Dakota Beacon

Back in 1954 Ukraine ratified the Geneva Convention. That is significant because yesterday the Ukraine government announced with a flourish that it would no longer be taking any prisoners. Good to know. That, of course, is a huge violation of the Geneva Convention. Here is one question: what would you say if a U.S. President made such a declaration? What would you say if our military acted on such an order? It would be considered a war crime. The world would be outraged. But not here. This is a long-honored rule of war. It is descent into savagery. Okay. If you think that's alright, what would you say if Putin gave such an order?

One wonders what the Ukrainian leaders' reasoning could be. They must have some sort of reason, right? It could be that they don't have any place to put them. But, then, they have been turning all of their criminals loose, opening the doors and sending them out – armed – to be “soldiers”, so there's room where they used to be. But, then, again, maybe they are full of the political prisoners of Volodomyr Zelenskyy. He made it his policy, after shutting down the independent reporting of news, to jail his opposition, like a good, old-fashioned Soviet apparatchik would do. So maybe the jails are full. None of this is what it appears to be.

The whole thing seems weird, when as of Tuesday, reportedly the Ukrainian government advertised to Russian soldiers that if they surrendered they would not only not be shot, they would receive $40,000. Whether anyone believed this we do not know. Were there any takers? Who can say? Was it just a trap to get Russian soldiers to throw down their guns so they could be shot?  It's one way to cancel an account payable.  

Every day I feel more certain of only one thing – there are no “good guys” in this dispute. We should stay far away from it. The Ukrainian government has put its people at great risk. First, they openly provoked Putin when they knew he would not be able to tolerate NATO on his border. They turned dangerous criminals loose from their prisons. They gave them guns. What kind of game plan is that? I doubt they let the political prisoners out. Then they announce to Russia that they will kill and take no prisoners. Who will be the beneficiary of that policy? Surely not the Ukrainian people, at least none of the ones holding a state-supplied gun.

Some might see a bright side in that now guns are in the hands of a lot of non-government-controlled people, which is usually good, but also we should remember that dangerous criminals are among them.

In any case, whoever made this call on the Ukrainian side wasn't looking out for “the Ukrainian people”, were they? Because, if you were a Russian soldier inclined to throw down your gun and surrender to a courageous Ukrainian criminal or just an ordinary guy with a gun, would you? Not if you had heard the brave announcement that they were “taking no prisoners”. Your best bet would be to at least take the Ukrainian guy out with you, right? One of the dumbest moves you can possibly make would be to announce to your enemy that there is absolutely no point in surrendering to your “troops”. It is a guarantee that you have made your enemy that much more deadly. But life is cheap in Ukraine apparently – at least to their leaders. One is left to wonder, too, just what kind of reaction they expect from Moscow and what orders they think Russian soldiers will be given in view of this.

Not only that, it makes war criminals of any who carry out that order. We seem to be throwing out the rule books everywhere, though, when it comes to international humanitarian treaties. We tossed out the code of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which states that no nation may engage in biological warfare, and the famous Nuremberg Code of 1947, which precludes forced or stealth medical experimentation on human beings – and that is just the U.S. So maybe this is not the era of enlightened humanitarian conduct.

In any case, one might tread carefully when it comes to signing the Ukrainian government up to any kind of accord. They want in, of course, to NATO, to the E.U. The kid who is running the show at the moment, Zelenskyy, has already hastily applied, perhaps on a cocktail napkin, for E.U. membership, which we have already noted is an anomaly, with most member nations trying to dig tunnels to escape it.  No doubt Zelenskyy is grateful for the E.U.'s decision to ban all communication coming out of Russia, a true democratic move.  We wouldn't want people hearing any other side of this issue, after all.

I've said I don't see any “good guys” in this whole event. Putin is not to be trusted, and not to be commended in violating Ukrainian borders, but we make a huge mistake in trusting Zelenskyy as well. There is something very “off” about the story we are being told. We are being sold a movie poster of this young guy in military fatigues and helmet, posing as if he were at least a young Tom Cruise. We have an MP declaring her support for the “New World Order” as bravely as if she were George H.W. Bush, we have an air gun-toting Miss Ukraine and the "Ghost of Kiev", we have dramatic “last words” from Zelenskyy to The World and slogans which sound like they were written for Harrison Ford (“I need ammunition, not a ride”). And then, if we look into it a little more we find Zelenskyy in a music video kick-line. It just isn't sitting right.

We're not supposed to say this. But I do not believe that there is such a thing as a hero who calls for blatant violation of human rights protocols. I do believe that President* Biden would see no problem with this. After all, George Soros is on-board. What's not to like there? And Switzerland has thrown over its tradition of neutrality – they didn't even come out against Hitler – just to be teamed up with Zelenskyy. Somehow, though, none of this convinces me that we, too, should back him. The red flags are all over the place in this one. Be careful, America. Maybe hold off putting on your Ukrainian flag pins, leave off the blue and yellow ties and mufflers for a few more days. We should exercise great caution in our reaction to this regional dispute. It was just such mindless taking of sides which brought about World War I and changed the world forever. Is it really that wise to take up the cause of Zelenskyy?

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