The Russian Invasion of the Ukraine

I have just watched this message sent to the world by the Ukrainian President. https://mobile.twitter.com/p_zalewski/status/1497084857029120007

It touched me deeply. I have friends whose parents, grandparents, or great grandparents were Ukrainian immigrants to Canada. Some still have family in Ukraine.

Most of the ordinary citizens of the world say we just want peace. I think few ever actually delve into history, or backgrounds, or current issues. Most only pay attention to politics when our own beliefs are under attack or our own safety is in some kind of jeopardy, or to foreign affairs when news headlines about atrocities happening elsewhere are shouted in 6-centimetre-high letters for whatever period of time allows that headline to be the ‘news’ until it’s replaced by something more horrific happening elsewhere. So, most of the time, almost none of us know what’s really going on politically outside our own realms, or even inside our realms. I’m among those ordinary citizens.

We should have learned from history. Throughout history, every powerful country has used deception and force to take over another country’s territory. In Canada, in the U.S., and in Australia, it was British colonists and military in the beginning of the European takeover of those countries who slaughtered and displaced Indigenous people and took their territory. Spain also had a part to play in taking territory in North and South America and wiping out Indigenous tribes. Recently, China has taken over Tibet and Hong Kong, and is looking to take Taiwan. And Russia has taken over the Crimea.

In 1939, Hitler's forces marched into country after country; took them over and tortured and murdered their citizens. When England finally declared war with Germany, England thought she was alone in her war. But England hadn't done anything to stop Hitler until it was threatened. Canadians enlisted to fight Germany because Canada was loyal to the British Crown. The U.S. didn't get into WW11 until after Pearl Harbor was bombed, and their main offensives were in the Pacific theater, against Japan and her allies because it was Japan who attacked them. Russia didn't become an ally to Britain and move against Germany until German forces reached St. Petersburg. From 1939-1941 Russia was a German ally, and Russia had committed horrific atrocities in helping Germany eradicate Polish citizens and carve up the country.

(https://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/insights/soviet-role-world-war-ii-realities-and-myths)

The propaganda released by aggressors to their citizens to justify their actions when they invade someone else’s territory is prodigious and compelling, and dissenters within the aggressors’ countries to the invasion of other countries are usually swiftly and brutally silenced. Like what is happening in Russia now.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/police-arrest-anti-war-protesters-russia-feb-27-1.63664.

I pray the Ukrainians can hold their own! Because I doubt any other country will do anything to stop Russia other than impose sanctions, unless Putin's forces press into NATO countries.

And that makes me very, very sad. Please world, stop Putin!