Dakota Beacon

Let’s talk about Texas. 

In America, whether one is from Texas or not, we all regard Texas as unique.  Each state is, of course, but Texas has had a different path in its statehood from  any other.  Texas has been a territory, it has been an independent republic and it has been a state within the Confederacy.  It went through Reconstruction as did the rest of the South.  Yet it is often considered more “western” than “southern” and in fact, Texas is different in different parts.  The Gulf Coast of Texas is different culturally and in terms of its climate, from west Texas.  

Texans have certain distinguishable accents of English (many states do).  You could call it a “Texas dialect”.

There is a wealth of lore about Texas and Texans, from the Alamo to Marty Robbins to the bleak prairies of the panhandle.  

Texas is perhaps our wealthiest state in terms of its natural resources, it is a great source of gas and oil.  

Texas is on our southern border, sharing a long border with Mexico.  Texas is geographically important to America.

We often do not see eye to eye with the governments of Mexico.  Mexico itself is a complex culture and society and we do not always find ourselves on the same side with Mexico politically.  

For the sake of discussion, let us suppose that we had parted ways amicably with Texas, and a different, quasi-separate but allied relationship had evolved between the United States and the “New Republic of Texas”.  It’s not that far from a possibility when you think about it.  It’s been suggested and not entirely in jest.  There are some who feel that not only Texas but most of our Southwest belongs to Mexico!  

Now suppose for a moment that a distant foreign nation - let’s say China, for example - from literally the other side of the earth - began sending military equipment and arms to various elements within Texas, perhaps to those who feel less connected to traditional “America”.  Think about China inviting Texas to join its community of nations in some sort of defense pact.  Think about the possibility that China might have set up some bioweapons labs in Austin, in El Paso, in Houston and maybe Fort Worth and Corpus Christi.  Suppose the elected governor of Texas began asking China to admit his state into a special relationship with China, North Korea, Viet Nam, Russia and other nations allied with China.  

Do you think that the President of the United States (assuming we had a legitimate non-Deep State president) might take exception?  Would he perhaps decide to move some military muscle into Texas - after issuing a stern warning?  

Of course Texas is just a member state of the United States, but try to think in general terms, more abstractly here.  Would this pose a threat to America?  I would guess that most of us would believe that it would.  We would be very uncomfortable with this.  

Russia must be looking at Ukraine this way as well.  Unlike Poland, Ukraine has been an integral part of the nation we know as “Russia” for as long as Texas has been American.  Poland is not Ukraine.  Poland has, at different times, been under the control of Sweden and Russia and others, and has retained a national character of its own and resisted in various ways, whether they were fighting Napoleon’s French troops or Sweden’s or Russia’s.  The Balkan nations which eventually were pulled into Russia’s Soviet orbit had histories entangled with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  The satellite nations have been very much involved with other European nations.  Ukraine, however, had one dalliance with western Europe - it was part of Hitler’s strategy.  Like the Russian government, Hitler took unfair advantage of Ukraine.  The early Soviets were brutal - there is no question about that.  And not only with Ukraine but with others, including Russians themselves.  Ask Boris Pasternak or Igor Stravinsky.  Ask Solzhenitsyn.  Russia has never been a “free country”.  They overthrew the Tsars and became the vassals of the communists.  As such they continued to be abused, Ukraine especially viciously, by the likes of Stalin.  

It is sad that the people of Russia and of Ukraine have not had the opportunities to live freely that the people of the United States and of Texas have enjoyed.  But we can’t really control that and it is not a matter for us to become involved with.

The Ukraine has always been a region closely related to Russia, whether in sibling rivalry or even family estrangement.  At no time has the government established in Ukraine been an expression of freedom.  Nor has the Russian government, whether under the Tsars, the Soviets or the Russian Federation.  

If we would consider a China/Texas alliance a threat to our own national security in the United States, and might regard a Texas separatist movement intent on restoring the old Republic of Texas, which could even be joined by a few other southern states, as such,  can we perhaps see why Putin is not terribly sanguine about the idea of Germany, Poland, the UK, the United States, France and the Baltic nations arming Ukraine’s simple-minded current president, and inviting him to join NATO?  If we suspected and then confirmed the existence of dangerous and poorly managed bioweapons labs there?  Maybe child trafficking?  Our Mexican border states are prone to problems of that kind.  Kidnapping, trafficking of sex slaves and forced laborers.  

Would the “resistance”, funded and armed by China, in Texas be “patriots”?  Would the US just relinquish any claim on Texas?  Let China and Texas partner in Texas’ gas and oil?  Or would we say no, that’s not happening?  

We need to stop censoring the other side of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.  We need to step back and get out of the cheering section and become more objective.  Under no circumstance does the US have a proper role here.  If the US government has invested in bioweapons labs there that is not a legitimate interest.  It is an interest, of course - a criminal one.  

We have seen in the past, at least those who have ever studied history, that nations involving themselves in other nations’ business can lead to tragedy on a colossal scale.  That is how WWI began.  The unreasonable manner in which the Allied nations meted out punishment to their perceived “bad guy”, Kaiser Wilhelm, led to Hitler and WWII.  The “Cold War”, pursued by the West against a Soviet Union which was displaying an appetite for overtaking control of surrounding nations in Eastern Europe, and the massive wealth that was discovered in that pursuit, easily rivaling that realized by the Soviet oligarchs, has led to the disasters we have experienced in Viet Nam, in the Middle East and perhaps now in the Ukraine.  

As far as Ukrainian history is concerned, the name “Russia” comes from “Kiev Rus’”-  the nation known as Russia was born in the Ukraine.  The Ukrainian language, although distinct, overlaps with Russian and nearly all Ukrainians understand Russian.  Although it is true that other influences have acted on the Ukrainian language, it remains far closer to Russian than most other languages relate to one another.  Sicilian, for example, is not the “same” as Italian.  Galician is not the same as Spanish.  Despite recent history, it cannot be denied that there are important commonalities.

There are probably no “good guys” - I have said this more than once, I know.- in this Ukraine/Russia issue.  But there is such a thing as objective reason.  If we cannot allow Russia to take such action as is objectively necessary to protect itself from a coalition that is now trying to use its collective power to strangle it, we must be ready for all-out war.  Is it really worth it to the US to “teach Russia” some kind of “lesson”?  We tried that with the Kaiser’s Germany, remember.  The backlash was harsh.  So we beat them twice.  It cost us dearly.  Might we have been better off understanding that we can’t continually constrict and humiliate a powerful nation legitimately concerned about its own security?  Might we apply these lessons here?  One of these times we are not going to come out the winner of a world war.  We have been getting hints - ever since Viet Nam.  Look how we triumphed in Afghanistan last year.  It’s a pretty strong omen that we might not do as well as we think.

Russia has been quiet for three decades now.  They have sat by as their former satellites “left home”.  They have not been totally idle all this time, however.  Putin has shown himself so far to have some talent for making provision for his country.  He is developing oil pipelines, he has set up his own system of credit and banking, he has launched his own internet.  He may not be an ethical, shining example of stelllar character, but his is not incompetent and we would be fools if we thought he were.  Stacked up against the thinly disguised fascists of the EU leadership - Macron, Von der Leyden, and the UK - Boris Johnson, and our own sorry administration in the US, he looks like the guy to bet on.  

Wouldn’t it be far better for us to get out?  We were caught with our hand in the cookie jar in having the bioweapons labs, we now know full well that we are spending US tax dollars to fund unrest within Ukraine.  Is this Nixonian Cold War behavior really sound and in the best interests of America and our own people?  It is difficult to see how.  Why do we have a national interest in flying the Ukrainian  flag or “kicking Putin’s backside”?  Why is this a defensible American foreign policy?  Maybe we have a greater interest in “kicking Trudeau’s backside”.  He is abusing the freedom of the people of his nation, after all. Horrendously, in fact. 

Whomever we elect in 2024, it is devoutly to be wished that he will not pursue this childish CIA-style intrigue any longer.  Let’s try to elect a grown-up.  We can’t hold any other nation’s leaders to a higher standard than we can maintain.  Let’s mind our own business, secure our own borders, balance our own budget, educate our own kids, clean up the intolerable mess we have made of our medical establishment and hold legal, honest elections ourselves before we decide we must “fix” Vladimir Putin’s country.  Or prop up Zelenskyy’s.

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