An Underwhelming Admission of Ignorance

     I am not a representative of the United States government. I am only an American citizen. Suffice to say, the decisions made at levels far, far above mine are often responsible for myriad embarrassing situations which often make me wish, perhaps, that I were not. One such situation is evolving now over Ukraine- should or should not, the United States government and its NATO allies get involved in what is (first) a domestic crisis and (second) a regional crisis? These are questions the big muckymucks are deliberating on, but they are worth commenting on because at the citizen in the street level, here again are the potential making of highly embarrassing governmental activity, which needs first to be reined in, and secondly, refrained from in the future. As a concerned citizen I have a duty to point these out to those who claim to be my "leaders."

     I have some regular readers in Ukraine, apparently. I have a friend through Facebook who used to reside in Kiev, but at the onset of these problems, they have relocated west to Romania. Smart move, perhaps, considering the violence and pillage taking place in the capital and in Odessa.  I have never been to Ukraine, I do not think I plan on going anytime soon, but apparently some readers of my blog take heart after certain notions I embrace, which includes the populist movement that eventually took down the Berlin Wall. I have friends in formerly Soviet Siberia, Russia proper, and in Latvia and other “Eastern bloc” areas, whom I dearly treasure, and so I stand apart from other Americans and their usual Cold War neurosis over people from that side of the earth.

“War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography”-Ambrose Bierce

    Now I just LOVE that quote, (recently I have found reason to use it, a lot!) as it’s so trenchant, so true, and telling to remember- Ambrose wrote those words over a century ago. But it’s timeless, because that is really the way most American function when it comes to knowing what is what where is where on the planet. It usually takes a war to get them to find out just where where is. A very good example of this was Vietnam. Before US involvement, not many Americans could tell you the correct answer. Now, there is no way in the world an American child can grow up not knowing it. And a similar situation existed with Iraq, and now also, with Ukraine.

     I do not pretend to have an answer for the issues dividing the Ukrainians, nor even a developed, reasoned position I can take based n the facts, but there are several things I do know, and which ought to be obvious, but which are not. One, the US was involved in trying to create regime change there for a number of years already. Now the instigation of the CIA have made themselves manifest, and regime change has come, although (as usual) the “friendlies” America has backed bear no resemblance to people who actually hold values resembling “American” ones. That the United States now occupies bases in over 175 countries, 93 nations have decided America’s “friendship” is barely worth the trouble, and the cost of doing business with America’s high tech industry is fraught with the taint of NSA involvement in manipulated hardware and international networking.

     It’s enough, I think, being a world citizen, to continually pray for peace, and hope that saner minds will prevail. But realistically, things tend to get worse before they get better, and all I am really praying for now, is that the United States leave behind its “overseas empire” kick and get started focusing on freeing those of us at home who languish in her prisons- more than any other nation on earth. I do not have a clue on how to solve the problems of the Ukraine. But unlike many American politicians, I have the sense to admit it.