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New 'warning to the West': beware Ukraine fatigue |
Ukrainian security forces comb through debris shortly after a strike at a residential building in Konstantanivka, Ukraine on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023. Russian shelling has killed at least eight civilians in towns and villages along the front line.
By John Freivalds
Published 1/31/2023
Minneapolis Star Tribune
The NATO defense ministers, including the government I serve, Latvia, have decided to send more weaponry to Ukraine to fight the Russians, including fancy battle tanks. There is total unanimity that the war should continue within the military leadership. They recognized that is the only way to stop President Vladimir Putin. He will not go quietly into the night and go to his villa in Sochi, drink cognac and enjoy his pension.
Not so with the public at large. While I have no fear that our military will stop seeing Russia as a threat, I fear that more broadly we are entering the stage of "Ukraine fatigue."
In Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 1975 book "Warning to The West," he writes: "Communist leaders [ex-KGB officer Putin, remember, is one] respect only firmness and have contempt for persons who continually give in to them."
For Solzhenitsyn-challenged people, he was the most prominent Russian dissident ever. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. Among his many writings "The Gulag Archipelago" was perhaps the best known, and revealed life in communist concentration camps and the inner workings of the Russian soul.
Solzhenitsyn wrote that "on our crowded planet there are no longer any internal affairs." He noted how Soviet leaders said, "Don't interfere in our internal affairs. Let us strangle our citizens in peace and quiet. But I tell you, interfere more and more. Interfere as much as you can. We beg you to come and interfere."
So how far has the enthusiasm for helping Ukraine fallen since the Russian invasion of February 2022? Two famous Minneapolis Ukrainian stores went all out. Kramarczuk's deli baked up thousands of cookies in blue and yellow, the national colors of Ukraine. And Surdyk's stocked cases of decorative bottles of Stoli vodka in Ukraine's national colors (Stoli is now made in Latvia). Stores started stocking pierogies. And throughout Minnesota, sports contests would begin with Ukraine's national anthem, with Ukrainian flags and lapel pins popping up everywhere. Russian sport teams and players were blackballed all over the world. And my own phone kept ringing with invitations to come and talk about Ukraine, NATO and Latvia with its 140-mile border with Russia.
I must admit the Ukraine war helps us Latvians make our cause and plight better known.
But we live by our fickle news and social media cycles that are more given to social issues like LBGTQ rights, the latest shooting deaths or abortion debates. We are so wrapped up in our own violence fatigue.
The war made conservative commentators angry. We need to focus on the invasion of our own borders, not the one in Ukraine, they argue. But the migrants crossing the U.S. border aren't dropping bombs and threatening to take over.
Solzhenitsyn concludes: "You have to understand the nature of Communism and the Russian mind-set. The very ideology of Communism is that anyone who doesn't take what's lying in front of him is a fool. If you can take it, do so. If you can attack, strike. That countries and entire continents continually repeat others' mistakes — with a time lag. What one people has already endured, appraised and rejected suddenly emerges among another people as the very last word. Western youth enthusiastically mouth the discredited clichés of the Russian nineteenth century, thinking that they are uncovering something new."
Let us end with these sobering thoughts from Solzhenitsyn as we go about our daily lives buying groceries and gas and taking our kids to school. "I understand that you love freedom, but in our crowded world you have to pay a tax for freedom. You cannot love freedom for yourselves alone and quietly agree to a situation where the majority of humanity spread out over the greater part of the globe is subject to violence and oppression."
John Freivalds, of Wayzata, is honorary consul of Latvia in Minnesota.
Here is what the people are saying!
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JoeQuattro |
We can supply Ukraine with the weapons they need to defeat Putin because if we don’t, we'll be sending young Americans to Europe again to destroy him. They should've listened to Patton at the end of WWII because his prediction is close to becoming true.
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johnmorris |
Right on, Sir. Long live freedom in Ukraine, and in our world. Let’s do what it takes to stop Mr Putin’s aggression. |
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AbortionRox |
Meanwhile as we fight into another never ending war driven by NeoCon's in Washington and absent minded public....China has invested another trillion across our hemisphere to lock up rare earth minerals development rights to secure 100% control of the EV future. We spend trillions on wars we lose. China invests trillions on securing land and political influence...right in our own backyard. When truth is stranger than fiction...here it is. |
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atfateshands |
Uh, under Trump there were no new wars. Biden's elected and all heck breaks loose, we've already sent $100B in aid and weapons to the Ukraine and hastily pulled out of several middle eastern theaters where the Taliban and ISIS had been on the run. But yeah, it's always those darned "neo-cons" waging war. Ironic the party who used to be military hawks are now the ones endorsing, supplying and arming countries in several proxy wars. |
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John E |
Well said. |
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LakesMN612 |
You say we are distracted by social issues like LBGTQ rights and should instead focus on Ukraine. To some of us that is a fight for freedom and is sad that you see it differently. I guess going forward I will call it a social issue in Ukraine as that is all it is. |
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atfateshands |
FYI the LGB community has already fought and won their rights. It's the toxic trans community who's forced their way into the community and hijacked everything the people who survived AIDS/HIV and fought and died for. The trans community feels they should be put at the head of the line in order to push the progressive ideology on schools, parents and entire communities, forcing them to accept whatever it is they believe in - which seems to change daily. The REAL fatigue is the LGB community being associated with these people and constantly having to tell people trans people absolutely do not represent them or their communities. |
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Abortion Rox |
I'm reading "The Stupidity of War" right now. An interesting read. Applies here. This war was 100% avoidable but the principals... Joe Biden and Putin...both had egos the size of their nations. This war was always going to end with the same result. Russia gets the land bridge to Crimea and the Donbas. |
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parlj |
We need to immediately supply the Ukraine with longer range missiles and fighter jets. |
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Truckman182 |
Then you escalate the war. In World War II the Russians in 1941 were essentially done. The only thing that saved them was Stalin was willing to throw 10's of millions of his army's lives at the invading Nazi's without a care in the world. Putin is cut from the same cloth. He will everything he has at the West if he has no other options.... |
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Austinalum |
NATO needs to intervene directly and get this war over with. If Russia is to be eliminated as a threat to the west, now is the opportunity. Putin is weak in his support and his military is weak in strength so now is the best opportunity NATO will ever have to end Russian plans for expansion. |
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Truckman182 |
Putin's back is against the wall. Keep pushing him and he will use tactical nukes. Then what? |
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rshackleford |
Good observation...happens during the history of most wars...timing this article is everything. Some complain about 'the money'. Those people do not understand momentum or the domino effect. They also speak like if a tank rolled over their home here in Minnesota, they would just run away! |
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mmedia |
The Consul is correct: “You probe with bayonets: if you find mush, you push. If you find steel, you withdraw” ― Vladimir Ilich Lenin |
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fatperson |
What a fantastic, well- reasoned warning to us. Don’t get complacent. |