Миру – мир!

Demetrios Rhompotis

The title, an old Communist motto meaning “Peace to the World,” is one that both Ukrainians and Russians understand. It remains to be seen when and how they will take it seriously. Having entered the fourth week of conflict, things don’t look good. A human tragedy is unfolding in Europe, traditionally the most advanced and civilized place on Earth, and from where not one, but two, World Wars started and involved much of humanity.

This is clearly and unequivocally an act of aggression on the part of Russia and can only be condemned in the strongest terms, especially from us, Greeks still suffer the consequences of a brutal Turkish invasion and continuing occupation based on similar premises with Russia, in Cyprus. And there are about 150,000 Greeks living right in the middle of the conflict in Ukraine! There used to be many more, but Stalin scattered them all over Siberia. Those were the lucky ones, because a great number of them were killed on the spot…

Having said that, unfortunately our country, the US, is also much to blame. This tragedy is rooted in the NATO summit of Bucharest, April 2008, when then-President George Bush invited Georgia and Ukraine to join the alliance, triggering Russia’s violent response, first in Georgia and now in Ukraine. Thanks to that naïve policy of our most naive president, both countries nowadays are in ruins and both have chunks of their territory in limbo. And the US did absolutely nothing, other than offer generous condemnations, after it jumpstarted the conflicts in the first place! If you are not gonna defend them, why are you inviting them to become formal allies in the first place???

This time, days before the invasion, another brilliant president was declaring that Russia’s military intervention is imminent and that the US won’t do anything about it! Only if NATO countries are threatened there will be a response. How convenient for the aggressor! Instead of discouraging, they encouraged Putin, not that he needed any encouragement! It shows clearly the kind of leadership, or actually lack of it, the West is under, when we are heading towards a multi-polar world with China as the superpower in the offing and us her humble consumers. If we all survive the onslaught of Muslim fundamentalism that is…

The conflict in Ukraine, like the one in Georgia 14 years ago, proved that the US is not to be trusted. And that is a major tragedy itself…

PS:

1) It’s impossible to create a no–fly zone over Ukraine! The country has so many swamps, it’s full of mosquitoes, bugs and other flies…

2) US Evangelicals are praying for Putin, who in the last two decades has taken drastic measures to curtail their efforts to “evangelize” Russia!
What will be next? Gays and lesbians for Putin???

3) Forget Ukraine, speaking of tragedies, you heard about the cargo ship full of luxury cars going down in the Atlantic! My Lamborghini Aventador was among the victims and for the time being I have to suffer by using my old Bentley! How humiliating!

4) I went to the casino and I lost a quarter!
It fell somewhere and I couldn’t find it..