Rolland E. Kidder

 

 

 The Post-Journal

The War In Ukraine Grinds On

LOCAL COMMENTARIES

MAR 4, 2023

ROLLAND KIDDER

 In relation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I wrote in this column some time ago that wars are easy to start but very difficult to end. We are now seeing that play out in Ukraine.

Putin miscalculated. He thought that the war would be a “slam dunk” and that his mighty Russian Army would roll over the Ukrainians. He totally misjudged the resolve of the Ukrainian people. They don’t want to go back into the Russian/Soviet orbit. They want their freedom and their own country.

I have two thoughts about President Biden’s recent secret trip to Kyiv. (1) It could provoke Putin even more in pursuing his mis-guided venture. (2) It properly reflected American resolve to not let Putin and the Russians crush eastern Europe like they have in the past.

I think both reactions are probably correct, but I would come down on the side of endorsing the President’s visit. It reminded me a bit of President Kennedy’s visit to Berlin during the height of the Cold War when he said: “Ich bin ein Berliner!” “I am a Berliner!”–a speech made to bolster West Germany after the Russians had built the Berlin Wall. In a way, President Biden was saying by his visit: “I am a Ukrainian!”

Having said that, we all should be concerned about the calamity of war, especially against a foe where there is no freedom of the press. Putin controls the media in Russia. He feeds his people what he wants them to hear, and doesn’t allow dissenting voices. This is the path of the dictator. People (think Germany or Japan in World War II) can easily be led to believe in a false narrative when their government controls the press.

Freedom is sometimes hard to describe, but it “rings bells” with people when they are threatened with having it taken away. Ukrainians have, for centuries, been under the brutal heal of Russian dictatorship. Whether it was the Czars, Communism under the old USSR, or Putin’s latest invasion– and Ukraine doesn’t want to go back to the old days of dictatorship and Russian domination. They have seen enough of democracy to know that even with its shortcomings–it is a far better governmental system to live under.

I was hopeful, back in 1985, when Chautauqua Institution sponsored its week-long conference on U.S.-Soviet relations, that things would work out differently. Unfortunately, Russia’s experience at democracy was short-lived, and the country returned to its autocratic, strong-arm approach to government. It was a time of lost opportunity.

Now, their current dictator, Vladimir Putin, has them backed into a corner with no clear outcome in sight. How can it all end? I wish we had the answer. Wars are like a tar-baby. Once they start, it is hard to end them. We have to hope that Ukrainian democracy can be saved and that, perhaps, in the end, that might even lead to another opportunity for political freedom within Russia itself.