Yesterday, the May 9th “Victory in Europe” over the Nazis, provoked yet another thoughtful response, in Caitlin Johnstone’s article, “U.S. Should Have Defended Zelensky from Neo-Nazis.” She contemplates what a normal, functioning United States could have done: “As we hydroplane toward the brink of nuclear armageddon while Bono and the Edge play U2 songs in Kyiv, it’s probably worth taking a moment to highlight the fact that this entire war could have been avoided if the U.S. had simply pledged military protection for Zelensky against the far right extremists who were threatening to lynch him if he enacted the peacemaking policies he was elected to enact.” Zelenskyy had an April, 2019 landslide (73%) victory based upon his promise to work with the Russians in ending Ukraine’s war in the Donbas. But threats of civil disruption and even of assassination thwarted the thunderous electoral message.
“It’s just a simple fact that for a fraction of the military firepower the U.S. is pouring into Ukraine right now, it could have prevented the entire war by simply protecting Ukrainian democracy from the undemocratic impulses of the worst people in that country.” The lengthy article concludes: “It would have been wins all around. We wouldn’t be staring down the barrel of nuclear armageddon. Ukraine would have been spared the horrors of an insane proxy war. Western powers wouldn’t be sending arms to literal Nazi factions. And the U.S. would actually be protecting Ukrainian democracy, instead of just pretending to.”
