Was Mick Jagger Right all Those Years Ago? Don't Kid Yourself Otherwise.

When it comes to Ukraine there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of political sophistication or historical perspective going on either in Washington or in commentary.  There exist long standing resentments among Ukrainians against Russia and look standing coveting of Ukraine's agricultural capacity by Russia.

Those of my generation might be well served by pulling out that old Rolling Stones song "Sympathy For The Devil" and giving it a very careful listen.  I doubt Jagger knew how prescient his words would be, but history is funny like that.

In the end the combination of Ukraine's lack of political sophistication, largely due to centuries of Russian repression, and long standing Russian paranoia and insecurity are proving a deadly mix.

All the former Soviet satellite states didn't declare their independence out love for their Russian occupiers.  When they became an independent, sovereign nation Ukraine gave up their former Soviet nukes in exchange for a US guarantee of their territorial integrity.  If we think this situation is scary now, imagine what it would be like if they were facing each other down with nuclear arsenals.


Putin is not just a "former" communist but "former" KGB as well. such is hardly the ground where one would expect anything but the foulest of seeds to grow.  Anyone who thinks that Putin is simply looking out for ethnic Russians in Ukraine is a fool.

The combination and confluence of "pro-Putinism" (to coin a phrase) and naked anti-Semitism is truly frightening.  The Russians were deliberately starving millions of Ukrainians to death and packing millions more into boxcars headed for the Gulag long before the SS cranked up their ovens.  The only difference was that the communists knew what they were doing was criminal and they weren't so stupid as to keep records of the millions they slaughtered.


Someone once said after the defeat of the Nazis, and I paraphrase here, "Don't rejoice in your victory, you have defeated the bastard for now, but the bitch who bore him is always in heat."  That next generation of evil is stalking in the Ukraine and the middle east.  Don't kid yourself otherwise.