Posted on 01/06/2005 8:46:17 AM PST by Destro
Outside View: America's Ukraine folly
By William S. Lind
Outside View Contributor
Washington, DC, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Was Ukraine's Nov. 21 presidential election stolen? Probably. Was President-elect Viktor Yushchenko legitimately elected as the country's next leader in the Dec. 26 rerun of the vote? Certainly. Would it be nice if Ukraine were a democracy? Sure. Are those the considerations that should drive American policy in the region? No.
The most important factor in U.S. policy toward the countries of the former Soviet Union ought to be our need for a strategic alliance with Russia. Geo-politically, Russia holds Christendom's vast eastern flank, which stretches all the way from the Black Sea to Vladivostok. As the remnants of the Christian world begin to wake up to the reality that Islam has resumed the strategic offensive, that flank takes on renewed importance. It is already under pressure, as events in Chechnya show all too clearly. If it collapses, Christendom will have suffered an epic defeat.
Not surprisingly, the Bush administration, the scope of whose strategic vision is measured in microns, gets none of this. In its continuing march of folly, it has dismissed Russia's vital interests in its "near abroad," which includes Ukraine. Washington did everything in its power to secure the election to Ukraine's presidency of Yushchenko, the anti-Russian candidate. When the pro-Russian candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, who resigned as prime minister Dec. 31, won instead (illustrating Stalin's maxim that what is important is not who votes, but who counts the votes), Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States would not recognize the result. Now, Yushchenko is victorious at last. The result has been a heavy defeat for our vital ally, Russia.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Oh please...they got to vote just like everyone else. Saying that these voters are somehow disenfranchised by a free and fair re-vote is ridiculous. Putin is just p.o.ed that he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar...again. He needs to get over himself.
Ponder what?! That's not an argument, it's a dodge. Their government structure is immaterial. If they profess to be a democracy and the majority speaks, the majority wins. Simple. The majority voice wasn't heard during the first election because it was drowned out by corruption and vote tampering. It's not a big conspiracy and secret, and the U.S. had nothing to do with the initial vote (our involvement later being the subject of the article that you posted.) It was obvious both within the country and without that a fair election had not been held. We're not talking about Jesse Jackson and John Conyers style whining. We're talking real honest to God election tampering, and for once the people didn't just take it. Good for them.
Our founding fathers said that power derives from the people. They believed that that applies to ALL, not just Americans. When a second, closely watched and fair election was held the people spoke and power changed hands. Arguing that this isn't fair because they have a Parlimentary system is really reaching. If they don't have something in their constitution to protect minorities then they need to change their constitution, but they shouldn't give power to their minorities against the will of the rest of the people.
Ponder that.
bump
I'll comment on this later. Gotta go to church to prepare for th Feast of the Nativity of our Lord.
Completely and utterly agree! Russia is not our "vital ally" and they haven't been since WWII. They are in the exact same class as France and should be handled as such. To help them rebuild the Soviet empire is completely against U.S. interests! Remember the Cold War? It could happen again in a heartbeat.
Woodrow Wilson, Clemenceau, and the victors of WWI ensured that at Versailles.
Perfectly true: Russia is neither an ally, nor particularly vital.
Who counts the votes in said democracy? Both sides cheated - both sides are funded by rival oligarchs.
Russia was teh nation taht kept the Afghanistani Northern Alliance intact so we could use them to ouster al-Qaeda/Taliban - which our vital allies Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were propping up. If not for Russia allowing us to use their allies and their allies bases in Central Asia we would not have been victorious there. In addition Putin warnedBush days before 9/11 that something was up. Russia's growing vitality will be seen in the years to come.
Yea, right, all of a sudden russian commie dictators are "religious", gimme a break!
Yea, America should help rasPutin to put back the commie empire, we didn't have enough of this "ally"???
Millions of dead, oppressed and enemy for decades wasn't enough?
Get your commie crap outta here you disinformants. KGB still at work? STFU
Sorry YepYep if my post sounded like response to you, just wanted to amplify what you said, and it was aimed at commie plants here like JB6, Destro, Eluminate etc.
Merry Christmas to all eastern rite obervants!
Chrystos Razhdayetsya!
Thanks! And they weren't a US ally in WWI either. :') Russia is a smallish successor state to a vanquished enemy, which has delusions of grandeur -- just as its predecessor did. It is just another shoddy, doddering Old European state to be managed and herded toward a democratic future. :') Divide and rule, divide and rule.
Ukraine declared independence after Russia quit World War I. Somewhere I've got a big coffee table book on Leon Trotsky (gotta wonder who pitched that idea to the publisher), which has a photo of Nestor Makhao, leader of "the Ukrainian anarchists". Makhao signed a treaty with the Red Army, but the truce fell apart (as the Bolsheviks planned all along) and after that breather, the Red Army destroyed his forces, and took over. Makhao fled into French exile.
By the time Stalin had ruled Ukraine for over a decade, the Ukraine welcomed the invading Germans -- at first.
If Russia feels it must someday take up arms against the long-occupied Ukraine, it won't come as any surprise to anyone familiar with Russian history. Russia is and always has been a brutal conqueror and occupier of foreign lands; Lenin's message of a vision of world domination and hegemony grew from that history.
Ukraine declared independence as a Imperial German puppet state after Russia quit World War I.
Does Washington Times is financed from Moscow or what? They spreading anti-democratic views, their authors dont have any ideals, like leftists. Additionally their views I could compare with views of political dilettantes.
Alaska? What does the purchase of Alaska from Russia have to do with Ukraine?
Yea, a German scumbag would change history thusly. The name "Rus" was first recorded in writting by officials of the Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantium as Kievian Rus. They were the founders of today's Russians and of the ones that gave Russia their conversion to Christianity.
The Rus state moved north when the Mongols invaded. The Russian re-liberated their lands after they defeated the Mongols and Lith-Poles.
That German linked article is - dare I say Nazi-ish - revisionist history!
Ha ha ha.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.