Parallels

Am I missing something, totally misinformed? Should we all be comforted by the thought that Nobel Prize winner Obama, staunch David Cameron, podgy F. Hollande and Angela Merkel are doing what is necessary to keep the horrendous Russian bear at bay?

Perhaps Obama hopes to gain in the public opinion polls. Cameron might be reading Churchill's memoirs. Podgy soldier Hollande, marching closely behind Obama, might be hoping that some sort of aggressive diversion could be a way of avoiding to reimburse Russia for the costly Mistrals already paid for that the French President might eventually have to sink. This whilst his Spanish PM exits to Berlin with his sons to see the football final (Barcelona/Juventus) on French tax payers' money. Of them all, perhaps the souvenirs and sentiments of Angela Merkel would justify her stance.

Thus our war ships are gallantly riding the waves of the Baltic Sea; and how dare the Russians send a fighter jet to patrol the air above them! American tanks and heavy arms are positioning themselves on the borders of Poland and Lithuania. Steadfastly we lever the old bellows to fan the glowing embers of conflict.

For the sake of liberty, naturally. But the Ukrainians who voted in favour of maintaining their Russian identity, all those who culturally feel more Russian than part of a State whose government cannot possibly be considered representative of all of the Ukrainians in any case; do the staunch defenders of democracy dismiss them and their liberty?

The Ukrainian presidential elections were due to take place in March, 2015. Because of the problems in Crimea and eastern regions of the Ukraine, the elections took place earlier, the 25th May, 2014. Would it not have been better to first try to settle the issues correctly and diplomatically rather than precipitate the elections in the hope that the results, supported by the USA and the EU, perhaps for strategic reasons, will be accepted either peacefully or forcibly?

Imagine the clout of American public opinion in support of a hypothetical community of Americans living elsewhere under a regime who refused to recognise and respect their identity, and this even after they had voted to retain it. Imagine the pressure on Obama to defend their cause.
Or was Margaret Thatcher's courageous military engagement in the Falklands officially to preserve the democratic rights of the British living there, more a false pretext to retain control of an important strategic territory?

We seem, in any case, to be living in the past. Would David Cameron have treated the Scots who voted for Scottish independence as "rebels"? If Scotland had voted for total independence, would the British Prime minister have dismissed the results and used brutal seventeenth century military methods to force the Clans to swear allegiance to England and the Crown? Would there have been another massacre of Glencoe?
Can one not make such absurd parallels to the dangerous absurdity that is taking place in the Ukraine, and to the bellicose reactions of the USA and the EU? Or is Russia also completely out of step in wanting to try to defend the Ukrainians who identify with their mother country?

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Text © Mirino. Image (modified) with thanks to dreamstime.com. June, 2015