By Steve Otto
As we watch events in Ukraine,
we are about to see a clash of the titans—US vs. Russia. The Ukraine government doesn't seem to fit in much
with the plans of the US,
which constantly expands NATO, a now defunct alliance which the US and Europe
won't let go of. It is mostly used for keeping Europe
from changing. It also allows small On the Russian side, we have an imperialist
country that seems to believe in power for the sake of power.
At one time the Union of
the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) tried to be a Marxist empire. The stated
goal was Marx and Lenin. The
country was run by the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union. A past
president, "Boozin'" Boris
Yeltsin, was at
one time a member of that Communist Party. But as it turned out, he joined the
party only to advance his career, not out of any socialist convictions. He
turned to US
capitalism for inspiration. When his career was nearly over and his approval
rating were almost kaput, US Republican Party hacks
came over with their bag of dirty tricks to help him get re-elected.
Today we have Vladimir
Putin.
He worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for
16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant
colonel, before
resigning in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg. As with Yeltsin, he
joined that organization for career reasons. As with Yeltsin he has been a
complete phony, caring nothing about Marx or Lenin. Today he is as capitalist,
a crook and a dictator. He no longer represents any ideology other than power
for the sake of power.
He wants to run
his own empire. Today, Russia
is not really any more democratic that the USSR was. It is hard to say why he
wants to invade Ukraine, but
we can be sure that neither the US
or Russia
have anything other than imperialist aims in that country.
President Joseph
Biden has warned us that there will be economic consequences if the Russian
invades Ukraine.
But overall, the Ukrainians have the most to lose from all of this. And it
really doesn't matter who wins or loses.
There are no
good guys in this situation. There are just power hungry imperialists. Both
profess capitalism and both practice a rather phony stile of democracy. This is
really a no-win situation for those of us on the left.
Karl Marx, VI Lenin, Владимир Ленин.
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