If you think showing up in war torn Kyiv is a brave act of solidarity, you might also be wondering like I am that it is fast becoming also an act of media celebrity.
Jill Biden was there over the weekend, and before that, President Macron and Prime Minister Johnson and Prime Minister Trudeau, and Speaker Pelosi and the Presidents of Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Estonia, and the UN and EU leaders. Who will be next? Bono and Pink and the Rolling Stones? Actually Bono wrote a lame poem for Pelosi to recite, saying Zelensky is now the new Saint Patrick. Vanity Fair will probably do a red carpet edition on it, and ask Annie Leibovitz to take the photos.
The photo-ops are one more hint that the war in Ukraine is being staged for prime time, and that the wall to wall coverage, the 7 pages of essays and analysis in today’s Washington Post that have become the pattern, are reflections of something other than our deep commitment to this courageous people suffering war and oppression.
One need only think back to the impeachment saga when the then USA President decided that Ukraine was so weak that we could blackmail it to dig up dirt on the Bidens. Ukraine did not reflect any national interest of ours, but its exploitability was too good to ignore. We could blame Ukraine for hacking the 2016 USA election. We could send Mayor Giuliani here to get dirt and be crime consultant for Kyiv police, and fire our USA Ambassador there with no fuss. Paul Manafort who ran Trumps election campaign got his start running the President of Ukraine’s campaign and was paid a secret 12 million for it. He was supporting the pro-Russia leader of Ukraine, Yanukovych and getting paid handsomely for it. But it’s not just Trump’s ties to Russia. Back in the Obama days, we got caught conspiring in the 2014 coup to get our man in power. And when the tapes became public, our diplomats were brazen about it, hardly a hint of shame. We have no shame when it comes to Ukraine. They are our pawn, in war or in peace. Let’s admit it- Biden is using them as shamelessly as Trump.
Ukraine is fighting a brave fight to not become the tool of Russia. But make no mistake. At some point, Zelensky will have to fight to prevent Ukraine from becoming the tool of the USA. We are not ploughing funds and fire into Ukraine because of any deep sympathy, despite our rhetoric. Here is a chance to move Ukraine Westward, to put her in our column of Pro- Western democracies and to enlarge the NATO circle. That of course pisses off Russia, but that is precisely the point. We are on a win here, and we don’t even have to fight. What is not to like?
The end game is hard to see. We want Zelensky to be as bullish as he can be about no surrender, no giving up of territory, no compromise. And if that means the rest of Ukraine that Ukraine controls is going to be battered and bruised for the next 5 years, then brave Ukraine will do it. We will send care packages. Hillary Clinton will pay for an insurgency. But Russia is increasing its control over the Eastern territories. There will be no let up till Putin achieves that border defensive zone that he can control. Do the allies want Ukraine to wage a campaign to take back lost territory? Is that the end game? If it is, how many more dead will that cost them, not us?
If a real war is going on, nations do not send Presidents and Prime Ministers into combat zones and risk being killed. If a real war is being supported, then allies do more than cheer their side on. They put manpower, fighters for the fight. If a real war is going on, there needs to be an equally real quest for peace, or a cease fire that puts the interests of the victims first, not the political agenda of the West and their VIP leaders.
The lives of the Ukraine people are more precious than any ideology. They might want to fight on to the death, at the risk of losing everything they are fighting for, but let them decide that, not us and not our photo-opping, media shopping celebrities who are watching the polls.
