Tuesday, May 13, 2014

ARE THE US AND THE EU OPPOSING DEMOCRACY IN EASTERN UKRAINE?

The U.S. wants democracy everywhere, but do we really?

The Bush and the Obama administrations have pushed for democracy throughout the world. The U.S. supported the Arab Spring which overthrew our friend, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. We supported the overthrow of Libya’s Gaddafi. But we also supported the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s democratically elected president, because we did not want to see that country aligned with Russia.

Russia recently annexed the Crimea after it’s people voted to secede from the Ukraine and become part of Russia following the ouster of Yanukovych. The U.S. and the E.U. declared that election to be illegal. Illegal? Shit, that’s democracy in action.

The eastern part of Ukraine is home to a majority of Russian speaking people. Pro-Russians in two eastern provinces have taken over the Kiev government’s offices and police stations in some 10 cities. On Sunday they held a vote on whether to secede from the Ukraine. Leaders of the secession movement announce the independence of the two provinces after voting results showed that 90 percent of those who voted favored secession. Again we and the E.U. deemed the election to be illegal.

How did the Kiev government deal with the vote. They tried to suppress it. The Ukrainian National Guard tried to keep people from voting in the village of Krasnoarmisk. When a crowd of people attempted to vote, the guardsman fired live rounds at them, killing several of those wanting to cast their vote.

It all boils down to us and the E.U. vs. Russia. I’d have to say that we are being very hypocritical when we declare our support for democracy when in fact we are opposing democracy in Eastern Ukraine, Russia’s instigation of the insurrection notwithstanding.

1 comment:

bob walsh said...

The US ALWAYS supports democracy, when it will result in somebody we like getting elected. Otherwise, not so much.