Ukraine heroically defends democracy
Ordinary civilians ignore instinct for self-preservation to protect freedom
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was likely an avoidable war. Avoidable, according to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, if the United States, Britain and France had lived up to their 1989 agreement to refrain from expanding NATO east of Germany if Germany was allowed to reunify. Indeed, NATO’s expansion made no sense given that the end of the Cold War meant a new era of peace for the world.
Today, 14 former Soviet bloc countries are NATO members, their armed forces modernized at enormous expense to meet the alliance’s standards. The people of Europe, North America and Russia did not benefit from the expansion of NATO. The only beneficiary has been the world arms industry which in 2018 exported US$240 billion worth of weapons from one country to another.
One wonders how the people whose fortunes are made through the arms trade can live with themselves. The products they manufacture are used only to kill, maim and destroy. Roughly 100 million people were killed in wars during the 20th century, more than half of them in the Second World War. Since then, weapons have become exponentially more numerous, effective and powerful.
I mention the numbers of people killed because that is what a person becomes in wartime – a number, an expendable object. Those who fight in war are stripped of their dignity. Not because they choose to surrender that dignity but because the creators of war have stolen it from them.
Despite Western nations violating their 1989 agreement with the Soviet Union, the invasion of Ukraine is Vladimir Putin’s war. He is the monster who sent troops across the border. He is the one who threatens to use nuclear weapons if the West defends Ukraine against his aggression.
What are the people of Ukraine to do? Millions have fled their homes; many others have chosen to stay and fight the aggressor. Both paths are honourable ones.
In the West, we have become too comfortable with freedom and democracy. Our passion for them is constricted; they have become institutions, neatly and bureaucratically administered.
Ukrainians are displaying heroic tenacity in defending their country against a much stronger military force. Hundreds of thousands have put their lives on the line so their country will no longer be held captive. Their nation is at an historical crossroad. If Ukraine falls to the invaders, it may be a lifetime or longer before the country will again be free.
The masters of war hide in their mansions while the blood of heroes flows in the streets. Those who profit from war must be deplored while those in Ukraine who risk death to defend their nation leave us in awe.
Can anyone deny the right of a people to defend their country from tyranny? Down through the millennia, the great mass of people have been slaves or near-slaves exploited by the wealthy and powerful.
God’s creation of humans in his image and likeness gives us an immeasurable dignity. That dignity is underlined when we elect our leaders, nations overthrow tyrants and governments uphold rights and responsibilities. The defence of human dignity is inherent to the proclamation of the Gospel.
Pope John Paul II was the great herald of the collapse of communism, a system which could not sustain itself because of its lack of a moral core. The American Catholic political philosopher David Walsh wrote, “Evil crumbles and hides before the enduring reality of good.” That tidily sums up the pope’s experience.
Human beings, Walsh said in his The Growth of the Liberal Soul, have spiritual resources of which they are unaware until those resources are required. Ordinary civilians distinguished themselves by resisting the oppression of the Gulag and Nazi concentration camps. They ignored their instinct for self-preservation to assert the reign of freedom and goodness.
The best testament to the goodness of democracy is that megalomaniacs like Putin hate it and that common people will risk their lives to protect it. Ukraine is inspiring the world. Vast numbers around the globe are contributing to humanitarian relief, protesting in the streets and opening their homes to refugees.
We may have never seen anything like this. Let’s hope we never have to see it again. May autocrats be terrified by the people’s opposition. God willing, Ukraine will remain free, and ruthless dictators will never again suppress the dignity of the human spirit. Arms manufacturers may feel justified if Ukraine prevails. But the credit goes to those who sacrifice so others may be free.
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