Ukraine at the Crossroads

 Arming Ukraine is the next test for the Western alliance in defense of Europe. The economic aid package that began in February will slowly help stabilize the economy. There is more than a military confrontation at stake in the battle for Donbass. The western sanctions have torn a hole in the Russian economy and once again exposed it for the paper tiger that it is. Despite years to diversify, it remains solidly stuck in the effort to keep burning fossil fuels despite the global dangers of climate change.

Ballots are More Powerful than Bullets
While Russia's military bristles and it is the assertive part of Russian power, it is still an army and its only useful for destroying things. When there is a need to rebuild and heal, then the dear resources are not bombs and bullets, but hospitals, food, and medicines. The economic power to build buildings and shelter masses will matter far more then the power to knock them down. Russia is lacking and will be for years to come  so deeply have the banking systems, sanctions, and deprivations wounded this predator.

 Grow Ukraine
Ukraine can deliver a blow for western freedom. If the west can join its needs for growth and the opportunity presented in Ukraine's potentially vibrant markets,then there is a combination that leads to victory. That a people on the doorstep of the Russian war machine could find uts own way, and its own way to a western style economy would be a devastating blow to Russia.  Russia has set itself as the arbiter of life in Ukraine and the other former Russian colonies in the Baltic and eastern Europe. Living well, and in the style chosen through a transparent democratic process would be the best revenge.

Economic Investment in Ukraine
We can see Ukraine as a fashion and arts area, an area with technology growth and Silicon Valley style Information Age industries. We can see them producing energy and alternative energy products; there on the border of one of the world's leading exporters of hydrocarbon pollutants. This would be a more effective arming of Ukraine than boatloads of tanks and defensive weaponry. The economic enabling effort will pay a deep and lasting dividend for the West.

Democracy Infrastructure
 Harnessing the patriotism and fervor that holds Ukraine against an impossible enemy is a worthy goal. Ukrainians must do this for themselves in the localized languages and traditions that also matter a great deal. Democracy will be born in a rough and uneven manner in Ukraine as it has been elsewhere, everywhere. But that is the way it should be, the give and take becomes the glue that keeps everyone focused on the outcome. Consensus is only valuable if  one can constantly test its validity. That is the measure of democracy, its usefulness in creating change for the benefit of the people. The fluid dynamics of democracy- need channels and platforms in Ukraine.

 Author's Note:
I recently visited Kiev  in late August, it was around the Independence Day celebration. The atmosphere in the Maidan was noticeable. Upbeat and optimistic, but most of all determined and patriotic. It mattered to be a Ukrainian, and it mattered that there was a celebration in Maidan where a beginning took hold. Democracy is a messy business, and as in many cases it comes in a delicate and tenuous beginning. So in Ukraine, a young nation, there are signs of the birth of democracy; it is the uneven and awkward stumbling, like a foal walking on shaky, new legs. The image of the newborn foal seems so appropriate because there is a counter vision of a hungered wolf. The spectre of Russian aggression as the wounded hunter seeks prey that it does not need, the callous wolf stalks on the East.

Bright sunny days and parades filled the festive square but everywhere were emblems of the fallen heroes, The men and women whose spirits remain in the cobblestone slopes of Instituts Street and the grand concourse. The soaring monolith symbolizes freedom and the fountain statues honor the legendary founders of Kiev. Fountains cool the warm legs and feet of smiling children who get raised up high to post their patriotic artwork on rows and rows of bulletin boards. Everything seems wheat field gold and sky blue.

There is fighting in the East. Casualties roll into Mechnikov Hospital in Dnipropetrovsk daily and surgeons toil to reap life from the ruins of battle. But here, there is sunshine and smiling mothers holding babies. Crowds surround street shows and everyone pauses to speak and respond to the call to courage. Everywhere there  are men in camouflage gear, and they remind that the day is pleasant but the greater day has not been won. Optimism and courage blend like the colors of the flag.  Early in this morning from the balcony of Hotel Ukraine, one could see a great banner marched up the step cobblestone hill. Along the memorials for the angels of the uprising, across the sane stones that ran red and felt the scorched heat of fires, hundreds of hands lift a block-long banner; it is the flag for which many endured so much suffering.

Democracy Ablaze

It appeared those ghastly fires in EuroMajdan to be a Nation falling into ruin, civil war had begun from peaceful protests and harsh dictatorial reactions.  The Puppet Man in charge of Government allowed the strings to show, and the people- even the people who supported  Yanukovych  were appalled at his weakness.
It is true today that most Ukrainians prefer the Devil That They Know- Russia and all of her faults to the unknowns of affiliation with the West. The Orange Revolution not so far in the past that the excesses of market freedoms have been forgotten...yet, there was the protest, that grew, and was strengthened by the puny Puppet Man. The repression because he had been told to do so, the turn away from the West - because he had been told to do so, and the voices of his people that he ignored-- because he had been ordered to ignore his people.

Yulia  Tymoshenko is free and She promises to be a force, as well she should. There are many others, and as the paroxysms of birth wring and tug at the very heart of this young nation, there will be new faces and new ideas. Someone will emerge who can stand astride the divide between a too satisfied east and a too hungered west.

We have seen the chasm, the abyss in Independence Square- the brave men and women who hurled stones and bombs for freedom, put body and life in the balance- we have seen. Brave men were slaughtered like their lives did not matter- precision executions, bullets to the head, deadly snipers, high-powered rifles against stones and bottles of petrol. We watched the last gasps of life of so many, writhing in the rhythm of death by gunshot, and each one-- a child of some loving eyes, a father to a hopeful child, a brother and companion, lover of some part of today and tomorrow.

We saw the fires of Independence Square and watched piles or rubble burn to defend a dream. Today, with hope and sadness, the dream rises from scorched cobblestones and deep red stains.
Love heals the wounds of war; love binds the living truth to the fallen. There is a burden now as a nation moves forward, a fresh debt to lives given for a hope. It is sobering and it is sacred, and for the love of freedom, it is now.