Ukraine Again

The United States withdrew from a twenty year war in Afghanistan that ended in disaster. While it is true that the manner in which the Biden administration withdrew was responsible for the disaster that unfolded, the fact is that Afghanistan was very problematic and unwinnable as can be seen by the recent publication of the “Afghanistan Papers” a book based heavily on documents from the Bush, Obama, and Trump administration. Now the United States wants to provoke tensions with Russia over Ukraine.

Russia should not invade Ukraine. Ukraine is entitled to its sovereignty and independence. At the same time, the Biden administration refuses to accept Russian demands that Ukraine not be admitted into NATO. In fairness to the Biden administration, NATO expansion at the expense of Russian national security began under the Clinton administration and continued under the Bush and Obama administrations. Neocons in the Republican Party remain as vociferous in their anti Russian sentiments as the Democrats.

NATO needs to give assurances that Ukraine will not be accepted as a member. Then the Russians could give assurances they will not invade. Ukraine borders Russia and considering the history of invasions directed at Russia from the Teutonic Knights to Hitler it is easy to see why the Russians will not accept Ukraine as a member of NATO.

The US lost in Afghanistan because it never understood the complex tribal and cultural factors that makes that country ungovernable. Ukraine is not as complex but it does have cultural and religious problems that western secularists and liberals do not understand. The Uniates are Eastern Rite Christians under the Papacy. Byzantine in their liturgy and Roman Catholic in their ecclesiology and dogmas they are a complicating factor in relations between the Orthodox and the Papacy.

Ukraine is the border between Orthodoxy and western Christianity. It is a very delicate situation fraught with tensions and violence. Into the mix is the Church situation into which Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople unwisely ventured at the request of Washington. The political complexities of Ukraine have led to the schism that threatens Orthodox unity.

The Russians should recognize that the Church question will become further complicated by a Russian invasion. The canonical and legitimate Ukrainian Orthodox Church is under the omophorion of Moscow. The Patriarch of Moscow is the legitimate spiritual leader of Ukraine and everything that has transpired in the ecclesiastical affairs of Ukraine over the past three years constitutes an aggression against the Moscow Patriarchate’s rightful authority.

A conflict in Ukraine will aggravate the Church problems and will serve to make a resolution more difficult. A resolution necessitates that the Ukrainian Church is an autonomous and inseparable part of the Russian Church. A Russian intervention will play to the political interests of those Ukrainian politicians that started the Church crisis.

The Biden administration will look particularly bad after the pathetic way in which the Afghanistan war was ended if it ends up in a conflict with Russia. President Biden insisted that Afghanistan was unwinnable. Biden was right about that but wrong in the manner in which he chose to withdraw American forces.

Provoking the Russians will be an even worse decision than the Bush administrations decision to invade Iraq. Both sides need to back down and respect Ukrainian sovereignty. Washington should demand that NATO abandon its desire to grant Ukraine membership and the Russians should renounce any plans to invade Ukraine.