Staunton, November 21 – “September
3, 1939 – British and French commentators and officials said today that it
could no longer be denied that Hitler was invading Poland and that the Nazi
forces represented the most serious threat to the existence of that country,
but they said that Warsaw could not reasonably expect allied assistance unless
it carried out massive reforms first.”
That story, of course, never
happened. Except for those in London and Paris with links to the Communist
Party who followed the Kremlin line even when Stalin was an ally of Hitler as
was then the case, no one suggested that sequence of reforms before defense
because they recognized that if Poland did not exist, it could not reform.
But that was then, and this is now.
Today, media outlets and officials in Western countries, having in all too many
cases done their best to ignore or minimize Russian aggression, are finally
being forced to recognize that what Ukraine faces is a Russian “invasion” and
that indeed Ukraine and her people are fighting for survival.
In making this concession to
reality, however, many of these same outlets and officials have come up with a
fallback position to justify their unwillingness to provide the kind of
assistance Ukraine so clearly needs: They point to the corruption and lack of
reform in Ukraine and say that Kyiv must carry out reforms now before it can
hope for help.
That Ukraine needs reforms in its
economic and political systems is something few question, and Ukraine will be a
success in the middle and longer term if and only if it carries them out, as
difficult as doing so will inevitably be. But demanding reforms from someone
who is looking down the barrel of a gun before helping him is obscene for at
least three reasons.
First, the very people who are
making this argument now have often excused other countries and their own as
well from making necessary reforms in the name of national security and
Realpolitik. Obviously, for them, Ukraine is a special case, clearly because of
Russia, and they won’t extend that logic to Ukraine.
Second, those making this argument
ignore the fact that the country in this conflict that needs reform most is
Russia. It needs a government which lives up to its international obligations
rather than invading neighboring countries; it needs an economy not dominated
by corruption; and it needs a political system in which the Russian people can
be free.
And third, those in the West saying
this ignore the fact that Vladimir Putin isn’t interested in reforms or in the
survival of Ukraine. He wants to break Ukraine first by partitioning it and
then by subordinating it completely to the Kremlin. What his “reform” program
for Ukraine would be is very much on view in the criminal actions of his agents
in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Does anyone really think that
Ukraine and its prospects for the kind of reforms its people want will be
advanced by allowing that to happen?
Some years ago, a very wise leader
of one of the post-Soviet states told the author of these lines that before his
country could become a democracy, it had to become a country. His words can be
updated: Before Ukraine can reform – and there is no question that it must
reform – it must be able to do so – and that requires that it first be able to
defend itself and with our help.
Getting this sequence wrong and
putting the cart before the horse, a some are now doing, is a prescription not
for a better future but for disaster and not only for Ukraine but for the West
as well.
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