A Bridge Too Far? --- On Ukraine’s Uncertain Future
by Lostalley
Hearing the ceasefire truce over Eastern Ukraine, I revisited my piece written in March, 2014. In less than a year, Ukraine has deteriorated from a regional conflict into a continental confrontation that has the potential of becoming an abyss. It started with the pretense of pro-west democratic mass movement, which could have been negotiated for a political settlement, but soon passed the point of no return. I find, minimally, this much to be true, Obama's lack of grasp on geopolitical ramifications left a foreign policy void, readily exploited by Neocons-infested State Department embodied by vicious Victoria Nuland (her infamous "Fuck EU” rant) with disastrous consequences. For a crucial period when US could have adopted a neutral stance and worked with Putin to push for a solution instead of confrontation, the White House failed to differentiate between tactical and strategic gains, idealogical and geopolitical balances, to the extent that willful demonization of Putin was advanced for propaganda value at expense of objective evaluation of the situation. A travesty of posturing and maneuvering by special interest groups trumped a well-conceived policy-making by professionals who are not hired guns. Obama's stewardship on Ukraine seems juvenile and impotent. By contrast, despite his fallacy, Putin shows resolve and willingness to sacrifice short-term benefits for long-term goals, with fierce consistence.
Major world events rarely occur in vacuum and a chain of wrong decisions or indecisions pave the way for a course of history only regretted in retrospect but reinterpreted by revisionists for intellectual grandiose, personal excuse, and cynical ruse. I hope I'm wrong on Ukraine, but what's going on there bears the familiar marks of unfortunate lessons often ignored by collective amnesia. After a few shots of vodka, a world atlas swiftly scanned, it dawned on me why, flanked by two impassable ocean tranches and blessed by natural resources and nuclear forces, good Americans are too inactive and bad Americans too proactive. On this snowy and dreamy evening, may God bless the world of Les Misérables!
Feb. 21, 2015, Bethesda, Maryland
