Bored with domestic politics, which aren’t going so well, the US have decided to revive the good old days of the Cold war with the Russkies saying they will die in a ditch over the Ukraine. Ah who cares if many domestically can’t afford rent or healthcare when there is a bit of red peril about? Just nobody tell the good folks back home the Reds haven’t been communist for thirty years.
Joe Biden has been expressing this position with the articulateness of Reagan. Sadly not the Gipper of the days of détente but reading prepared speeches with the convincing aptitude of late second term Reagan. For once if a politician says they can’t recall something there is a strong likelihood they’re telling the truth.
The Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe, after Russia. Which means there is a lot of not very much interesting there, an awful lot. But how much do we really know about the Ukraine and more importantly what have the Ukrainians ever done for us?
If you were to go on one of those organized tours of Europe where you see the highlights of the continent in 14 days you would find approximately zero days dedicated to the wonders of the Ukraine.
A sad fact to contemplate on such a tour as you awaken in a tent city on the industrial outskirts of Rome/Paris/Madrid. The flavor of too many shots of the local liqueur in your mouth, in a sleeping bag with Raewyn from Rangiora - hmm might need some more shots.
So why would you want to visit? A country high in poverty - the poorest in Europe, vastly corrupt, that produces a lot of grain. Hmm, I feel the Lonely Planet needs to work on this description, although it does get better…
“The Ukraine does have one “must see” site, a well known power plant outside the town of Pripyat. Such is the ongoing interest in setting dramatizations and documentaries at Chernobyl that the economic activity generated represents 57% of GDP.
Unfortunately one of the locals had been using the cooling chambers to successfully brew beer using the extensive grain supplies. This use proved to produce an excellent, unique-tasting, Pilsner, but made the chambers somewhat less effective at preventing nuclear meltdown.”
Chernobyl certainly represents a major event in the history of the twentieth century. Quicker than you could say “Three Mile Island” the reactor meltdown demonstrated that the Soviets has lost the Cold War.
On a personal note I well remember the meltdown occurring during my fourth form year in 1986. We had a Social Studies teacher who was easily distracted, with the right prodding that geography lesson could easily become reminisces of his time in the Malayan conflict. Between Chernobyl and the football World Cup that year the curriculum stood no chance.
But what do we really know about the Ukraine other than Chernobyl?
Six million – that is quite a number isn’t it? We all know exactly what that number represents and why it must never be forgotten, especially in this week remembering the liberation on Auschwitz. A stain on mankind forever more.
Six million is a number that also represents another group of deaths, the number of Ukrainians who died fighting against, or were murdered by, the Nazis in World War II. The barbaric fighting on the eastern front, which largely determined the outcome of the war, is something we should also remember, and the Ukrainians were a major part of it, right at the middle of it – the poor bastards.
So perhaps rather than asking what have the Ukrainians ever done for us we should be asking what have we ever done for the them?
The Ukrainians have maintained a sense of independent identity through centuries of subjugation by their neighbors. Their transition to a democratic nation has not been an easy one - rigged elections, murdered candidates, foreign manipulation and interference from both sides. Like a sand box for the major players to continue as if the Cold War never finished.
The least we can do is stop thinking of them as a part of the old Soviet Union, a plaything of the super powers, somewhere to conduct combat indirectly as the horror of direct conflict is unthinkable, not really a fully autonomous nation. Rather as one with the same rights as any other nation.
Do I think there will be any large scale fighting? No. The US has had some disastrous military campaigns in my lifetime, going to war with Russia, in the winter no less, is a really really bad idea.
Is it a complex situation - of course, they are a divided people; many wanting closer ties with the west and some with Russia.
Will the Russians invade? Having taken the Crimea, comparable to the annexation of the Sudetenland, are they seeking to absorb the rest of Czechoslovakia, err I mean Ukraine, in return for peace?
Wouldn’t have thought so, as for much of the Cold War where the west saw the Soviets as the likely aggressors the reality is they are more likely focused on defending themselves and that which they consider their own. I hope this prediction doesn’t date badly.
You do have to feel for the Russians a bit, allowing the Ukraine to do whatever they want would be like the US letting the UK or Australia run independent foreign policies - never going to happen.
They very least the Ukraine deserves is not to be right in the middle of it again. For the major powers not to go lightly into war, or at least to host it on their own soil if they must.
A well written piece Nick. The striking of the fires by both sides is worrying. I was watching a non NZ media channel which actually talked about this in depth and showed a beleaguered Ukrainian official practically begging the Western media to fuck off and stop making things worse