Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I don’t see what you see, Don.
Maybe if we hadn’t given them, Russia, a million reasons and they finally did something during a weak administration.
Why did we keep thumbing our noses at Russia even after communist fall? Why weren’t they ever brought in to fold?
You presume that the US caused Putin’s desire to become head of a new Soviet Union. That is an erroneous conclusion. It is Putin’s actions that has brought NATO to his doorstep. Until his attempt to conquer the Ukraine NATO was an increasingly insignificant alliance that the US was turning away from, a relic of the Cold War. Putin, and Putin alone, reversed all that.
I meant we still had NATO which was a constant reminder of what was before.
Just for record, I think they are all equally bad. We don’t have any moral high ground anymore- not what we export under current and past Presidents.
Why can’t the part of Ukraine that speak Russian who were being killed by Zelensky go back to Russia?
European security is dependent on Ukrainian resistance far more than American security, I wish Western Europe acted like it. Eastern European states that were subject to Soviet tyranny seem to get it.
MrsOpey, I think the Ukrainians who continue to be killed by ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine might not agree with your peace proposal. What’s at stake here is whether independent nations should be allowed to form alliances without Russia’s approval. If this was about the Donbas, why were Russian tanks attacking Kiev?
If the neighbor being able to fight back is your “reason” for attacking them, they need to be armed.
Every single time that Russia has pulled Stupid USSR Tricks, it’s “oh, shrug, it’s Russia, oh well” and somehow the problem is that anyone can resist.
I think they are all equally bad.
We are not the ones invading the Ukraine.
Why can’t the part of Ukraine that speak Russian who were being killed by Zelensky go back to Russia?
You mean the part currently occupied by Putin? If Putin were to withdraw my guess is that a referendum could be held to determine the fate of those regions six months hence with an international force of peacekeepers to oversee the process. My guess is that Putin would sooner chew ground glass than agree to such a proposal.
Side note: Russia, official name Russian Federation, is an amalgam of nations, ethnic groups and interests. Ukraine, with the exception of a large Russian minority in the East thanks to Stalin’s murderous policies, and a smaller group bordering Belarus, is largely unitary. It has a history that predates Russia and a largely Western orientation. Freed of conflict, internal and external, its economic potential is quite bright. This conflict, in one form or another, will not be soon settled and the spillover into Europe will continue.
I think that Donald is right in so far as this goes back to Stalin and the genocidal Holodomor. Stalin killed thousands, but Ukraine remained fertile, and bread was needed so that Russians needed to be imported to tend the land. Such imported Russians were/are deeply resented thus triggering violence. How much cheaper and less bloody it would have been to deport the aliens-each with a generous stipend to begin life again in Mother Russia. I told that Moscow is lovely this time of year
Maybe if we hadn’t given them, Russia, a million reasons and they finally did something during a weak administration.
We didn’t give them any reason at all. Agency and causality are problems for you.
Why can’t the part of Ukraine that speak Russian who were being killed by Zelensky go back to Russia?
The Ukraine had a referendum on a declaration of sovereignty in 1991. Every region of the country voted in favor, including the Crimea and the two Donbass regions. No political parties of consequence in the Ukraine were in 2012 advocating merger of the Ukraine with Russia or any part of the Ukraine and Russia. Social survey research in the Ukraine in past years indicate that less than 5% of the population favor that course of action. Self-identified ‘Great Russians’ account for about 17% of the population, accounting for a majority in the Crimea and about 38% of the population of the Donbass. Political parties advocating a Russophile orientation in foreign policy have in the last ten years a plurality only in the Donbass. Used to be a much more common opinion in the Ukraine, but Putin’s scamming and bullying cost the Russophile parties about 60% of their electoral base.
Note, between 1917 and 1945, the western boundary of the Ukraine shifted around considerably. The eastern and northeastern boundaries hardly changed from 1922 to 2014.
Side note: Russia, official name Russian Federation, is an amalgam of nations, ethnic groups and interests. Ukraine, with the exception of a large Russian minority in the East thanks to Stalin’s murderous policies, and a smaller group bordering Belarus, is largely unitary.
About 80% of Russia’s population is Great Russian. None of the ethnic minorities account for > 4% of the population. Sentiment in favor of amalgamation with Russia encompasses a small minority in the Ukraine (< 5%). It’s a much larger minority in White Russia, accounting for about 25% of the population; however, it is a minority that’s declining in size as it accounted for about 1/2 the population in 1995. Russian is the majority language in White Russia. “White Russian’, such as it is is a rural dialect. In the Ukraine, Russian, Ukrainian, and a jumble of the two are widely spoken in society. The last two Presidents have been from families where Russian was spoken a home.
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