Surrender? – 1plus1equals2
Hello Fellow Patriots:
All of us are Ukrainians today. There is no justification for war-making in Ukraine. None. No nation was invaded, no actual threats were made against Russia, no genocide befell Russian-speaking Ukrainians. We are simply watching the will of a single man who has demonstrated his past cruelty in Chechnya, Georgia, and other former Soviet Bloc countries. Putin is KGB trained and will gladly show you his knowledge of how he can (has) killed with his hands, used and directed death by a myriad of other weapons. He’s proud of that. He wants you to be not just impressed but cowed at his iron will and power.
But, let’s back up for a second. Here’s a statement from Albert Einstein, who was German and Jewish, and who lived through a dark period of mass slaughter. He observed:
“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”
Ronald Reagan said much the same thing when he said: “If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.”
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s folly was that he declared “peace in our time” after meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich. Sadly, Chamberlain believed Hitler’s promise not to seize more territory.
World War II has faded from the minds of too many of us. If only we read our history mindfully, we’d be ok, but too few of us did. Most either don’t remember or never bothered to pay attention in the first place. The ability to be cruel is, unfortunately, in the blood of leaders around us. Have you ever heard of Babi Yar? It’s a place and more importantly, a point in time, coincidentally located in Ukraine. Read to remember the horrible reality of the consequence of not recognizing and facing up to evil.
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On Friday, Sept. 26, 1941, when the Germans occupied Kyiv, announcements printed in Russian, Ukrainian, and German began to appear on lampposts and walls around the city ordering all Jews to assemble Monday at 8 a.m. near the site of a Jewish cemetery. That morning, the day before the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur was to begin, over 33,000 people gathered, mostly women, children, and the elderly, as the Soviet government had already mobilized the rest of the men capable of fighting into the Red Army.
The obedient multitude was marched under guard through a barbed-wire enclosure leading into Babi Yar. Babi Yar – “yar” means ravine in Russian and Ukrainian. It is actually a system of ravines, where estuaries that once fed into a tributary of the Dnieper River had left steep troughs and inland fields. It is a scenic site, still crowded on weekends with picnickers and soccer players.
As the assembled Jews entered the ravine on that day in 1941, German SS units, together with Ukrainian prisoners recruited from a nearby prisoner-of-war camp intended to serve the Nazis as local police, robbed the Jews of their money, possessions, and documents. They made the Jews wait in the meadow, from where, behind a mound of earth, the relentless sound of machine gunfire could be heard. Over the next 36 hours, the Germans methodically took small groups of Jews, stripped them naked, and murdered them.
The postwar trial records tell the story of what occurred. The victims “were made to lie face down on the bloodied corpses of victims who had already been shot. If they did not do this willingly, they were beaten and knocked down. Then the gunners climbed over the dirt mounds toward the victims and shot them in the back of the neck.” According to an operational situation report the Germans sent back to Berlin, 33,371 Jews were executed at that time, on that site.
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I hope you did not skip over this horrible accounting of man’s capacity for inhumanity. Putin has empowered his forces to be just like Hitler. And, for much the same reason:
The Polish Corridor had some 19% ethnic Germans in it. The Poles were “stubborn” about not ceding territory with 80 % Polish population (and not wanting to be isolated from the Baltic,) so Hitler decided to take it anyway. He then split the rest of Poland with the Soviet Union.
Hitler knew that the war against Poland was not justified. That’s why the Nazis did a false flag operation, attacking German radio stations in Polish Uniforms so that it would look like the Poles hit Germany first.
Do you see any similarities with modern-day Ukraine? Russia’s Little Green Men created mayhem and mischief in Eastern Ukraine, giving Putin the excuse to come to the “rescue” of Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Russian disinformation painted NATO as an offensive force that supposedly broke a “promise” in 1979 not to move NATO nations alongside Russia’s borders.
Putin did the same thing in independent Georgia back in 1988. The causes of the conflict between the two countries – particularly a long-running dispute between Georgia and its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia – are complex, but the fact remains that on August 7th, 2008, Russia launched a full-scale land, air, and sea attack against its tiny neighbor, across an internationally recognized border. The conflict pitted 70,000 Russian troops against Georgia’s army of about 10,000 soldiers and another 10,000 reservists. Needless to say, the “war” did not last long. It was over five days later on August 12.
In response to that Russian invasion of Georgia, supported by the United States and its European allies, France helped broker a ceasefire agreement. The agreement was signed by then-Presidents of both countries, Mikheil Saakashvili for Georgia and Dmitriy Medvedev for Russia. Under the ceasefire agreement, Russia promised an immediate withdrawal of its forces from Georgia to their positions before the hostilities began.
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Russia not only failed to live up to this and other requirements of the ceasefire agreement. On August 26th, it exacerbated the situation by recognizing Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries. Yet, for the past ten years, Russia has occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia in violation of that ceasefire agreement.
In August 1999, a then-unknown Vladimir Putin was named Prime Minister when his predecessor refused to condone a full reinvasion of Chechnya. Putin, however, was ready, and in return for their unconditional support, he granted the military a free rein, allowing them to avenge their humiliating 1996 defeat in blood and fire. On the night of 31 December, an aging and broken Boris Yeltsin stepped down, handing the presidency like a gift to the newcomer. In March 2000, after famously promising to “grease the terrorists even in the outhouse”, Putin was triumphally elected president. Except for his four years as prime minister (2008-2012), he has ruled Russia ever since.
It was Twenty-two years ago that a vicious war in Chechnya brought Vladimir Putin to power. Ever since war has remained one of his main tools which he has used without hesitation throughout his reign. Vladimir Putin exists thanks to war. He has built an Empire and thrived through war. Let us now hope that war will finally bring him down.
As many as 250,000 civilians were killed in the combined Chechen wars, along with many thousands more combatants on both sides. Reports of rape, arson, torture, and other crimes by Russian soldiers were widespread and cast as a wholly necessary evil by those forces.
“Without bespredel [no limits warfare], we’ll get nowhere in Chechnya,” a 21-year-old Russian conscript told the Los Angeles Times in 2000. “We have to be cruel to them. Otherwise, we’ll achieve nothing.” https://theweek.com/russo-ukrainian-war/1010764/putins-brutal-record-in-chechnya-and-syria-is-ominous-for-ukraine
Russians know only the importance of power. They use power to get things they want or believe they deserve. They subvert the power that other nations and peoples have. They covet power for the satisfaction power conveys, and for the things that a powerful person acquires therefrom. Ask yourself the question…how does someone in government become a billionaire able to own a 99-million-dollar yacht as Putin has done? https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/inside-vladimir-putins-dollar99m-yacht-that-sailed-from-a-german-shipyard/ss-AATMjNg Like America’s President, and unfortunately, as can be found throughout other nations of the world, the accumulation of wealth through “government service” is all too common. At least in Putin’s case, we know he is a dictator and we expect anything and everything he touches to be corrupt. Putin exists only through the use of power to impose himself on Russia. He eliminates his enemies through poison, imprisonment, or simply by making sure they simply disappear. His power seems to be absolute.
Our own system, which is sadly politicized and all too frequently corrupt, is nowhere quite as bad…. yet! But, the absurdity of our national position is on display reflected in our surreptitious efforts to help Ukraine from behind the scenes. The position we have boxed ourselves into seems to justify that anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons are ok, but sending surplus aircraft is not. Who draws these kinds of distinctions? What genius is thinking we’ll give them enough bullets, missiles, and rockets so they will continue to die slowly, but we will not send the real weapons that can make a difference?
Yes, I believe that we have made a bargain with the Russian devil and in the process, sold our soul to him. Life has too many opportunities to live in the gray, but the reality is that things are either true or not. At their core, they are white or black. If we want to help the Ukrainians, there are only two choices. Either find a way to settle things in Ukraine’s favor or admit Democracy’s failure, publicly and leave the victims to their fate as Russian slaves. On one hand, we are going through the motions of helping, but in the process, we’ll knowingly let many people die. Where is our moral compass?
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There are always options. Evacuating everyone out of Ukraine who wants to go is an option. The world could absorb them and, in the process, it would highlight the victim’s flight from the oppressive Russian bloodlust. Or, deciding to confront the evil that Putin is should also be an option. I know he threatens nuclear Armageddon. But realistically, if the world gets together, not just NATO, but the vast majority of free nations to tell him in a loud, clear voice that the age of Colonialism is over, I believe he will hear us roar, loud and clear. When he hears our united voice, it can and will make a difference over our time in history.
He should be cut off from trade completely. There should be no airline flights out to the free world. There should be no commercial banking, no sale of grain or oil; no exchange of monies or students or educators. Close Russian embassies throughout the world. There should be no more free association with other world nations. If our world locks the doors to the barbarians, the signal would be given that despots will not be tolerated, not now or not ever in the future. There will be no place anywhere for tin-horn dictators Who would enslave their own people and would attempt to do the same to others.
Who are we as a people if we don’t stand strong and unitary in thought and action when it matters most? This is not a nod towards Globalism, it is in every nation’s Nationalistic interest to live not in fear, but in freedom. This is our time. Nothing is as inevitable as an idea whose time has come.
A free world is on the line today. Either we collectively meet the challenge or we don’t. Future generations will see this as another pivotal moment in the history of the world. They will see the ability of free people to make hard decisions that may not be popular or easy but are necessary and powerful.
We must make Putin sue for peace. And, if he continues his threats to use nuclear weapons, which could result in the annihilation of our world and his, somehow make sure his own people know they have a madman, a would-be Emperor of the World on their hands. And that we will all fall with him unless we right this wrong. A civilized world cannot exist under the constant threat of nuclear oblivion. Something has to give or we have signed our own death warrant with a temporary stay of execution. The future belongs to the free and to the brave, not foolish cowering people who exchange their freedom for safety. They will wind up with neither.
It is maddening to want to do something, anything to make a difference, and not feel so impotent to do anything of consequence. In my case, I write to you in the hopes you become more aware of what’s at stake and perhaps, like me, you will contribute what you can to a relief organization like the Red Cross, which was our choice. You may link to it here: https://www.redcross.org/donate/cm/FOXForward-pub.html/
God Bless America and especially at this time of extreme suffering…Ukraine
Allan J. Feifer
Deep Background for those who would like to know more about Ukraine’s History:
At the entrance to the memorial park in Kyiv, there is a sculpture of an extremely thin girl with a very sad look holding a handful of wheat ears in her hands. Behind her back is the Candle of Remembrance, a monument with details reminiscent of authentic embroidery that can be found on traditional Ukrainian costumes. This is a monument that commemorates a historical event known as the Holodomor.
What is the Holodomor?
After the end of the First World War, Ukraine was an independent state, but in 1919 the Soviet Union “sucked” it into the community of Soviet states. The Ukrainians, who even then considered themselves a Central European people like the Poles and not an Eastern European like the Russians, tried to restore Ukraine’s independence.
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In 1932, not wanting to lose control of Europe’s main granary, Stalin resorted to one of the most heinous forms of terror against one nation. In the process of nationalization, he took away the grain-producing land from the Ukrainian peasants, but also all its offerings, thus creating an artificial famine. The goal was to “teach Ukrainians to be smart” so that they would no longer oppose official Moscow. Thus, the people who produced the most grain in Europe were left without a crumb of bread. The peak of the Holodomor was in the spring of 1933. In Ukraine at that time, 17 people died of hunger every minute, more than 1,000 every hour, and almost 24,500 every day! People were literally starving to death in the streets.
Stalin settled the Russian population in the emptied Ukrainian villages. During the next census, there was a large shortage of population. Therefore, the Soviet government annulled the census, destroyed the census documents, and the enumerators were shot or sent to the gulag, to completely hide the truth.
World War. Their poison gas was hunger. Their Hitler was Stalin. Their Holocaust was the Holodomor. For them, fascist Berlin was Soviet Moscow, and their concentration camp was the Soviet Union. Today, 28 countries around the world present the Holodomor as genocide against Ukrainians, which you could not learn about in school, because almost all evidence was destroyed and victims were covered up for decades, survivors were forcibly silenced by not having the right to vote until recently.
The Holodomor at that time broke the Ukrainian resistance, but it made the desire for Ukraine’s independence from Russia eternal.
This is the hidden reason you don’t see, that you don’t know about, why so many Ukrainians hate Russians and would rather die than be under their boot ever again. Never again. Don’t believe Russian propaganda that paints an entirely different picture!