Are We Alone?

By Dr. Myron Kuropas

As Viktor Yanukovych continues to dismantle twenty years of nation-building in Ukraine, I wish we were back in the 1990s when Communism was collapsing and the world cheered.

During Soviet times, Ukraine had friends.  There was Ronald Reagan who famously declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”  Most members of the U.S. Congress supported the annual Captive Nations proclamations.  There was Pope John Paul II travelling to Poland and openly supporting Solidarity.  There was Margaret Thatcher travelling to Eastern Europe to give hope to those living under the Russian boot.  At the time, the Free World was under no illusions regarding Moscow’s world plan. 

Today, most former Warsaw Bloc nations, from Bulgaria to Slovakia, have been liberated. They are comfortably ensconced in the European Union, relatively safe from the “Russian Bear.”  Ukraine came this close, but is now slowly returning to its pre-1990 status. Most people in Ukraine claim Russia as their biggest friend, not the West.

In reality, Ukraine has no friends.  Russia wants to swallow Ukraine whole.  Western Europe is a gutless shell.  France has a second-rate economy and a third rate army.  Germany is still trying to digest East Germany.  Greece, Spain, and Portugal are facing bankruptcy.  Italy is Italy.  Birth rates among Europe’s native population are declining while Muslim births are exploding.  Some pundits are already referring to the continent as “Eurabia.”  With the Saudis funding mosques all over Europe, others predict a Europe under Sharia law by 2050. 

Today’s Europe is not the Europe which convinced Russia to sign the 1975 Helsinki Final Act.  Remember Basket Three and the human rights mandates contained therein?  Those provisions were the wedge which prompted Ukrainian dissidents to establish Helsinki Watch Committees in the USSR.

And where is the United States, once the bastion of freedom, a powerful nation, led by presidents committed to freedom for all peoples everywhere.  It was John F. Kennedy who in his inaugural address declared, “We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty.”  It was George W. Bush who in his second inaugural address declared, “The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands... So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.”  

In 2010, the United States has a president who thinks very differently. One of his first acts was to unceremoniously return the bust of Winston Churchill to the British Embassy.  The bust was presented to President George W. Bush by the British Ambassador as a gesture of support in the wake of 9/11.  On a visit to England in April 2009, President Barack Obama barely acknowledged Queen Elizabeth.  Contrast that to his behaviour while visiting the Islamic world two months later. Mr. Obama bowed deeply to the Saudi King, spoke at the University of Cairo, and delivered a major foreign policy address in Turkey.   He also hugged Marxist dictators in South and Central America. As an American, I am disturbed by this behaviour because it suggests a certain disdain for the socio-political heritage which animates our way of life in the United States and Canada.  

It was the George W. Bush administration that created the United States-Ukraine Strategic Partnership Commission and it was this commission that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reinforced during her recent trip to Ukraine.  To her credit, she also met with Ukraine’s opposition leaders.  At the same time, however, Vice-President Joe Biden and President Obama seem more interested in playing nice-nice with Moscow than in paying attention to Ukraine’s current woes. As a Ukrainian, this distresses me.

So, who are Ukraine’s real friends in the world?  We are.  You and me.  The Diaspora - the same people who have been there through thick and thin in the past.  Are we Ukraine’s orphans, dismissed by Ukrainians there, and disliked by our non-Ukrainian compatriots here?  No.  There are worthy institutions in Ukraine that welcome our help; and we do have friends among North American political leaders.  This is no time to be in despair.

I believe we have a sacred duty during this difficult time in Ukraine’s history to help our family and friends in Ukraine, and to saddle up to influential leaders here, to court them, and to persuade them that it is in their interest to pay attention to Ukraine.  Will this be easy?  No.  Can we do it?  We have to.  If not us, then who?