“This war will be the end of Putin.” — Zinovy, Ukrainian-born American citizen.
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | I was in Los Angeles recently, visiting my brother, a longtime band leader who plays ethnic music of all sorts (Irish, German, Persian, Jewish and so on). One of his clarinetist musician buddies is from Ukraine, where he was once with the Kviv Radio and Television orchestra.
After being at a practice session consisting of most entertaining classical as well as Eastern European music, I struck up a conversation with him. He went through the history of Russian-Ukrainian relations, zeroing in on Putin. He also spoke about his countrymen. He detailed how they despise the Russian aggression. His view was that their spirit was such that the dispirited Russians would never win.
A strong conservative, his view was that President Biden was at fault for not providing weapons sooner. I agree. But what about Donald Trump? As a recording of a conversation shows, Trump refused to send weapons to Ukraine unless Ukrainian President Zelensky agreed to investigate Hunter and Joe Biden. That’s one of the main reasons behind his first impeachment.
The unwarranted invasion of Ukraine has been condemned by many, many nations. A few stand out nations have not yet done so…obviously for political reasons. They include:
- Israel, a traditional United States ally, which needs the Russians to permit Israeli defensive military measures in Syria against Muslim radicals;
- India, which wants Russian assistance in regard to Pakistan, its traditional adversary; and
- China, which has sought close ties with Russia going back to Chairman Mao.
On a purely financial level, the USA has sent far more humanitarian, military and financial aid to them than any other nation. This is logical in that our economy is so much more than many nations.
However, the situation is much different when we consider support for Ukraine as a percentage of a nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). Larger givers of aid, in relation to their GDP, are Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Sweden. It is most interesting that all of these nations border Russia.
Other nations contributing significantly, but less than the USA as percentage of GDP, include (in descending order), the Czech Republic, Croatia, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany. All are NATO members.
France, Italy and Germany, the major NATO drivers, are each at less than half proportionally.
Here’s the real question: why aren’t these larger countries contributing more in funding for arms and humanitarian aid, etc, in that they are on the European continent, while we are not?
Furthermore, how can we get them to give more? What can be done about it?
So far, no one on the left or right seems to be addressing this issue. And Ukraine, valiantly defending itself against what was once thought of as a Russian powerhouse, can they pull it off? Will it eventually be the end of Putin?
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net.
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