1942 Repeated in 2014 and Today in Ukraine
What irritates me recently is the amount of poorly written spit aimed at demonizing Ukraine and Volodomyr Zelensky while Ukraine is fighting a long-term invasion from the second most powerful communist dictatorship and blood-lust military in the world.
Publications declare and keep repeating Zelensky is a fraud and a huckster. You can troll all you want and repeat the lies of others but these lies will not change my mind about Zelensky. The man was a silly entertainer in an earlier life but became the fierce bulldog of determination to motivate Ukrainians to face up to Soviet Russia and put up one hell of a bloody fight. My hat is off to Zelensky and all Ukrainians who believe in freedom.
It is written to say Zelensky is a Nazi sympathizer such as support for the legacy AZOV batallions. Lets be pragmatic here.
When in a fight you gather anyone who will fight and who cares about what patch they have on a uniform. Lets not cloud the bigger picture of who the enemy really happens to be. I can understand the use and display of old Nazi symbols in the current fight against Soviet Bolshevism.
It is interesting to me Zelensky, an ethnic Jew is directing the efforts of what some would consider to be old-style Nazis. What a paradox. If that is really the case then what happened to old style Nazism? An elected Jew is in charge of Ukraine! I think there are few neo-Nazis involved here.
It is also frequently written Ukraine is corrupt and does not have the right to defend itself from a Bolshevick invasion. How about the shoe on the other foot? This is like saying China has the right to invade and take Hawaii. How dare we, the US defend the island?
Putin is the ultimate psychotic narcissist. He wants what he wants, he will get what he wants to get and he does not give a shit about who or what he runs over, ruins or kills to obtain it.
Putin has elevated himself to permanent dictator-god status for the past 25 years. He orchastrates glossy pictures of himself as the Marlboro man hunding, fishing, swimming, riding horses shirtless etc. That is all a phony narsissic image.
Psychopathic narcissism has no bounds and has no conscience.
Consider repeated efforts at political opposition within Russia over a long history. If any significant challenge is made or perceived against Putin those persons are imprisoned, posioned, shot, shady/unexplained suicide, "accidentally" falling off the nth floor of a tall building and/or disappeared. The old Soviet secret police and Gulag system is in good working order.
The Ukrainians are saying no! We will not go down without a fight!
The Bolsheviks created Stalin and starved 2 millon Ukrainians to death by taxation and confiscation in the 1930's because of resistance to collectiveism/communism while the rest of the world was self-consumed and turned a blind eye. People in the US were isolationist and looked the other way because this genocide is not in our backyard. But eventually this disaffection became everyone's backyard with WWII.
In 1942 the Nazis showed up to drive the Bolsheviks toward the Urals to seize resources and living space. Ukrainians who stayed in Ukraine were forced to choose. The choice was to continue to starve under Bolshiveck oppression or perhaps become an eastern extension of the German state which might seem to be the better deal. There were no good choices available.
Many Ukrainians welcomed the Germans to liberate them from the extremes of Bolshevik oppression but the Germans brought their own anti-jewish baggage with the Einstezgruppen death squads. The these killing squads rounded up opposition, Jews, Roma and Communist partisans under the false pretense of resettling them, right to the bottom of a ravine called Babi Yar on the western outskirts of Keiv and many other mass graves.
With respect to Babi Yar, some doubters need to face reality and learn sobering history about mass execution. Some Ukrainians were not without guilt concerning Babi Yar.
A Survivor of the Babi Yar Massacre - Youtube(R)
Another Babi Yar Survivor - Youtube(R)
The Destruction of the Bodies at Babi Yar - Youtube(R)
In 2014 Putin acted on his idea of more "living space" and reintegration of ethnic Russian areas. It was not called that but the justification in Putin's mind was eastern Ukraine was ethnic Russian and needed to return to the Russian fold. This was the same argument Hitler made to the German people about the seizure of "the Sudetenland" area of Czechoslovakia in 1938.
There is little difference when in 2014 when Putin directed his army to invade and "liberate" eastern Ukraine. The legal twist was this invasion would be on their official leave and would not occur as a sanctioned war. They could take their Russian issued weapons, ammunition and equipment to plunder Ukraine. They were told they could keep the properties of whomever they drove out or murdered. Basically state-sanctioned wholesale execution and theft.
Although woefully unprepared in the initial stages, the Ukranians put up quite a fight. I remember reading a 2016 article about a Russian widow with a small child in a dim flat with no prospects. Her husband was one of those professional soldiers lured to go plunder and seize Ukrainian property. After crossing the eastern border into Ukraine and making threats to steal an entire farming operation a Ukrainian farmer shot him dead. What happened to the agressor's remains was unclear.
The widow's complaint in the article was she did not receive her husband's body, received no Ukrainian property as promised and no death benefit from the Russian government because her husband's actions were not part of a declared war. The plundering soldier was a fool motivated by greed and was encouraged to do the dirty work of his boss, Vladimr Putin.
As a side note, the Wagner Group was no different. The Wagner Group are paid merceranies who will fight for the highest bidder. Now what happened to Prigozhin? How predictable. Prigozhin was blown out of the sky after a disagreement with Putin. Why am I/we not surprised? Because this is typical of Russian politics.
If you think holding Crimea and the port at Sevastpol is paramount, allow me to comment here concerning entrance/egress to/from the Black Sea. The only opening to the Mediterranean Sea is through the Bosprous Straight at Istanbul. That opening is long and narrow with a lot of opportunties to make sure all Russian vessels wind up at the bottom and so they shall if Putin expands the war.
My wife and I have strong personal ties to the people of Ukraine through church activity. Since the breakup of the USSR in 1991 she has visited Ukraine at least 30 times in the past 35 years.
So do not tell us we are naive.
We have at least 200 dear friends in Kiev, Zhytomir, Luviv, Chernihiv, Rivne, Romaniv and among several orphanages. She continues to meet with a dozen or so on a weekly basis for in-person news and Bible Study.
We hear weekly first-hand accounts about the human stress dealing with explosions from drones and cruise missiles. The drone bombs and air raid alerts keep Ukrainians frazzled all day and up all night. Young people there are terrorized and Putin is behind it all.
Based on current facts I find Putin clearly to be a world-class terrorist. Putin policy is no different from Hitler directing V1 buzz bombs and V2 rockets as vengance weapons into London in 1944 for no other purpose than destroying infastructure as well as terrorizing and indescriminately killing the civilian population.
We do our best here in the states to fund the Ukrainians by sending money to buy food, clothing and fuel while the Ukrainians collectively fight a bloody war they did not start. Lets not confuse facts here. Ukrainians are not the guilty party. Ukraine did not invade Russia or threaten Ukraine's neighbors.
While Ukraine may not be able to push Russia totally out of eastern Ukraine in the near future the Ukrainians realize the if Russia overruns them the next 50+ years they will be under the thumb of on-going Soviet style oppression. Ukrainian men, women and children will be "re-educated", forced into work gangs and separated. My wife knows first generation Ukrainians and their childern who were subjected to forced exile to Siberia in gulag work camps for periods of 10 years after the Germans were driven back west.
Ukranians who fought with and/or assisted the Germans were universally rounded up and executed. This remains one of the darkest periods in human history.
It is clear to me most Ukrainians would rather live in the chaotic ruins of freedom than in the crafted misery of Soviet oppression. Now, like before they do not have many choices. But most are demonstrating they will fight and they will die holding on to the belief of freedom in whatever form it takes.
It may well be that victory for Ukraine is already achieved in terms of stopping the Russian advance and holding the line. Ukraine needs our money, our weapons, technology, training and unwaivering support for as long as it takes to push Russia back to the pre-2014 boundary.
So let me be clear. My view is to the Devil with all those (including those who operate journalistic bots) that will not support Ukraine/Zelensky in the fight against Putin and his communist Russia.
The narcissitic self-indulgence of many is more than evident. They are no different than Putin himself. I say be careful with whom you make your bed. When you experience this personally and have few choices you may not like what you have to select.
Putin is a hell-bent man on a trajectory to find hell as his dwelling place. That is not much to look forward to. Being a ruler, celebrity or visionary does not ameliate responsibilty. Those of you that support Putin need to seriously reconsider what you are thinking.
Putin, your whole nation is nothing but an operational gulag.
Commentary Copyright 2024 - Jimmy Byrd
17-Feb-2024 Update:
This what you did this week Vladimir Putin. Your indescriminate missile strikes hit a family dwelling in Karkiv. We are told by our Ukranian contacts the family was burned to death.
There is much for you to answer for in the next life. Their voices will confront you at the Seat of Judgement.