No, Zelensky doesn’t get his very own post. First off, I don’t think he needs it and second, if I keep posting about each individual player on this stage about whom this is NOT it’ll be Valentines by the time I get through. I don’t wanna write a dissertation about the involved personalities when the war isn’t about ANY of them.
Given a choice of listening to Biden, Putin or Zelensky I’ll take a root canal. Seriously, Biden is barely coherent and I feel like I’m losing brain cells listening to some of his speeches. Putin is at least rational but he sounds like a maniac because of the hole he’s dug himself into – no, thanks, none for me, I’m driving.
Zelensky is in a class all his own and he’s welcome to it. I dunno, it may be a cultural thing or it may just be that desperate times call for directness, but Zelensky is so direct that he’s annoying. At that, I will say this for the man – of the three, at least he’s doing his danged job. Zelensky is Ukraine’s president and it’s his job to get and keep Western aid flowing. He does that. I’d still prefer the root canal.
Of the three of them, Zelensky is also the best case for it actually being about him. The war certainly has a personal thing for him – having people trying to assassinate you tends to be very personal. But what if Russia had succeeded? Would the war be over?
Not hardly. Look folks, on February 24th all the nice people in Ukraine knew what a Russian flag looked like. I’ve heard commentators claim Zelensky should have surrendered and spared his people – well, that was back in April. Haven’t heard it lately, I admit. Thing is, Zelensky couldn’t have surrendered Ukraine if he’d wanted to. He had the legal authority to sign the papers but he had no real authority to do it.
Real authority means people will respect and do what you say. All those nice Ukrainians were tearing down road signs, making Molotov cocktails and lining up to join the military or they were packing and heading west. What they weren’t doing was sticking up little Russian flags and waving hi to their new Russian overlords. People that determined aren’t going to care what the guy in Kiev signed. They are going to fight.
Assassinating Zelensky and replacing him would have been even more comical than the forty mile long parking lot that was part of the initial invasion. Kiev wouldn’t have been able to control the population and would probably have had yet another massive protest on its hands – or a heck of a lot of partisans with Molotov cocktails, one of the two.
That’s not fondness for Zelensky as much as it is Ukrainians saying ‘lay off our stuff’ – their stuff including the guy they last elected. Killing Zelensky just PO’s Ukrainians even more and makes a LOT of European leaders very, very nervous. That does not spell ‘war over, back to business as usual’. That spells ‘destroy Russia any way we can’. People are funny about having swords dangled over their heads.
Nah, this thing is not about Zelensky. At this stage, I’m not sure he can even stop the war – his people want ALL their stuff back. They are not happy little campers nor are they war weary enough to let Russia keep so much as a bucketful of Ukrainian soil. Zelensky could say the words and sign the papers but it probably wouldn’t have any real effect initially. Shifting to partisan resistance isn’t actually ‘ending’ a war.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Yeah, no, not about him either. Granted, he’s surprised most of the international world with his staunch support for Ukraine. Bear in mind, Germany is taking a big hit economically. It would be understandable if he were more inclined to just appease Russia. Understandable but stupid. Russia is blackmailing all of Europe and Germany in particular. To his credit, Scholz quickly realized that capitulation now would destroy Germany’s ability to stand up to Russia later.
Dude did his job and did it well. Now if he can sort out Germany’s insane procurement process, he might even be able to help Ukraine a bit more. But even if he did a one eighty and went hat in hand back to Russia now (which he isn’t going to do) it wouldn’t really change anything. Germany can’t PO all it’s bordering neighbors – that never turns out well – and turning traitor would do that and more. Germany and Scholz are pretty much stuck with the situation for the time being.
Next we have Boris Johnson. He’s no longer Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and his current replacement is neck deep in internal politics. Johnson did respond well to the invasion and he was as close to a leader as Europe got, but UK interests aren’t that tied to Ukraine so no, not about UK or Johnson.
French President Emmanuel Macron. Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! His attempts to negotiate with Putin were adorable and utterly worthless. Macron wants to be the president of a united Europe. I can’t even figure out why the French bother keeping him as their president. I mean, the Parisians, sure – they’re nuts but most French people aren’t Parisians so I’ve got no clue. It’s like a French version of Italian politics. I’m sure it makes sense to them. Please pass the Dramamine.
Insert various Europeans here. No, it ain’t about people you can’t even name off the top of your head and who haven’t done anything other than sign off on what everyone else is doing. That doesn’t mean they are bad folks or bad leaders; it does mean this war is not about them.
Often in politics of all levels, it’s hard to separate the people involved from the event itself. Usually the cause DOES have something to do with leaders and what they did or are doing. This is one of the rare ones where personality politics plays only a very little role.
This time, it ain’t about the guy named in the headline.
