Posted on 05/01/2022 4:56:14 AM PDT by Kaslin
Since Russian troops first invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has become a symbol of resistance, hope and democracy around the free world.
Although the whole story is far more complex – and often much darker – Zelensky’s heroic stand against Russian despot Vladimir Putin’s invading forces has offered the West a window into what it appears to be lacking today: courage.
The Atlantic recently published a piece comparing President Zelensky to Charles de Gaulle – the French military leader and president who led France against Nazi occupation during the Second World War.
“Zelensky, like de Gaulle, is fighting for the idea of his homeland as well as its liberty, for its right to be free and dignified,” the article reads.
Although the author concedes that “analogizing a contemporary figure such as Zelensky by looking for parallels in World War II is necessarily limiting,” his comparison echoes the sentiment of a majority of Americans who believe Ukraine’s battle-tested president is the most trustworthy leader in the world today.
But what Ukraine lacks in democratic institutions and economic freedom, it certainly makes up for in courage. The unmatched resilience of the Ukrainian people and the fierce resistance put up by the Ukrainian armed forces makes that point incontestable.
The same, however, might not necessarily be said about the West, which has been slow to act against Putin’s invading forces as they continue to commit war crimes against civilians and turn Ukraine’s once vibrant cities into smoldering piles of rubble.
Although leaders across the free world have been quick to regurgitate soundbites about democracy, human rights and national self-determination, they have been reluctant to go the full distance even on non-military measures against the Kremlin.
This is especially troubling as the Kremlin continues to warn that it is considering its nuclear options should Sweden or Finland join NATO.
While the reluctance to put boots on the ground or establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine is understandable (and probably wise), Washington and its European allies could have sent fighter planes, anti-aircraft missiles, cruise missiles and other arms to help Ukraine as soon as the Russian invasion became imminent.
Instead, political in-fighting in European capitals left the Ukrainian armed forces largely unprepared to face the Russian threat, even as evidence mounts that the Kremlin has already used chemical weapons in Ukraine -- crossing a line that President Biden previously warned would force the U.S. to respond.
When responding to Biden’s charge that Putin is a “butcher” who cannot stay in power, Zelensky blasted the West’s “ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets” and other weapons while Russian bombs continue to kill women and children in cities and towns across Ukraine.
“I’ve talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. I’m in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing,” Zelensky said in a video address. “If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1 percent of their courage.”
Western politicians, it seems, even lack the courage to stop Russian energy from flowing into Europe – a decision that has allowed the Kremlin to continue to fund its bloody war machine.
The fact that it took nearly 7 weeks to remove Russia from the UN’s human rights body offers further proof that the West is afraid to stand up to Putin.
"The alliance is afraid of controversial things, and confrontation with Russia," Zelensky lamented in an interview with ABC News.
Ukraine’s president further referenced the West's lack of courage in a televised address on the 43rd day of the war when he told viewers that Ukrainians are the “bravest in the world.”
“If everyone in the world had at least ten percent of the courage we Ukrainians have, there would be no danger to international law at all. There would be no danger to the freedom of the peoples. We will spread our courage. Let's start a special global campaign."
But if Zelensky’s charges against the West sound familiar, it’s because they echo claims made by Soviet intellectuals during the darkest days of the Cold War.
In his 1978 Harvard commencement address, exiled Russian novelist and outspoken critic of communism Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn lamented the fact that a “decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days.”
Solzhenitsyn continued: “The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society.”
Solzhenitsyn also argued that the decline of courage in the Western world is “ironically emphasized” by liberal governments who bully weak states that cannot offer any resistance, but later become “paralyzed” when forced to confront powerful governments with formidable military capabilities.
Ultimately, it appears that Zelensky has pointed out something the Soviets – and now the Russians – have known for years. Although the U.S. and its Western partners are quick to pacify weak nations when it’s to their geopolitical benefit, they will give in to the will of powerful tyrants the moment confrontation becomes a real possibility.
As tyrants around the world continue to challenge the current geopolitical world order, we must all pray that the same United States that stared down the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 is not lost to history.
Our big successes were WW I & II.
WW I started August 1914, we became involved April 1917, and the war ended November 1918.
WW I started September 1939, we became involved December 1941, and the war ended August 1945.
There is considerable wisdom in joining a war 2 to 3 years after it starts.
Yes, it is so stupid to avoid a war with Russia.....
Courage wouldn’t be held in the esteem that it is if it were a common thing. Our Culture is degrading but courage is probably no more or less rare among the people. In any event we’ll be finding out real soon based upon the direction the “elites” seem to be taking.
The west hasn’t lost it’s courage. It’s just that after 20 years of the war on terror, the American people are tired of war. Especially a foreign war that doesn’t concern us. As a country we need a long period of peace.
Either that or we are tired of policing the world, only to be dumped upon by our politicians, as well as, the entire world. In the meantime, we have to foot the economic bills driving our economy into the dumpsters.
We’re just sick tired of fighting other country’s wars.
Of course we have because we have lost the West. When we embraced multiculturalism and unbridled immigration it completely changed who and what we are.
Multiculturalism is not a strength. Never was and never will be. One of the biggest lies ever told.
And it will get worse. We gave up our birthright for utopian BS.
Rat-a-tat-tat
The Party & their Neocon Quislings’ drumbeat for war.
And the silence you hear is the Republicans.
Time for Europe to show its courage. Perhaps the west has found its brains.
The Atlantic recently published a piece comparing President Zelensky to Charles de Gaulle
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When “The Atlantic” is cheering on Zelensky, then you know he’s on the wrong side.
The savior worship of this scumbag makes me automatically switch him off.
I cannot think of one benevolent National ruler today.
Stateside, only DeSantis reflects that.
It’s going to take a long time to drain and clean the swamp out.
“As tyrants around the world continue to challenge the current geopolitical world order, we must all pray that the same United States...”
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I love how the author sees the “tyrants” in other places, but ignores the ones we have right here at home.
The USA is in no imminent danger because of Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, but poking the Bear without a real plan is suicidal.
Does anyone believe that slow joe has any concept of a plan {other than pudding and ice cream before his afternoon nap}.
The West isn’t taking the possibility of a confrontation with either Russia or China seriously, nonetheless fighting them both at the same time and their allies. We haven’t increased energy production, military recruitment, civil defense preparation, or war type production. Instead we are worried about gender neutral bathrooms, CRT, amd not offending the domestic left. The only good that’s came from this is now the domestic left doesn’t see either Russia or China as good guys anymore.
Courage would be letting Europe handle their war, which doesn’t involve us.
Courage would be admitting that the US has itself fallen to a soft authoritarianism. We need to remove our own shackles before lecturing the world on how our authoritarianism is the only acceptable authoritarianism.
</chuckle>
It’s Darwinian
The warrior genes were all killed off last century
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