UKRAINE: ONE YEAR LATER
|| By RON PAUL ||It was one year ago last weekend that a violent coup overthrew the legally elected government of Ukraine. That coup was not only supported by the United States and European Union governments — much of it was actually planned by them. Looking back at the events that led to the overthrow it is clear that without foreign intervention Ukraine would not be in its current, seemingly hopeless situation.
By the end of 2013, Ukraine’s economy was in ruins. The government was desperate for an economic bailout and then-president Viktor Yanukovych first looked west to the US and EU before deciding to accept an offer of help from Russia. Residents of south and east Ukraine, who largely speak Russian and trade extensively with Russia were pleased with the decision. West Ukrainians who identify with Poland and Europe began to protest. Ukraine is a deeply divided country and the president came from the eastern region.
At this point the conflict was just another chapter in Ukraine’s difficult post-Soviet history. There was bound to be some discontent over the decision, but if there had been no foreign intervention in support of the protests you would likely not be reading this column today. The problem may well have solved itself in due time rather than escalated into a full-out civil war. But the interventionists in the US and EU won out again, and their interventionist project has been a disaster.
The protests at the end of 2013 grew more dramatic and violent and soon a steady stream of US and EU politicians were openly participating, as protesters called for the overthrow of the Ukrainian government. Senator John McCain made several visits to Kiev and even addressed the crowd to encourage them.
Imagine if a foreign leader like Vladimir Putin or Bashar al-Assad came to Washington to encourage protesters to overthrow the Obama Administration!
As we soon found out from a leaked telephone call, the US ambassador in Kiev and Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, was making detailed plans for a new government in Kiev after the legal government was overthrown with their assistance.
The protests continued to grow but finally on February 20th of last year a European delegation brokered a compromise that included early elections and several other concessions from Yanukovych. It appeared disaster had been averted, but suddenly that night some of the most violent groups, which had been close to the US, carried out the coup and Yanukovych fled the country.
When the east refused to recognize the new government as legitimate and held a referendum to secede from the west, Kiev sent in tanks to force them to submit. Rather than accept the will of those seeking independence from what they viewed as an illegitimate government put in place by foreigners, the Obama administration decided to blame it all on the Russians and began imposing sanctions!
That war launched by Kiev has lasted until the present, with a ceasefire this month brokered by the Germans and French finally offering some hope for an end to the killing. More than 5,000 have been killed and many of those were civilians bombed in their cities by Kiev.
What if John McCain had stayed home and worried about his constituents in Arizona instead of non-constituents 6,000 miles away? What if the other US and EU politicians had done the same? What if Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt had focused on actual diplomacy instead of regime change?
If they had done so, there is a good chance many if not all of those who have been killed in the violence would still be alive today. Interventionism kills.
Ron Paul is a former U.S. Congressman from Texas and the leader of the pro-liberty, pro-free market movement in the United States. His weekly column – reprinted with permission – can be found here.
30 comments
As Spaniards deceived Indians on gold. As «assurances states» of Ukraine deceived on the nuclear weapon, their assurances zero, as zero arms supplies. Nice work Obama! Comrade Putin will probably give you a “Hero of the USSR” medal.
How do you figure? Last time I checked this is a European issue. The Pope gets a mole you gonna blame Obama for that too? And what’s the big deal, Russia is a two-bit little regional power. Their entire GDP is equal to one month of ours. Brazil is a larger power than Russia, and the Chinese are ignoring them. Putin’s little tantrum of “look at me, I’m important” are not very impressive. So he wants to support some fight over 50 square miles of sunflower farms. Holy cow – re-instate the draft. The sky is falling, the world is over. Geesh!!! Slap him with sanctions, provide the Ukrainians with top-notch airpower and long range artillery and when the time is ripe, take the crap back. You want to slap Putin around, force the Russians to face what they are, a third-world developing country with a rusting infrastructure and a third-rate military.
“You want to slap Putin around, force the Russians to face what they are, a third-world developing country with a rusting infrastructure and a third-rate military.”
Easy as pie!
Just like Iraq, except for some nukes.
“Mission Accomplished!”
It was one year ago last weekend that a violent coup overthrew the legally elected government of Ukraine.
So Ron Paul is a Putin fan? Who would have thought that.
Jesus Christ, are you that dense? Opposing regime change and/or intervention into domestic Ukrainian politics and supporting the Putin regime are not one and the same. And it’s funny how no one seems to ask who the pro-Russian Ukrainians are fighting? The U.S. got in bed with a group called Right Sector, which originated out of the ashes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought with the Nazi’s against the Soviets in WW2. The Right Sector combines militant nationalism with soccer hooliganism to attract support from Western Ukrainians. Really nice guys.
Oh, I think taking this back to WW2 is a bit much. The Ukraniane president a year ago was a puppett for Putin. When he attempted to move to have closer ties with the EU for economic growth reasons, Putin forced him to pull back. Most Ukrainians wanted to get closer to the EU to get their economy going. They rejected control from Moscow that hurt them economically, and so they had the government collapse with demonstrations (a revolution if you will) and we were right to support them. Now that said, we would be foolish to think that either side in this conflict are Nice Guys. But Ukraine does have a right to elect its own government, and a right to replace its own government. Which they did. Putin uses this because he thinks Russia got screwed over by the West, and it’s a great narrative because everything that goes wrong he blames on the West.
So basically you are saying Ukrainians have a right to elect its own government, as long as the government is approved by the West. I guess you missed that article showing how Joe Biden’s son now owns a majority share in the oil fields seized by the “pro-Ukrainian” Westerners during the coup. Just like Iraq, Saddam is a “bad guy” so it is perfectly ok for the US to go in there, kill people, and take their oil. Or go into Afghanistan and start growing more opium. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Might makes Right!
They have a right to elect their own government based on whomever they want. They also have the right to remove them. That’s what they did. Ownership of anything is irrelevent. They elected the pro-Russian guy, got rid of him, and elected someone else. As for Saddam, he was a nothing. We should have never gone in there. We didn’t do a coup in Ukraine, they did it themselves.
“We didn’t do a coup in Ukraine, they did it themselves.”
LMAO!
It was an obvious CIA sponsored coup:
http://www.targetliberty.com/2015/02/ukraine-important-back-story.html
No need for chem trails, you Paulbots are already crazy without them.
There’s nothing that brings out the crazy in you more than a Ron Paul article. It’s like catnip for you.
We can always count on multiple ranting posts and the creative “wRong Paul” moniker from you.
It never gets old.
Chem trails are not needed to see the Paulbots embrace Dr. Paul’s double talk and lies, so they can waste their time and money with his moneybombs.
“…which fought with the Nazi’s against the Soviets in WW2…”
Damn shame we didn’t take Patton’s advice, rearm the Germans and send them east…
We did re-arm them. We just didn’t send them East. This whole Putin thing is silly. I’d point out again, they’re a third rate regional power. Brazil has more wealth, a larger economy and is more advanced. Russia is a backwater with nukes – like Pakistan.
We don’t have to prod Germany anymore, they are gonna get all hot & bothered over Greece screwing them and using Putin for alternative financing.
Right Sector was like that way before the USA ever got involved. You Paulbots don’t seem to mind supporting Ukrainian Communists and their Russian backed rebel counterparts.
These kinds of protests happened in 2004 during the Orange Revolution. In 2010, Yanukovych was again elected after the Yuschenko government floundered. In 2014, these protests again occurred, except this time with direct aid from American PAC’s and the support of the CIA. Our government wanted this coup and made damn sure it happened. The difference between us “Paulbots” and folks like you is that we recognize that neither side of the Ukrainian coin is worth a damn, unlike you neoconservatives, who are much different from the neofascist nationalists in Ukraine that you proclaim to be the beacon of democracy. What utter utter horseshit.
You Paulbots always see black hawk helicopters everywhere, even when you’re proven false. Yea, when it’s the Ukraine ousting pro-Kremlin supporters it’s the CIA, when Shiite Islamic fanatics takeover Yemen, you Paulbots hypocritically cheer them on.
See anything inconsistent with that?
I think the CIA just flew a plane over your head with chem trails, oh wait, no chem trails needed to make you Paulbots look like nutcases.
he’s a truth fan
Ron is actually in the same ballpark with half of the truth which is far closer than usual. but its important to remember Ukraine would be tearing itself apart anyway, no matter what the west did. Pro-western regime change offered a state that all ukrainians could participate in equally. a putin dominated satellite state is not preferable.
“a putin dominated satellite state is not preferable.”
Yep, what’s the big deal over funding another proxy war with yet another country via borrowed money funneled to dubious resistance fighters?
It worked well when we funded Al Qaeda when they were fighting Russia & Syria(wherein the Syrian division became ISIS).
What could go wrong now?
Even still, the Afghan intervention would have worked out fine if our nation had been willing to fund a rebuilding of the nation and if we were willing to stick around and keep the crazies from taking over. There are far more success stories than failure stories, but knowing about them would likely require you open and read a book.
“There are far more success stories than failure stories, but knowing about them would likely require you open and read a book.”
lol…seriously? You’re going to abstractly claim that there are “success stories” and then suggest I don’t read books so I don’t know about them?
That’s the argument huh?
Yeah, haha, yeah…success all over. Success in Syria, Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, & Vietnam…our success is all over the place…cause “books and stuff”.
There was a bomb blast in a pro-Ukraine rally…yea which form of interventionism kills Dr. Paul? Or should I say wRONg Paul?
Paulbots censoring my comments after I mentioned a bomb blast happening at a pro-Ukraine rally. Yea, nice going that you support the Russians…because some forms of interventionism are more equal than others. And that goes for spying on their own citizens too.
If Ron Paul had ever been just a little bit relevant…
wRONg Paul cheers Shiite Islamic fanatics taking over Yemen…not a coup….when the Ukraine ousts pro-Kremlin leaders call it a coup….see anything wrong with this?
wRONg Paul favors coups, but only if they’re anti-American…
Ron Paul has dome great ideas, but…..also naive Imo. I read his books, LOVED his message in Liberty Defined. Took me several months to realize, what he proposes puts US at risk. Great ideas, but that is assuming we lI’ve in a rational world. I can remember the time I could no longer support his refreshingly while irrational ideas. I think it was Nov. 7 prior to election when I listened to him discuss military cuts.
Don’t get me wrong, I believed in military cuts, sick of war and American lives used as pawns. However, his proposed cuts were not just cuts, it would have gutted our military and left us defenseless IMO.