Tag Archives: Ukraine

The Insights of Senator Tim Kaine

Posted on October 5, 2019 at 9:20 am by John Flannery |

Virginia’s US Senator Tim Kaine visited the rural lands in Loudoun County, and came by Leesburg in the early evening, to endorse local Loudoun candidates, and, among his observations, gave us a report on the ongoing impeachment inquiry from inside the belly of the beast.

No surprise, he said, telling those gathered to listen, and you may not be surprised to discover that the Senators don’t care very much for Mr. Trump.

But it is inconvenient to Republicans to risk Trump’s base, weighing that against the facts as they continue to develop. This is a challenge to any Senate Trial.

Tim said we have to do the right thing, because no one is above the law, because the constitution sets forth what we are to do, what we must do to meet our obligations under the law and constitution. Continue reading →

War madness

Posted on July 22, 2014 at 5:37 am by John Flannery |

The Dying Gaul

In a world that prefers to war, can’t get enough of it, innocents are killed, and those senseless incidents in turn provoke more war.

It happened in the Ukraine and the testosterone is running high. Ukraine calls to the West to put up or shut up with military force, not just economic sanctions. The US saber rattles in response. Partisans insist we must do more.

It could be as “simple” an error in the Ukraine as giving the separatist “freedom fighters” weapons that they should never have had. The Russians entrusted these weapons in the Ukraine conflict. They thought they’d trained them no doubt. When the plane went down, the “freedom fighters” said they’d downed a military transport. When they found out otherwise, the separatists went dark. The United States weighs giving these weapons to other “freedom fighters” in Syria.

Not only do we have to trust these people – freedom fighters – if you must – to use the weapons in a just war, whatever that is these days, we also have to trust that they really know how to use the weapons at all, under the right circumstances, and, oh yes, that they won’t lose, give or sell the weapons we supplied to be used against us.

Continue reading →

The Game of Chicken – over Kiev

Posted on March 6, 2014 at 7:26 am by John Flannery |

Pro-Russian woman waves a Russian flag in support of armed men in military fatigues in Balaklava

This involves whether we allow “them” to kill our kids in wars abroad, this time possibly in the Ukraine and Crimea, while we forego benefits here at home like education, roads, retirement, you know, peacetime benefits.

The United States has been slamming Russia, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin “ruthless,” for protecting the Crimea with Russia’s Black Sea force, and, almost everyone in our government and the media, ignores what prompted this international showdown, namely, what the U.S. was itself doing in the Ukraine with the EU, that prompted President Putin to defend Russia’s interests.

When the Ukraine President, Viktor Yanukovych, balked at signing a trade agreement on political and free trade pacts with the EU, at our insistence, and wanted instead to sign with Russia for a $15 billion dollar bailout for his bankrupt nation, President Yanukovych stunned his prospective EU “partners,” and was ousted from his office in a New York minute and fled for his life to Russia.

He was replaced as quickly by a more pliable new leader, “acting” President, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, so that he could sign the EU agreement we wanted him to sign. Continue reading →