• kava@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Nobody is forcing Ukraine to ask the US for help (except Russia).

    But who is “Ukraine”?

    Who gets to make the decisions? The people of Ukraine? The unconstitutionally appointed government? The one who happens to cooperate directly with the CIA? The government that stems from the series of far-right protests that led to a coup? In a country where US has been pumping money for decades?

    It sounds like the logic of Guatemala.

    United Fruit Company (whose CEO was brothers with director of CIA) owned large swathes of land to grow bananas. They also owned railroads, telephone lines, and other general infrastructure.

    A new democratic movement sparked up in order to take some of that land and distribute it to the people of Guatemala - why should a foreign company own all the farmland? (Similar thing happened in Cuba, except they were successful)

    So what happens in Guatemala? A CIA supported coup puts in a new right-wing government. Now that new government cooperated with the USA and made sure United Fruit Company (Chiquita these days) kept the spice flowing.

    Now, if you were to tell me “But kava, the Guatemalan government asked the US for help. It’s their independent and sovereign decision”

    But was it really? Who gets to call the shots?

    That’s the fundamental question here. I am not discounting sovereignty of Ukrainian people because Euromaidan is NOT the Guatemalan coup. It’s a whole different event with a different set of factors and influences. I wouldn’t even go so far to say it was a CIA-led coup. Just a CIA-supported one.

    But the question is a nuanced one and not so simple as “Ukraine asked for help”. It’s more like Ukraine had no choice but to ask for help. The power-dynamic is not an equal one - like a teacher having sex with a student. Is it possible for that relationship to be consensual?

    Like Chomsky says “we will fight them to the last Ukrainian”

    Or was it North Korean?

    Ukraine is in the process of being destroyed. It’s the only country involved in this war that is suffering that fate.