
By: Mark Linnhoefer
There’s some heavy ideological shit going down in the Eastern Ukraine. A huge part of the population feels closer to its Russian descent than its modern-day Ukrainian heritage, and who are we to judge?
None of us are even remotely in a position to actually comprehend this inner conflict the people of Ukraine are struggling with, and yet every major news station is claiming to have some sort of deep insight to this identity crisis: either there is no crisis and it’s all Russia’s fault, or those damned separatists are just extremists guided by blind rage and murderous desires. Nobody – or at least not many in the mainstream media – has considered that the rebels are actually so displeased with their government that they long for independence or prefer joining Russia to being sandbagged into the European Union. And with Poroshenko and his Nazi-esque regime entirely under US/EU/NATO’s control, revolution seemed like the only way out for the Ukrainian citizens that are now being shot down by the very army that should be there to protect them.
And as if civil war wasn’t a big enough sign of a clear anti-EU stance within the population, the Ukrainian parliament is actually starting to implement laws allowing for an emergency IMF bailout loan to be taken on by the Ukraine. That bailout would naturally come with the same – or at least similar – austerity provisions as the Greek bailout. Well, if you want to completely fuck a nation up, that’s the way to go: get it nicely indebted and impose austerity measures that would decrease spending, which, seeing as the country is in a state of war, would firstly and most heavily affect medical and social programs, so that you get a ruined nation with starving and dying people trying to kill each other.
I mean for Fuck’s sake, how morally bankrupt are those IMF bastards? We have seen how fucking well the frugal bailout program has worked in Greece, haven’t we? And the Greek weren’t even in midst of a civil war when the austerity provisions attached to their bailout money ripped the leftovers of their economy to shreds. So how disastrous will the effect on the Ukraine be? I for one am pretty sure I don’t want to find out. But, alas, it looks as if we are all going to witness the outcome of this madness soon enough. Then again, maybe the bailout fund won’t be used for military equipment and will finance new hospitals and increase social spending, but I highly doubt that will happen, seeing as these things are usually of the least concern for a politician trying to piece back together a nation torn apart by civil war when it’s actually at the point that they should be of the highest priority. I mean, you can’t unite shit if you can’t keep it healthy and living above the poverty line, can you?
Let us go back to the ideology at work in this dilemma: no matter who ends up “winning” this war, the result will be the same if the Ukrainian parliament decides to take the IMF loan and implement the austerity measures. The country emerging from this conflict will be facing the same rut the Greek are currently caught in. It will be financially dependent on the IMF and therefore also the ECB and EU, which will in all likelihood result in an even further increase in polarization within the voting population, and eventually once again lead to extremism or war.
“Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can”. It seems as though the people at the IMF are very fond of Gatsby’s idea of just rewinding the tape and starting all over again. A dangerous way of thinking that can lead to a barely attended funeral, as we all know. And it’s even more dangerous considering there’s an entire nation’s future at stake. Let’s fantasize for a second: The Ukraine takes the IMF’s loan, uses it to strengthen its army, and finally squashes the rebel uprisings. How long do you think it will take for the poor souls left in the burned-out remnants of their country to rise to arms again? Their houses left in ruins, their families killed, and the IMF dictating austerity measures with their government supporting it. I don’t think it would take them long under those circumstances. The Greek were better off, and it didn’t take them too long to start protesting and voting extremes….
This ‘civil war’ is a proxy war for the US/EU versus Russia, and those suffering from their war games and spheres of influence are the people of the Ukraine. And now the IMF, a bank mind you, is trying to get its dirty little paws in there too, in order to create a financial dependency that might very well result in yet another violent upheaval in the Ukraine should the current one end any time soon.
This thing is spiraling out of control like a bad acid trip, and the come-down is not even remotely in sight yet. I have written about it so many times, and a lot of people much more influential than myself have done so too, but it does not seem to be getting to anyone. The mayhem just goes on, the propaganda intensifies, and those holding the strings to this dystopian puppet show are safe and secure in their huge-ass offices, far away from any actual bloodshed.
Let’s get Obama, Merkel, Putin, Juncker, and Poroshenko into a SmackDown/RAW kind of cage and let them fight it out. That would be interesting to see. Putin ripping Merkel’s head off, Juncker beaten to a pulp by Obama whilst smashing Poroshenko’s skull in…. But I digress. The point is that everyone is so hell-bent on seeing the bigger picture that no one has stopped to think about the civilians, the innocent people, that are being slaughtered on a daily basis for the interests of a few.
The identity crisis in the East of the Ukraine is very real, the people no longer feel represented by their official government and are therefore turning to violent solutions. They feel as though Russia is closer to their understanding of their culture and are easily manipulated into playing a role they did not necessarily want: they’re now seen as – and perhaps actually are to some extent – Putin’s answer to the West, his private pseudo-secret rebellion squad, which in turn makes them into enemies in the eyes of America and NATO, leading to Cold War style armament on both sides. NATO is increasing the number of troops in its platoons for “interventions” in Eastern Europe, the rebels are taking more cities, and the general climate is beginning to turn very ugly. Dangerously ugly, if we’re being honest. I for one am getting a cold fear-filled shiver every time the word “Ukraine” appears in my news feed, because each report could very well read that Moscow has finally snapped and actually sent troops to assist the rebels. If that happens there will be NATO platoons and US bombings all over the place, and it might very well be the start of a third world war. I dare say that the situation is dire enough to justify this seemingly unlikely prediction. I pray that I’m wrong and that a viable, non-military solution to the Ukrainian identity crisis will be found, though I am unfortunately unable to offer one myself.
All I can do is urge each and everyone reading this to make more and more people aware of this conflict, so that maybe there will be enough public support to have some sort of leverage against these war-mongering bastards. We need to clearly show that we’re not fooled by their propaganda, that we do not endorse any military actions or undiplomatic aggression on either side, that we want peace. Let the people decide, not some detached politicians and war-hungry bankers. Selah.