Wyatt's World
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba summed it up Sunday, Feb. 20, on 60 Minutes.
“It doesn’t make any difference which language (Ukrainian or Russian) you speak. What makes a difference is whether you support a democratic Ukraine being part of the collective West with functioning market economies and human rights or whether you want to live in an authoritarian country where police can beat you on the streets or where you cannot do business without bribing an official like it is the case in Russia. This is the difference.”
The 44 million Ukrainians have had a first-hand experience of what it’s like living under the thumb of Russian mobsters. They don’t like it one bit. They want to be part of the West with freedom, liberty and democracy. Who wouldn’t?
For those worried about world war, you can rest easy. There is zero chance Europe or America will fight a conventional war to stop the Russians from invading. Both sides have enough weapons to blow the world up a hundred times over. Ukraine isn’t worth it and both sides know it.
This is more about Putin’s politics than anything. Appearing strong helps him in the polls and secures his dictatorship.
And let’s make no mistake about it, Putin is a dictator, aided by his coterie of billionaire thugs. It’s a kleptocracy run by a criminal gang.
But even criminal gangs can be responsive to the will of the people. As long as Putin and his buddies get to rape the country, he is fine with playing politics. Human nature is such that nationalism is usually good politics. So he rattles the Russian saber and it helps him stay in power.
Of course, killing all your political opponents is another effective way of staying in power. Putin ordered his main political opponent Alexei Navalny to be poisoned. Putin’s thugs botched the job. Thanks to providence, Navalny survived. Tens of thousands of Russian patriots marched in the streets to support Navalny. Thousands were jailed.
While exiled abroad Navalny produced a two-hour video meticulously documenting the inner workings of Putin’s gang of thugs. Over one hundred million Russians watched it, making it the most viewed video in Russia, despite Putin’s efforts to suppress it.
When Navalny bravely returned to Russia he was immediately arrested and thrown in jail on fake charges in a kangaroo court. He is a great hero. Let’s pray God will use his might to bring Putin down and raise Navalny up.
It should be clear to every single American that the battle in Ukraine is a battle between freedom and slavery. It should be a reminder to Americans that every morning we wake up we should get down on our knees and thank God we live in a country of freedom and liberty.
The values so perfectly embodied in our Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution are universal values. They apply in every continent, every country, every city no matter what religion, language or culture. They are worth fighting fiercely for, as we have had to do every step along the way.
The thugs abound. Xi Jing Pi is worse than Putin for at least Putin isn’t trying to destroy Christianity in Russia. Putin is not an ideologue. He’s just a crook. Xi has made himself a God, enslaving over a billion people to the soulless horror of a fascist state. I pray every morning that God smite him and his party down.
China, breaking its treaty, has now destroyed freedom in Hong Kong, enslaving a proud people and destroying its free and vibrant economy. They spy and monitor everyone to stamp out any sign of political non-conformity. The Chinese people are slaves.
Just a few hundred miles off our Mississippi coast is the living hell of Cuba, run by maniacal “communists” who think nothing of throwing mothers into dark, dank dungeons for protesting the disappearance of their children, who were secretly kidnapped and jailed for their own political protests.
This horrible situation is now increasing in South America. Venezuela has been taken over by criminal thugs who have destroyed their country’s oncestrong democratic institutions. Nicaragua this year witnessed the return of Manuel Noriega, who is jailing all opponents that he isn’t able to gun down while they are protesting in the streets.
In Turkey, its dictator, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, has jailed tens of thousands of Turkish citizens for the crime of “insulting” him. Iran executes people for converting to Christianity. The list goes on and on.
Freedom House, a non-profit organization that monitors political and economic freedom worldwide says freedom is on the decline worldwide and has been for the last 15 years. Less than 20 percent of the world’s population now lives in a free country. Covid-19 has not advanced the cause of freedom.
These political tyrants not only enslave the minds of their people but they destroy the economy and cause mayhem and poverty. It is so sad.
If Russia invades Ukraine, there will no longer be any illusion about whether Russia could ever be considered an American ally. That would be a silver lining to that dark cloud.
Americans must appreciate the enormity of their gift of freedom. We must never take it for granted. We must pray for those who lack it and be willing to pay the ultimate cost to keep it.
Note: This column was written on Tuesday, Feb. 22. Wyatt Emmerich is publisher of The Northside Sun in Jackson and owner of Emmerich Newspapers.