Posted on 05/13/2014 4:04:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
In several eastern Ukrainian towns over the past week, the military opened fire on its own citizens. Dozens may have been killed in the violence. Although the U.S. government generally condemns a country's use of military force against its own population, especially if they are unarmed protesters, this time the U.S. administration blamed the victims. After as many as 20 unarmed protesters were killed on the May 9th holiday in Ukraine, the State Department spokesman said "we condemn the outbreak of violence caused by pro-Russia separatists."
Why are people protesting in eastern Ukraine? Because they do not believe the government that came to power after the US-backed uprising in February is legitimate. They do not recognize the authority of an unelected president and prime minister. The U.S. sees this as a Russian-sponsored destabilization effort, but is it so hard to understand that the people in Ukraine may be annoyed with the U.S. and EU for their involvement in regime change in their country? Would we be so willing to accept an unelected government in Washington put in place with the backing of the Chinese and Iranians?
The U.S. State Department provided much assistance earlier this year to those involved in the effort to overthrow the Ukrainian government. The U.S. warned the Ukrainian government at the time not to take any action against those in the streets, even as they engaged in violence and occupied government buildings. But now that those former protesters have come to power, the U.S. takes a different view of protest. Now they give full support to the bloody crackdown against protesters in the east. The State Department spokesperson said last week: "We continue to call for groups who have jeopardized public order by taking up arms and seizing public buildings in violation of Ukrainian law to disarm and leave the buildings they have seized." This is the opposite of what they said in February. Do they think the rest of the world does not see this hypocrisy?
The residents of eastern Ukraine have long been closer to Russia than to the U.S. and EU. In fact, that part of Ukraine had been a part of Russia. After February's regime change, officials in the east announced that they would hold referenda to see whether the population wanted autonomy from the U.S.-backed government in Kiev. The U.S. demanded that Russian President Putin stop eastern Ukraine from voting on autonomy, and last week the Russian president did just that: he said that the vote should not be held as scheduled. The eastern Ukrainians ignored him and said they would hold the vote anyway. So much for the U.S. claims that Russia controls the opposition in Ukraine.
Even though the Russian president followed U.S. demands and urged the eastern Ukrainians to hold off on the vote, the U.S. State Department announced that the U.S. would apply additional sanctions on Russia if the vote is held! Does this make any sense?
The real question is why the U.S. government is involved in Ukraine in the first place. We are broke. We cannot even afford to fix our own economy. Yet we want to run Ukraine? Does it really matter who Ukrainians elect to represent them? Is it really a national security matter worth risking a nuclear war with Russia whether Ukraine votes for more regional autonomy and a weaker central government? Isn't that how the United States was originally conceived?
Has the arrogance of the U.S. administration, thinking they should run the world, driven us to the brink of another major war in Europe? Let us hope they will stop this dangerous game and come to their senses. I say let's have no war for Ukraine!
The truth is that Russia has advanced since the 90’s, while Ukraine has stagnated.
They want to control the life line of energy to Europe.
“Russia has advanced since the 90’s”
In what ? Internet censorship ? Prices of oil & gas advanced, that’s it. So they can afford better make up now, after half of the money is stolen, there’s still something left for average Ivan. Olympics “cost” them $50 billion, I wonder how much a bridge to Crimea is going to “cost” ? 15 ? 20 ?
Russia is a serious country; Poland isn’t.
A classic picture, used by smaller E. European countries to mock Polish ambitions and Polish meddling in their affairs. Many sane Poles loves to stick it at their chickenhawks as well.
We need neither wimpy leaders of the Clinton-Obama mode nor people who are partying like it’s 1799. The only one who is on the horizon who fits the Reagan mold is Ted Cruz. Please, conservatives, stay out of the way if he decides to run for President.
Man are you in the wrong century. Here in the 21st century, we do not judge people by what they say or do. We only judge people by how we feel about them or how they make us feel.
Coming to a town near you real soon, where American soldiers fire on citizens protesting this damned federal gub mint
Putin is sending Chechen terrorists to us also? Very neighborly of him.
"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision
of what is before them, glory and danger alike,
and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it."~Thucydides
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Ron Paulistas arent serious conservatives either.
They are serious fruit and nutcakes.
“This made the revolution in Ukraine not only a disaster for Russian foreign policy, but a challenge to Putin’s regime at home. The weakness of Putin’s policy is that it cannot account for the actions of free human beings who choose to organize themselves in response to unpredictable historical events. Russian propaganda presented the Ukrainian revolution as a Nazi coup and blamed Europeans for supporting these supposed Nazis. This version, although ridiculous, was much more comfortable in Putin’s mental world, since it removed from view the debacle of his own foreign policy in Ukraine and replaced spontaneous action by Ukrainians with foreign conspiracies.”
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117692/fascism-returns-ukraine
When you decide, as he has publicly stated, to lead from behind, when you draw lines in the sand and do nothing when those lines are crossed, you become irrelevant as the leader of the free world. Putin is taking advantage of Europe’s naive hopes and Obama’s ignorance.
“This made the revolution in Ukraine not only a disaster for Russian foreign policy, but a challenge to Putin’s regime at home. The weakness of Putin’s policy is that it cannot account for the actions of free human beings who choose to organize themselves in response to unpredictable historical events. Russian propaganda presented the Ukrainian revolution as a Nazi coup and blamed Europeans for supporting these supposed Nazis. This version, although ridiculous, was much more comfortable in Putin’s mental world, since it removed from view the debacle of his own foreign policy in Ukraine and replaced spontaneous action by Ukrainians with foreign conspiracies.”\
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117692/fascism-returns-ukraine
How is it that fringe groups like the Ron Putinistas and the Buchaninistas can take up so much bandwidth and do so much harm by siding anti-American despots? I don’t get it. I’d say they’re plants from the Left out to make conservatives look unpatriotic. What could be worse for American conservatives today than to appear in front of our fellow Americans as supporters of Putin’s hegemony? Who in their right mind would support pan-Russian chauvinism as an American conservative position and think that’s going to get traction with the American public?
“When you decide, as he has publicly stated, to lead from behind, when you draw lines in the sand and do nothing when those lines are crossed, you become irrelevant as the leader of the free world. Putin is taking advantage of Europe’s naive hopes and Obama’s ignorance.”
I see that we agree on something.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Something is going to fill it.
Obama created the opportunity, and Putin moved on it. I don’t think that ever figured into the Obama Admin’s calculus.
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I mean, yeah, you've got Chopin who lived most of his life in Paris... is there anything else??
The world is shrinking at an increasing rate. TV and the internet have totally killed the Southern accent in Texas so that you only hear it amongst people over 60 any more; they'll do the same thing to Polish and Ukrainian in less than ten years.
Been listening to any of the interviews from Ukraine? I mean, they're all in Russian. Anybody in Ukraine who isn't retarded speaks Russian now and even the retards will catch up in five years.
In twenty years, these are the languages which the world will need and which will still be spoken other than by historians:
That will be it. English will still be the universal business and social media language and we'll have a rational phonetic alphabet for it by that time.
Polish and Ukrainian will be stone, cold dead.
You are trying to teach the blind how to ride a bicycle. Good luck, LOL.
That was a great essay in New Republic, btw.
True. Take care.
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