The Border and the Bear
Once again, we are faced with a serious crisis in Eastern Europe. Russia, under good old Vlad (Prince) Putin is seeking to reassert itself, and the Russian bear wants to prove its machismo by beating up on its favorite political pinata-Ukraine. The Russians want to reestablish their domination over Eastern Europe. They have never gotten over their loss of Empire, and they see setting up a pro-Russian government in the borderland (ooh-Krai-inya-by the border) as a good first step. The fraud in the recent Ukrainian election make Al Gore`s attempts in 2000 look positively pollyanish. The Ukrainian people have rebelled, and there is a real chance for civil war or Russian invasion. This situation is serious, and threatens to reignite the Cold War.
The situation in Ukraine could easily spin out of control. Will the Russians be willing to accept true self-determination for their Ukrainian neighbors? If Putin does not act, he may face his own political disintigration. If Civil War comes to Ukraine he will simply have to act-and to the Russian mind that means rolling out the Red Army. The Russians fear allowing matters to take their course. Controlling their borders is a matter of national survival to the Russian people; they cannot allow themselves to be thwarted lest others get the same idea. Many Russians miss the good old days and Putin will be in grave political peril if he does not intervene. For more on the situation in Ukraine click on Ultima Thule here:http://aussiethule.blogspot.com/.
Shawn Macomber has written an excellent article in the American Spectator Online, in which he delineates the crazy Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. He shows how the United States has been unwittingly assisting a massive Russian militarization by financing Russian disarmament. This is not as crazy as it sounds; Russian is committed by treaty to destroy much of its nuclear arsenal and the United States has been paying for this, freeing Russian money to build new and better weapons systems including an ICBM which is capable of changing course in midflight thus eluding an anti-ballistic missile system. Couple this with the crazy Clinton/Albright scheme in which we continued funding for Russian nuclear enrichment plants to keep producing weapons grade plutonium and it becomes clear why the Ukrainian situation is no laughing matter. The fate of the World may well hinge on what happens in Kiev in the next couple of weeks.
Shawn Macomber`s website is http://www.returnoftheprimitive.com. You can also read his article in http://www.spectator.org.
We face perhaps the gravest time in our history. We are fighting a World War against the forces of Islamic Fascism, with the real danger of nuclear murder or biological apocalypse. If the Ukrainian situation spirals out of control we may not be able to hold things together. Now is a time for prayer.
The situation in Ukraine could easily spin out of control. Will the Russians be willing to accept true self-determination for their Ukrainian neighbors? If Putin does not act, he may face his own political disintigration. If Civil War comes to Ukraine he will simply have to act-and to the Russian mind that means rolling out the Red Army. The Russians fear allowing matters to take their course. Controlling their borders is a matter of national survival to the Russian people; they cannot allow themselves to be thwarted lest others get the same idea. Many Russians miss the good old days and Putin will be in grave political peril if he does not intervene. For more on the situation in Ukraine click on Ultima Thule here:http://aussiethule.blogspot.com/.
Shawn Macomber has written an excellent article in the American Spectator Online, in which he delineates the crazy Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. He shows how the United States has been unwittingly assisting a massive Russian militarization by financing Russian disarmament. This is not as crazy as it sounds; Russian is committed by treaty to destroy much of its nuclear arsenal and the United States has been paying for this, freeing Russian money to build new and better weapons systems including an ICBM which is capable of changing course in midflight thus eluding an anti-ballistic missile system. Couple this with the crazy Clinton/Albright scheme in which we continued funding for Russian nuclear enrichment plants to keep producing weapons grade plutonium and it becomes clear why the Ukrainian situation is no laughing matter. The fate of the World may well hinge on what happens in Kiev in the next couple of weeks.
Shawn Macomber`s website is http://www.returnoftheprimitive.com. You can also read his article in http://www.spectator.org.
We face perhaps the gravest time in our history. We are fighting a World War against the forces of Islamic Fascism, with the real danger of nuclear murder or biological apocalypse. If the Ukrainian situation spirals out of control we may not be able to hold things together. Now is a time for prayer.
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 5:57 PM
1 Comments:
Timothy -- what a wonderful post -- you are so right -- and I love your portrayal of Ukraine as Russia's favorite pinata!! Excellent and unfortunately true. Thanks for the link to the Spectator article, I'd missed that one (and for linking my blog -- I've got to figure out how to blogroll people, my lack of computer skills is positively humiliating)
Also I would say, that this crazy disarmament agreement with the U.S., which has favored Russia, has also worked to Ukrainian detriment. At the devolution of the Soviet Union, when Ukraine first won its independence, Ukraine voluntarily turned over all its nukes to RUSSIA -- according to the wishes of the U.S. -- who for some reason felt that Russia would be a more reliable guardian of all these nukes. Perhaps because they were so used to dealing with the Russkies on all matters. But I think they might have been safer to leave them in Ukrainian hands as a buffer against Russia. Be that as it may, the transition from Soviet communism and command-and-control economy has led to a chaotic economic situation, where real economic reforms were not instituted and where today we have the situation with a number of ruling oligarchs who control not only the levers of power, but also the economic concerns of the country. Basically a series of war lords in various "Oblasts" who control the politics and all the big business concerns. This is why I think that Soros was involved on the side of Yushchenko forces, because he can't get his little mitts on all that money with the oligarchs in charge like Mafia dons, each in their own region. Anyway, I'm rambling.
Often Ukraine has had to take a second seat as Washington always gave preference to Russia -- and what do they get for all their favors? Putin spits in their faces in spite of the soul searching gaze of our President, who was a bit too trusting of this cunning KGB fox.
Perhaps had they encouraged Ukraine earlier (Bush, Sr. went to Ukraine during the campaign for independence and warned against "suicidal nationalism" -- for which he won a lot of anger and resentment from Ukrainians. I think America could have encouraged Ukraine and helped them steer into a more democratic course earlier, but that's all water over the dam.
I've also had a hell of a time posting on the blog, I'm glad to see at least I'm not alone. I usually get the "site to busy" thing, and I just sit there and stubbornly keep pressing the "post" link until it finally gives in and goes through -- sometimes as long as 15 minutes!! (I figure the Ukes are protesting in the snow the least I can do is hit the "send" button over and over. And then -- when I get to my site, I find that it has been posted like 5 or 6 times -- then I have to go in to the edit function (also incredibly slow - on the computer as well as the Webtv) and delete all the extras. I hope they get this fixed as there's so much breaking news and I'm wasting lots of time even trying to get a few things up. Sorry for going on and on.
BTW -- what was your reason for studying Russian in college? Just curious. I of course did because it was easy -- as Ukrainian and Russian are so closely related. But I found it hard, actually, because when it came to taking tests, I was never sure if I was writing in Ukrainian or Russian!! And the teacher hated my "Ukrainian" accent.
Aussiegirl
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