No, I am not talking about the US and Russia. The spit propaganda that became western media portrays this as Cold War redux. Are you for the West? Good, you support democracy! Not so fast.
This was never about West Ukraine vs. Southeast Ukraine. Most of the time I have spent in Ukraine was in the West. They are the least represented people in media today, and they lose the most all the way around. They are also my friends.
Propaganda obscures the fact that in Ukraine the people that suffered most under Stepan Bandera lived in Western Ukraine. They became victims, because they were within his reach. Today, western Ukrainians are still the most vulnerable. Banderites stem from Galicia, and Lviv is their capital. Everywhere the Banderas are, people are beaten, robbed and murdered. Intimidation runs rampant.
Today, if the Bandera want legitimate representative government, why are they robbing every armory? Why did Dmitri Yarosh promise he would send a battalion of fighters to Donetsk to stop the protests? Got police?
Why did Banderas shoot unarmed men in Kharkov and Donetsk last night? They are not police and have no state authority. But like the masked Maidan people who are robbing banks across the country, they are left alone and, if caught, released.
RussiaThe Russian invasion of Crimea took a turn for the weird yesterday. The Prime Minister of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, directed Crimea's volunteer militia to arrest any person they see that looks like a Russian soldier!
Crimean authorities have heard that Pravy Sektor is masquerading as Russian soldiers, trying to provoke conflict. The now official Ukrainian government organization tried to set off a bomb at a cafe in Crimea 2 days ago.
Russian soldiers are staying on their bases, as per the current agreement Russia has with Ukraine. Their "invasion" stopped at the gates of the military bases.
The WestThis isn't about East vs. West. The choice is simpler than that. It is about life and death. There are no compromises to make. If Kiev declares Stepan Bandera and all associated groups are illegal and genocidal war criminals, the southeast in Ukraine will relax. But, quite to the contrary, the first thing the Kiev government did was to make laws that legalized the teaching of Nazi propaganda. Without representation, they decided that 10 percent of people's pay in the southeast would be taken without consent and given as support to the families of people that overthrew a constitutional government.
Ukraine is not West vs. East. They want you to make the same decision with them. Are you for a world ruled by Ultra Nationalists? Ukraine says no. Are you for a government that supports the doctrines of the 3rd Reich? Will you support one? Are you supporting one?
If the Ukrainian government that was propelled into power is not Ultra Nationalist, why are they making every move to show otherwise? Does the US government support Ultra Nationalist values? If not, why are they showing otherwise?
Clarification starts with both governments adhering to the rule of law. Otherwise, as I once heard someone I respected put it: "You can put lipstick on a pig, but at the end of the day it is still a pig."
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