Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy told cheering U.S. legislators during a defiant wartime visit to the nation’s capital on Wednesday that against all odds his country still stands, thanking Americans for helping to fund the war effort with money that is “not charity,” but an “investment” in global security and democracy.The whirlwind stop in Washington — his first known trip outside his country since Russia invaded in February — was aimed at reinvigorating support for his country in the U.S. and around the world at a time when there is concern that allies are growing weary of the costly war and its disruption to global food and energy supplies.Zelenskyy called the tens of billions of dollars in U.S. military and economic assistance provided over the past year vital to Ukraine’s efforts to beat back Russia and appealed for even more in the future.“Your money is not charity,” he sought to reassure both those in the room and those watching at home. “It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”
I've got a little list, I've got a little list,Of societal offenders who never would be missed --Who never would be missed!
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| Zelensky observing the horrors of Bucha on April 4. |
We are defending the ability of a person to live in the modern world. We are defending the right to live. I never thought this right was so costly. These are human values. So that Russia doesn't choose what we should do and how I'm exercising my rights. That right was given to me by God and my parents.
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| Zelensky and his family in happier times. Click to enlarge. |
BBC correspondent Katty Kay, based in the United States, writes:
Since coming into office, Joe Biden has spoken repeatedly about the tectonic struggle between democracy and autocracy. It's been the leitmotif of his presidency. His argument is that democracy must deliver for its people if it's going to survive. But there's another side to that social contract. We citizens have to deliver for democracy as well.
For a start, we have to bother to vote. It's an activity America is famously bad at. In the 2020 election, one of the most consequential in recent history, only 62% of eligible voters bothered to turn out and vote. That was a modern day high. The UK doesn't do much better, 67% voted in its last general election. . . .
Of course it's not just the lack of participation that weakens liberal societies. Twenty-first century democracies are hotbeds of social and economic inequality. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Many democracies, like the US, have such polarised political systems that you can't get laws passed that would make lives better. They've become virtually ungovernable. Long-term challenges, like climate change, get kicked down the road as politicians focus their efforts on short term gains, like getting re-elected.
Democracies aren't giving the next generation the tools they will need to be responsible democratic citizens in a complicated, changing world. Our kids need lessons on how to spot real news from fake news and how to avoid baseless conspiracy theories that undermine the strength of democracy itself. . . .
I am part of a generation that has taken political pluralism for granted. Decades of peace produced a failure of imagination. Despite the war tales our parents told us, we couldn't envisage that a way of life we'd all got used to might disappear if we didn't defend it.
Ukraine has snapped us awake. It has shown us both the risks, and, more inspiringly, what it means to really care for democracy. In a war they didn't choose, Ukrainians are fighting, and dying, for the right to free elections, to the rule of law, and an impartial media, for the right to be a democratic country. Their bravery puts our laziness to shame.
Ukrainian President Zelensky will be interviewed on the long-running CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes tomorrow. Excerpt:
"We are defending the ability of a person to live in the modern world," Zelensky says. Rhetorically, no one can dispute that inconvenient truth that puts all Western nations to shame. "Being brave is our brand, " Zelensky said two days ago, "This is what it means to be us. To be Ukrainians. To be brave. If everyone in the world had at least ten percent of the courage that we Ukrainians have, there would be no danger to international law at all."
It may not be not quite that simple - but once again, he gets to the heart of the moral dilemma confronting the West that I have mentioned since my first post about this damnable war: every moral fiber quivers with the impulse to join Zelensky and his people in the fight against a monstrous evil; but to do so would probably mean a death sentence for many millions of people far from Ukraine, and unthinkable destruction on a gigantic scale. A devil's dilemma, that's what it is.
And who knows but what the unthinkable won't happen anyway, no matter how carefully Western leaders tiptoe around the edge of the abyss? God forbid. I have no idea what to do or what to say. I can only join with all other decent men and women in saluting the fierce courage of the Ukrainians and their indomitable president. May God deliver them from all assaults of the enemy and give them peace - and all the rest of the world, too.
For a long, thoughtful read, here's a link to an essay by the BBC's Fergal Keane: "Ukraine, the UN and History's Greatest Broken Promise."
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| Captured Russian soldiers in Ukraine - via The Mirror (U.K.), 11 March 2022. Notice the helpless position they have been restrained in: hands cuffed behind their backs, outer coats peeled back, outer pants pulled down to their ankles. Any statement made under such a state of duress is, predictably, going to be what the interrogators want to hear. There are numerous such videotaped confessions posted online by the Ukrainian authorities. |
Your Head Trucker has refrained from mentioning his reservations about the war in Ukraine up till now - but today's story of Ukrainian soldiers executing Russian prisoners of war, is sufficient cause for me to speak up.
There can be no doubt whatsoever that Putin launched an unprovoked war on Ukraine, invading large swathes of territory, raining death and destruction all across Ukraine, deliberately and horrifically targeting civilians in homes, schools, hospitals, and all manner of non-military places. The world has already seen indisputable evidence of Russian brutality and war crimes, deliberately and mercilessly done. Russia's transparent lies and two-faced denials of these atrocities are so obvious that they are almost laughable.
Nevertheless - there are disturbing reports of Ukrainian brutality and war crimes too. We don't want to hear those things, of course, because we want the good guys to be totally good, as in the movies. But has there ever been a war in the long, bloody annals of recorded history in which neither side violated the rules of war, and of common decency?
This story came up in my news feed today - a manifest violation of the Geneva Conventions. (Have you ever read them?) I wonder how much continuing coverage it will get in mainstream Western media.
(video not yet available on YouTube)
U.N. urges investigation into videos of alleged POW abuse by Russia and Ukraine
How Ukraine is dealing with Russian POWs - and how they are supposed to be treated by law
Not long after the start of the war, I was alarmed by the sight of Russian POW's with their hands obviously tied behind their backs giving video confessions to their Ukrainian captors, which they promptly broadcast to the world - again, most definitely a violation of the Geneva Conventions (forced confessions, and publicizing prisoner's identities for propaganda purposes). From the American broadcaster Radio Free Europe on February 27, the fourth day of the war:
As my recent posts have shown, I understand and deeply sympathize with the fact that the Ukrainians are fighting for their lives, and using all possible means to prevent the destruction of their nation. In such a state of desperate warfare, misdeeds are often made by individuals, and by national leaders, in a fit of fury. War is a bad business, even when fighting for a good cause.
That does NOT justify war crimes, however, no matter who commits them. Two wrongs do NOT make a right, in peace or in war. The powers that be will, I hope, be recording and investigating all such crimes by both sides in what is, to some degree, very like a civil war - which because of its fratricidal nature is often the most vicious kind.
Western policymakers should also take the long view into consideration: what will it mean for Europe and America if Zelensky achieves his goal of making Ukraine a "big Israel" - in a perpetual state of armed alert, if not actual war with its neighbors? Think about it. I do not say that would be good or bad - I merely say it is a possible outcome of this present war, which will not likely end with a nice, neat peace treaty anytime soon.
For the Record: I do not hesitate to admit that we Americans have sometimes been myopic about atrocities committed by our own armed forces, I am very sorry to say. From My Lai to Abu Ghraib, and at other times and places, American soldiers have shown they are not always the fighting saints we would like them to be. And that is a very sad thing that the world has rightly condemned.
But I hope my overseas truckbuddies will understand, and my American truckbuddies will agree, that such crimes have never been embraced by the American public or remained immune to prosecution afterwards. Though I frankly don't know what to say about Guantanamo, which somehow is still operating. All these things are great black marks on our record, and I, for one, am deeply ashamed of them.
On the other hand, Americans have sacrificed themselves, expending their time, talents, and treasure, individually and collectively, many times in many places to maintain the peace and stability of the world for the last 80 years; alongside our faults and failings, history will record our nobler deeds in golden letters for the admiration of ages to come. And no matter what any lame-brain politician or demagogue or fanatic might say now or in the future, crimes against humanity are most definitely not the American way.
The number of good and decent Americans, people with sound moral values, humility, and a conscience, far outnumber the bad ones. Our way is the path of liberty and justice for all - when we stray from it, we try to learn from our mistakes, and do better as we continue the upward journey. Despite our flaws and failings, we are the leaders of the free world, proud to be a force for good in a troubled world, and I hope we will always be.
At least, that is the view of this old, obsolete American with no power or influence beyond this obscure little blog.
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| Map of recent Russian advances in Ukraine - from the BBC, 17 March 2022, 2100 GMT. Click to enlarge. |
The cruel juggernaut lumbers on, the slow strangulation of a nation continues - George Floyd's death repeated over and over and over, with blood and bombs.
Sky News reports - "The life is being drained from Mariupol":
Sky News reports: Kiev residents say "Putin's trying to kill us":
Sky News reports: Rescuers dig frantically through steel and rubble to save one life:
CBS News reports: An American was shot to death in Ukraine while standing in a bread line to get food for his partner and other hospital patients:
President Zelensky warns that if Russia is not stopped now, it will embolden other aggressors to attack their neighbors:
Full text of Zelensky's speech here.
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| Fake cover of Time magazine, by artist Patrick Mulder. Click to enlarge. |
Today is Forgiveness Sunday. A day when we always apologized. To each other. To all people. To God. But today, it seems, many have not mentioned this day at all. Have not mentioned the obligatory words: "Forgive me." And the obligatory answer: "God forgives, and I forgive." These words seem to have lost their meaning today. At least in part.
But we will not forgive hundreds and hundreds of victims. Thousands and thousands of sufferings. And God will not forgive. Not today. Not tomorrow. Never. And instead of Forgiveness, there will be a Day of Judgment.
We will not forgive the destroyed houses. We will not forgive the missile that our air defence shot down over Okhmatdyt today. And more than five hundred other such missiles that hit our land. All over Ukraine, hit our people and children.
We will not forgive the shooting of unarmed people. Destruction of our infrastructure. We will not forgive. Hundreds and hundreds of victims. Thousands and thousands of sufferings. And God will not forgive. Not today. Not tomorrow. Never. And instead of Forgiveness, there will be a Day of Judgment. I’m sure of it.
We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war on our land. We will find every bastard who shot at our cities, our people, who bombed our land, who launched rockets. There will be no quiet place on this earth for you. Except for the grave.Here is the speech, with English subtitles. His righteous anger is a powerful thing to hear.
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| Soviet POWs covering a mass grave after the Babyn Yar massacre, October 1, 1941. From Wikipedia - public domain. |
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| Click to enlarge. |
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
- to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
- to regain faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
- to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
- to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
AND FOR THESE ENDS
- to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
- to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
- to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
- to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMSAccordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.
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| Invasion map of Ukraine, March 2, 2022, 1800 GMT. Click to enlarge. |
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| Click to enlarge. |
