The following Op-Ed is special to the Mirror by Paul Plante
Actually, I was going to title this “History Should Be Our Guide in Ukraine,” but I didn’t for several reasons, starting with the fact that that title was already taken by a dude named Victor Davis Hanson in a RealClear Politics article on March 31, 2022, where he started out his essay by saying, and I completely agree with him, that there are “several historical referents we should keep in mind about the Ukraine war,” and there is where our thoughts diverge, mine and his, which is why I instead chose the title above, because while his version of history is more about some events, relevant, or not, mine is about the people who wrote that history, both recently, and going back to the end of WWI, when what we call Ukraine today was then the Bolshevik Ukrainian republic founded in December 1917, as Ukrainian Soviet Republic, after the Bolshevik Revolution started in Russia.
So, as we see, or shall see, what is called Ukraine today has no history of democracy, and in an Associated Press article titled “Ukraine president’s ratings fall as crisis with Russia brews” on February 14, 2022, we see “democracy” in Ukraine in more recent times described as follows:
Zelenskyy tried to calm the political turbulence Sunday by downplaying the stepped-up warnings from the U.S. about the imminent possibility of a Russian invasion.
“We understand all the risks,” Zelenskyy said, adding that if anyone has any “information regarding a 100% certain invasion, beginning on the 16th,” they need to come forward.”
The maneuverings and the dismay among ordinary Ukrainians present a significant challenge for a country where democracy has been shambolic for decades.
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Yes, indeed, people, in Ukraine, the Ukraine Joe Biden is backing with our U.S. tax dollars in his proxy war with Putin of Russia, democracy is shambolic and has been for decades, which is why Joe Biden is so interested in protecting it, because in the end, Joe likes to have corrupt strongman autocrats like this Zelensky loyal to him and son Hunter in countries like Ukraine with its long history of corruption which draws American politicians to it like flies to a family picnic.
The Ukrainian SSR was established by the Bolsheviks following the defeat of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in the Soviet–Ukrainian War during the Russian Civil War.
Throughout its 72-year history, the republic’s borders changed many times, with a significant portion of what is now Western Ukraine being annexed by Soviet forces in 1939 from the Republic of Poland, and the addition of Carpathian Ruthenia from Czechoslovakia in 1945.
And there is some essential history that this Victor Davis Hanson dude either is unaware of, or he simply chooses to ignore it, that taking of land and peoples from those other countries and awarding them and it to Ukraine, instead, as if that essential history, inclouding the fact of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and later partisan formation that during World War was engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Union, the Polish Underground State, Communist Poland, and Nazi Germany, playing a substantial role in the ethnic cleansing of the Polish population of Volhynia and East Galicia which now are part of what is called Ukraine, could not possibly be relevant to what is going on there today, which brings us back to the AP article “Ukraine president’s ratings fall as crisis with Russia brews” on February 14, 2022, where we find as follows as to who supports this Zelensky and who does not in what is in actuality a country cobbled together out of pieces of other countries, whether the people in those countries wanted to be part of Ukraine, or not, and so much for self-determination, to wit:
“The biggest risk for Ukraine and the biggest risk for the sovereignty of our state … is destabilization within our state,” Zelenskyy said last month.
But Ukrainians have little confidence that Zelenskyy can ensure that stability.
According to a January poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, only 30% of the country’s people want Zelenskyy to run for a second term and even fewer — 23% — would vote for him.
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In that, of course, the low ratings, I mean, this Zelensky in Ukraine is mirroring Joe Biden in this country, where Joe is not popular, at all.
So why isn’t Zelensky popular?
Let’s go back to the AP article to see what we can learn on that score, to wit:
The continuing conflict in the rebel east and the prospect of a full-scale war aren’t the only factors in his declining support.
“Zelenskyy promised to end the war and defeat corruption, but this did not happen,” said Anatoly Rudenko, a 48-year-old driver in Kyiv.
“Prices are rising, corruption has not gone away and we have begun to live even poorer.”
“The miracle did not happen.”
“The situation is only getting worse,” said Tatyana Shmeleva, a 54-year-old economist.
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And there is what attracts Joe Biden to this Zelensky – the corruption, because like everybody else, a politician has to eat, and when a politician eats, they want to eat well, and nothing pays a politician like corruption does, so there we have it, people.
A simple formula, indeed.
So who is this Zelensky whose action we should be backing in Ukraine, because Joe Biden tells us we have to?
Here is what AP has to say on that, to wit:
Zelenskyy initially made his name in Ukraine as a comic actor portraying on television a teacher who inadvertently becomes president after railing against corruption.
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Yes, people, Ukraine is going to war against Russia with a comic actor who has no military experience of any kind, let along experience of the real world outside a television studio, who is now threatening nuclear war as we see in the CNN article “US and NATO face new dilemma on Ukraine aid” by Maeve Reston on 18 April 2022, to wit:
As world leaders try to glean what Putin is thinking — and how far he might go in trying to punish the nations that help Ukraine — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who met face-to-face with Putin last week, said it was clear that Putin believes he’s winning the war and is operating “in his own war logic.”
“He thinks the war is necessary for security guarantees for the Russian Federation.”
“He doesn’t trust the international community.”
“He blames the Ukrainians for genocide in the Donbas region,” Nehammer said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, referring to the fictional propaganda that Putin has spouted to justify his acts of aggression against Ukraine.
“He is now in his world, but I think he knows what is going on now in Ukraine.”
Given the immense challenges of facing off against a leader with that warped and rigid mindset, Zelensky is trying to persuade world leaders to become more involved in the next phase by warning that they should be worried about the possible consequences of Putin’s next steps — including that he could use a tactical nuclear weapon because he has shown so little regard for human lives during his invasion of Ukraine.
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And with that bit of paranoia and hysteria in front of us, the threat that Putin is going to nuke somebody, let me stop here for the moment to let this all sink in.