poles. “We will lay your heads at Hitler’s feet,” a Banderist pamphlet proclaimed to Ukrainian Jews.

http://hnn.us/article/122778


39 posted on 03/01/2014 6:32:24 AM PST by jimbo123
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To: freeandfreezing

The Lvov pogrom of 1941

Below is a serie of photos of the Lvov pogrom of 1941. The Jewish pogrom in the city of Lvov (Lviv, Lwow orLemberg) in Western Ukraine was organised by the Germans and “the Ukrainian people’s militia” (the Ukranian Nazi collaborators from so called OUN - Organisation of Ukranian Nationalists). The pogrom took place the first days of German occupation as a prelude to total extermination of Lvov Jews.

On the photos below - the scenes of street violence, beatings by stones, sticks, humiliation of women by public undressing, the humilation in the form of washing sidewalks, marches on the knees and with hands up across the city, the scenes of brutal arrests of Jews in the streets by Ukranian Nazi militia, which escorted them to forced works in former NKVD prisons in the city. In those prisons after various beatings and humilations they were shot dead in the courtyards. The total number of victims of the pogrom estimated to be between 2 and 7 thousands people. .

http://oun-b.livejournal.com/14552.html


40 posted on 03/01/2014 6:34:28 AM PST by jimbo123
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