Ye Editor's Ukraine Rap -- Have We Done Anything Right Concerning Ukraine ?

As Ye Editor, my "job" is to find about ten good articles for my three blogs every day.  Once in a while I can't find what I'm looking for, and then do actual work. I  write my own rap. To reduce the work, the raps are always first drafts, and I never proofread for typing errors -- I blame them on the  computer, and hope the wife spots them when she reads the blog. Or as leftists would call my blog raps: conservative ranting and raving.

 

Off topic:  I've been listening to rap music (four channels of Music Choice on COMCAST cable TV) for about an hour. I've was tuning the frequency of the bass ports on the speakers I built for our TV, and needed bass heavy music. The wife and I noticed we can barely understand any of the lyrics in rap music released in the last 10 years. Unlike 1980s and 1990s rap releases. And we decided that was good news! 

 

 

 

 

 

I am very annoyed the US did not do anything to prevent the Ukraine war when there were 100,000 Russian troops on the Ukraine border. Russia wanted a pledge that Ukraine would never join NATO. That was easy enough. NATO has not asked Ukraine to join in the past 25 years anyway.  Russia knows that a NATO country may contain a US air force base equipped with nuclear bombs. There are six such US air force bases in European NATO member nations. One base is in Turkey, which is not far from the Russian border. Ukraine is on the Russian border. If they became a NATO member, the US might have constructed a new air force base there, for a seventh air base equipped with nuclear weapons.

Then there was the Ukraine military attack on the Donbas region of Ukraine, with over 13,000 dead since 2014.  That conflict needed to be stopped for a long time before Russia decided to stop it. 

 In 1994 the US and UK pledged to defend Ukraine with the Budapest Agreement, in return for Ukraine giving their nuclear weapons to Russia, which they did by 2016. A big mistake. No other nation will ever give up nuclear weapons again! 

 A better US leader would have warned Russia that Ukraine WOULD be defended if attacked. And moved some military assets toward Ukraine before Russia attacked. Jumpin' Joe Biden is not that leader.  I bet Trump would have done that. Bullies like Putin react to military strength, and definitive statements and actions about using that strength. Bullies are not scared off by a threat economic sanctions", or appeasement. That the US failed to defend Ukraine must make people in Taiwan uncomfortable as China continues their sabre rattling.

I just spent an hour searching through the online Russian mainstream media to see what's being said about how the Russian military is doing in Ukraine, the effect of economic sanctions on Russia, and Putin's current favorable / unfavorable ratings in polls. That's an hour I'll never get back -- I did not trust what I found. It would be like me expecting the US mainstream media to have had honest reporting on the US progress in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, or how many adverse side effects were caused by the Covid vaccines in 2021.  I did find a good article from a reporter in Russia who knows what he is talking about. That article follows, and also inspired, this Ukraine rap.

Russia supplies natural resources and food the world needs. The sanctions do not include natural resources. They can not be replaced easily or quickly. The sanctions are significantly hurting the Russian economy, but also driving Russia closer to China, which is not good news. 

India is going to be buying more Russian commodities. Few nations in the world, other than the United States, Europe and Australia, are participating in the economic sanctions. And with those few participants (yellow nations on the map below), oil and gas are excluded. With the war disrupting the 2022 Ukraine wheat crop (normally lots of exports), along with a fertilizer and diesel fuel shortage, Russian wheat exports in 2020 are very unlikely to be sanctioned.

With the Biden Administration, every decision is a mistake. They are consistent. The sanctions on Russia are no exception. They were announced with no specific details on what Russia must do, and when, to end them. There are no specific requirements and dates. Russia may have the impression the sanctions will be permanent, or at least the end date will be arbitrary. Therefore, withdrawing all their troops from Ukraine would not end them.

In Ukraine, the normally huge wheat exports are going to be significantly reduced because of farmers involved in the war, and diesel fuel and fertilizer shortages. Of course Russia has plenty of fertilizer, and will have plenty of wheat to export. Seizing the nation of Ukraine, to add those wheat fields to the Russian wheat farm "portfolio", would make Russia the world wheat powerhouse.  I don't expect them to do that, but it's always possible

Russia had justification for trying to stop the eight years of Ukrainian military attacks (13,000 dead) on Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the eastern Ukraine "state" of Donbas. A state that wanted independence from Ukraine since 2014. 

And Russia has been warning they don't want Ukraine to be a NATO member ever since Ukraine began talking with NATO in 1997. Meanwhile, Ukraine was NOT part of NATO in 2022, just like in 2021. Nothing changed in 2022.  Ukraine has been on the verge of joining NATO for 25 years!

The conflict in the Donbas region, and the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO some day, did not justify a Russian attack on any part of Ukraine outside of Donbas.  I believe Zelenskyy is now willing to sacrifice Donbas to end the war. Which Ukraine is losing, and will certainly lose, unless Russia suddenly decides to give up, and goes home. But that's not Putin's style. That Zelenskyy wanted to fight Russia, with no hope of winning, proves he is insane, and should be removed from office by the Ukrainian people.

Zelenskyy spent many years poking the "Russian Bear" with a stick and then seemed surprised when they attacked.  Even with 100,000 Russian troops on the border during the coldest part of the winter, Zelenskyy seemed to have no clue.  He must of thought the Russians were just camping out, on vacation, roasting marshmallows, and singing Kumbaya?  Not massing for an attack on Ukraine!  And Zelensky was also surprised when the US and UK ignored the 1994 Budapest Agreement, with which both nations pledged to support Ukraine with military force if attacked.  They didn't.  

The US and UK could have told Russia before the attack began that they WERE going to defend Ukraine. Even if that was only a bluff.  I bet it would have worked if Trump was president. Putin left Ukraine alone when Trump was president. Not so when Obama / Biden were in office (Crimea was attacked and captured in 2014), or with Biden as president (Ulraine was viciously attacked in 2022)

American companies that shut down their Russian businesses made a mistake. They threw 100,000 ordinary Russians out of work And they are hurting themselves if they have abandoned their Russian assets. The same corporations never even thought of shutting down American businesses, even temporarily, to protest the vicious US attack if Iraq after 9/11. 

We all knew at the time that Saddam Hussein had no connection with the 9/11 attack. The vicious US attack on Iraq in 2003 was no more justified than the 2022 Russian attack on Ukraine.  But I guess with our new fascism in the US, the US corporations will do whatever the government wants them to do, without question?
Ye Editor

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