The bungling president of the United States continues to waver on the imposition of biting sanctions on Russian oil exports, yet jets home to Delaware — for the second straight weekend — for a couple of days of relaxation.
The impotent yet smug as hell United Nations Security Council (of which Russia is a permanent member) will meet on Monday to discuss Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. And terrified Ukrainian refugees plead with the West to take tougher steps against Russia, as the onslaught continues.
What is wrong with the above? Every obscene bit of it.
Four chilling words encapsulate the death and destruction visited upon the proud yet terrified Ukrainian people, as Russian missiles continue to rain down on their cities: “Please close the sky.”
As reported by Reuters on Saturday, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has created more than one million refugees, the majority of whom are fleeing into Central Europe. At Poland’s Medyka crossing — its busiest — along its roughly 310-mile border with Ukraine, refugees have been calling for a no-fly zone over Ukraine — which NATO “powers” have so far ruled out, out of fear of escalating the war beyond Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also pushed for NATO to impose a no-fly zone over his country, while Putin on Saturday said Moscow will view any attempt by third-party countries to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine as active “participation in the armed conflict” that would “bring catastrophic results not only to Europe but to the whole world,” as reported by Fox News,
Putin, who’s not an unraveling nutjob [sarc] at all, also called Western sanctions against Russia “akin to a declaration of war.”
Eighteen-year-old Solomiya Zdryko, who fled to Poland from Lviv in western Ukraine, poignantly pleaded with NATO countries to “please close the sky,” as quoted by Reuters:
I know that it’s not possible for us to join NATO but at least close the sky because people are dying. It’s great that the whole world is watching us and supporting us, but it really needs to stop.
According to Reuters, Poland, whose Ukrainian community of around one million people, is the region’s largest and has accepted nearly 800,000 Ukrainian refugees since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Paweł Szefernaker told reporters. More than 106,000 arrived from Ukraine in the last 24 hours, the highest figure since the war erupted.
In addition, roughly 140.000 Ukrainians have fled to Hungary since the start of the war, 200,000 to Romania, and roughly 50,000 have reached the Czech Republic. Moreover, the refugees have been mostly women and children, because men of conscription age have been required to stay and fight.
A refugee who would only identify herself as Olha broke down into tears as she echoed the words Zdryko told Reuters:
They could do more only by closing the skies. But I think that all countries have helped Ukraine very much and I am very thankful for their help.
These are real people with real, shattered lives. That reality sometimes gets lost in words typed on a computer screen. Or buried among countless other news reports, or among untold numbers of other quotes from other people in other circumstances.
But it is heart-wrenching. All of it.
READ RELATED: Covid cases are now dropping in EVERY region of England as rates finally turn around in North East
And it is particularly so because there are no easy answers. As a result, the “solutions” espoused by know-it-all political pundits and social media keyboard warriors of various political predispositions are varied — and hilarious — as well.
I got into a bit of a “discussion” with a Facebook “friend” who remains convinced that America has not only a moral obligation to defend Ukraine at virtually any costs, but a legal one, as well, having “promised” to do so, and as a result, should in return fire missiles into Russia. Some have even suggested that the United States is just as guilty as Russia for failing to do so. No, really.
On the other hand, we have near-Russian apologists trotting onto our TV screens on a nightly basis (I watch ZERO political news or punditry) — Fox News host Tucker Carlson comes to mind — who have all but sung the praises of Vladimir Putin and Russia since at least the early days of the Russian “collusion” hoax. Carlson declared the following on February 22:
You can’t say it enough, Ukraine is not a democracy. … In American terms, you would call Ukraine a tyranny.
Really? “You can’t say it enough”? Why say it at all?
As a sort of twisted rationale that makes it “less wrong” for Putin’s Red Army to brutalize a neighboring country that poses absolutely no threat to Russia?
Carlson continued:
Ukraine, to be technical, is not a democracy. Democracies don’t arrest political opponents, and they don’t shut down opposition media, both of which Ukraine has done. And by the way, Ukraine is a pure client state of the United States State Department — again, that’s fine. We are not mad about that, go ahead and run Ukraine if you want, if you think you can do a better job than Ukrainians. Just don’t tell us it’s a democracy.
Obsess much, Tucker?
The facts:
Ukraine has many aspects of a democracy. The president, who is head of state and commander in chief, is chosen by a popular election. The legislature has a mix of single-seat and proportional representation. The prime minister is chosen through a legislative majority and is head of government. The Supreme Court is appointed by the president upon nomination by the Supreme Council of Justice.
One can argue that Ukraine is not a “democracy” in the sense of Jeffersonian Democracy or even Jacksonian Democracy, but a “tyranny”? Please. I’ll buy “fledgling democracy,” but in contrast with Vladimir Putin’s Russia? Again, please.
The bottom line:
There are hundreds if not thousands of Ukrainian men, women, and children dead. Dead from Russian missiles. Allegedly from thermobaric and cluster bombs, as well. While NATO forces choose whether to “close the sky” over the war-torn country, the decent among us will continue to stand with — or for — the brave people of Ukraine.
Debating the definition of “democracy” notwithstanding.
Source:
