Can a nation lose some part of their territory in the 21st century? Of course it can. It happened in former Yugoslavia (now Serbia) in 2009 when the U.S. (under the NATO fig leaf) bombed Serbia for trying to stop Albanian separatists from cutting out the Serbian province of Kosovo, and attaching it to Albania. The U.S. didn’t bomb Serbian army units in Kosovo pursuing Albanian separatists. It bombed civilians in the capital Belgrade, including bombing a hospital, a train, and even bombed the Chinese embassy! (China was a Serbian ally then). The U.S. CIA also had armed, trained and funded the Karen tribe in Burma who declared a northeast province as their state, but after about 10 years of CIA arms and $ billions of funding, they couldn’t hold it. Now the U.S. and its European subordinate allies talk about preserving the “territorial integrity of Ukraine!” Why did the U.S. bombed, armed, trained, and funded rebels to cut off territory from hostile to the U.S. states, Yugoslavia- a Russian ally, and Burma (now called Myanmar) a Chinese ally, but now opposes the same move by East Ukrainians to cut off their territory from Ukraine? Because the East Ukrainians are allies of Russia!
Now the pro-U.S. government in Ukraine has called the ethnic Russians in East Ukraine “Terrorists, Criminals, Bastards, and has vowed to “wipe them out!” Russia hasn’t bombed Kiev -like the U.S. bombed Belgrade in 1999 to stop the Ukrainian army march toward the pro-Russian rebels! It just armed the rebels to protect themselves. The U.S. and the European protested then that Russia was endangering the “territorial integrity of Ukraine.” If the “territorial integrity of Serbia” meant nothing to the U.S. and Europe in 1999, why Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” is an issue today?” That is the epitome of hypocrisy, isn’t it?
Some history: The U.S. and Europe helped the Ukrainian pro-European politician Victor Yushenko to become president with anti-Russian demonstrations in orange flags, nicknamed the “Orange Revolution,” but he was a disaster, and the Ukrainians in the next election opted for the pro-Russian leader of the Party of Regions, Victor Yanukovich. Yanukovich signed some trade protocols with Europe, but Russian president Vladimir Putin overbid the European offers, and Yanukovich reneged on the European pact because the Russian deal would have saved Ukraine about $ 50 billions -according to reports. But within two weeks, the pro-Western right-wing Ukrainians staged protests demanding Ukraine belonged to Europe – not with Russia – no matter what the cost or the savings were!
First the protesters were few in Kiev square, but with the Western media blaring “treason” on Yanukovich’s turn around, the Right Wing parties of Europe started rushing in, and joining the protesters while carrying their national flags. The protests grew, and the crowds demanded the ouster of Yanukovich. European parliamentarians rushed to Kiev, too, and joined the protests despite diplomatic protocols that forbid foreign politicians from interfering in the internal affairs of other states. The Kiev protests slowly became a Western Crusade to oust Yanukovich and detach Ukraine from Russia’s sphere of influence, and eventually
join the EU and Nato. Yanukovich resigned and moved to Russia.
New election followed, and the Right Wingers of Ukraine were easily elected on the ballots of the Western Ukrainians as the Eastern Ukraine’s mostly Slavic and ethnic Russians abstained. Instead, the Easterners in Crimea, Donesk and Lugansk region had their own elections, and their elected leaders opted to stay out of the Western Ukrainians push to join Europe and Nato. The Western Ukrainians government in Kiev rejected the vote of the pro-Russian East Ukrainians, and – as aforesaid- called them “terrorists, criminals, and bastards, and vowed to wipe them out militarily! By contrast Scotland had an election recently to break away from Great Britain, but the voters rejected the break up. If they had voted for, Britain would not have called them “terrorists, criminals, and bastards,” and have sent in the British army to wipe them out! The difference here? The East Ukrainians gutted the West’s planned expansion into the Russian border through Ukraine, whereas there was no external imperial ambitions involved in the Scottish referendum. Ukrainian forces moved East to crush the pro-Russian separatists, but the separatists armed and trained by Russia beat them back!
Sensing a losing on the Ukrainian misadventure, the West cried foul because they have realized by now that the Ukrainian army cannot defeat the pro-Russian East Ukrainians. Worse yet, the West realizes that even if it provides the Ukrainian army with more effective weapons, like tank destroying missiles – as it has threatened to do, Russia would match them by providing to pro-Russian provinces more sophisticated weapons too. And if the West invade Ukraine, Russia will invade too. Russia was weak in 1999 and the U.S. bombed the pro-Russian Serbia and detached its province Kosovo for the pro-U.S. Albania with impunity. Russia has fully rebuilt its military now, and it holds all aces in the Ukrainian conflict due to its geographical position. The U.S. has no military options in Ukraine, and Barack Obama has sheepishly admitted it!
The U.S. miscalculation into Ukraine is similar to the U.S. miscalculation in Vietnam! The U.S. thought it could win the war, but realized after 10 years that it couldn’t! In a desperate effort to avoid defeat, it sent its then Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger to China and offered to recognize the Chinese Communist regime {The U.S. recognized Taiwan as China then} if the Chinese Communist Party helped the U.S. to win in Vietnam by stopping military supplies to the Vietnamese army. The Chinese premier Chou en Lai bluntly told Kissinger: “We cannot help you on this. Get out of there,” on quote. A few days ago, French president Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel rushed to Moscow to plead with Russian president Vladimir Putin to stop arming Pro-Russian Ukranians. Their mission failed like Kissinger’s mission to China. Vladimir Putin didn’t budge!
Ukraine is another Vietnam today. The Vietnam war was to keep Communism from spreading, while the Ukrainian civil war was a foolish Western mission to shrink Russia’s geopolitical influence. But instead of shrinking Russia’s reach, Ukraine has shrank itself by the internal division along ethnic lines. Now the U.S. and Europe scurry to put the broken Ukrainian regions back together, but Putin holds the glue. And he is not sharing it!
Nikos Retsos, retired professor
