The Feeble Case Against Ukrainian Aid
“We used to call Ukraine a Captive Nation, and would pray for its liberation. Now that it has liberated itself and Moscow is waging bloody war to reconquer it, those who are urging us to be indifferent or hostile to its cause need to offer better arguments than they have so far.” - L&L
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....is what to do with the Russian Orthodox Church as its "parent" structure in Russia has obviously been corrupted by the KGB/FSB. In looking at its page on wiki, I see a lot about the political machinations of the patriarchs and its splits with other Orthodox churches, but precious little about its theology. I would guess it's a politicized Eastern Orthodox Church.
I see a fair number of the Orthodox churches being autonomous, but I would still guess that in Ukraine, there will be a fair amount of soul-searching and expulsion of Russia-friendly priests after this war ends.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
What is shocking is that the Republican party is the party seeking to end aid. When did the Republican party ever step back from Russia? O, how the party has shifted. I think many Republicans are opposed to it because Trump is opposed to it. And Trump is opposed to it, because the Ukrainians have not turned over evidence that would convict Hunter or the President, and therefore he seeks to use this as leverage. Frankly, I don't understand the utter infactuation that the Republicans have with Hunter. Give it a rest and start working for the people.
No one has audited the money & weapons already sent. How has all that money been used? The Ukrainian gov't is notoriously corrupt. Russia should be opposed, but not knowing how the money/weapons have been used is irresponsible. Several stories about weapons sold on black market, gov't officials buying expensive cars & homes.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
Wally, my take is that the historic corruption in Ukraine, which is a real issue, is because the FSB (successor to the old KGB) has been working hard to call the shots in Ukraine and other nations whose languages are close enough to Russian for them to infiltrate. For example, when Victor Yanukovych reneged on his campaign promise to seek integration into the EU and instead aligned with Russia (clear double cross), and the Ukrainian people kicked him out, guess who gave him a nice dacha outside Moscow? He was clearly on the take from the FSB.
Really, if you track the ability of former Soviet Republics to create their own destinies and political systems, and their ability to mitigate and avoid corruption, it really correlates well with a couple of things. First, is the predominant language difficult for Russians to speak and understand? Second, did the nation open up the files of their local secret police to uncover KGB/FSB operations and remove them? East Germans surrounded the Stasi HQ to do exactly that, and they're doing better than almost anyone else that used to live under Soviet domination. There's a lesson there.
Or, put more bluntly, the fact that Vlodymyr Zelensky (sp?) is still alive gives us a good hint that Ukraine has significantly solved the problem of the FSB, which gives us in turn a good hint about a new approach to removing corruption.
Finally, yes, the U.S. is monitoring the weapons shipments to Ukraine and how they are used, and I'm unaware of a single non-Russian-sympathetic news source which has presented credible evidence of diversion. Pro tip; if your news source is citing Moscow Pravda sympathetically, ditch it.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I’m ok with supporting Ukraine IF:
- We must account for it. How is it being spent?
- We have sent between 70 and 113 billion dollars* to Ukraine.
- We must mandate that this money goes to defense. Not funding Ukrainian pensions, etc.
* Compare 113 Billion to the amount Trump wanted to spend on a border wall: 5 billion. That “ballooned” to an estimated 15 billion (IIRC) that would be needed to finish it.
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