Soviet shadows, Ukraine ghosts
KARAPCHIV, Ukraine -- I got my car stuck in the mud of a so-called road here. Way back in the 1920's, it was a smooth highway, but it has now disintegrated into a rough path — and when a bridge collapsed recently, motorists were left to forge through a muddy bog as embracing as quicksand.
That's the special accomplishment of the former Soviet Union: it not only repressed and impoverished its citizens in its seven decades, but continues to do so today, posthumously.
- Nicholas D. Kristof
For the first 31 years of my life, I was taught that the USSR (Ronald Reagan's "Evil Empire") was the enemy, and Communism was a scourge rivalled only by the Democratic Party. Little did anyone realize that the USSR was a corpse all along. You couldn't tell, because it was rotting from the inside out. Now, even though the USSR was relegated to the ash heap of history 12 years ago, it's legacy still maintains a solid grip on Ukraine.
We in the West cheered when the Soviet Union tottered and died. But we've moved on, while erstwhile Soviet lands remain wretched, with ordinary people commemorating not new freedoms but deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis and drunkenness. Life expectancy has fallen in Ukraine since the heady revolution we applauded.
For its part, Ukraine is now ruled by a thug, Leonid Kuchma, whose opponents have a way of being victimized by mysterious car crashes. Four prominent journalists have died in Ukraine under puzzling circumstances over the last three years, including Georgy Gongadze, whose beheaded body was found after President Kuchma was secretly taped saying of him: "Drive him out. Throw him out. Give him to the Chechens."
Sure, I piss and moan about Shrub's lies, deceptions, and craven political posturing using the lives of American soldiers as political bargaining chips. Nonetheless, we will have the opportunity to vote him out of office next year, and no one will be feeding Liberals to the Chechens (not that a few of you wouldn't like that...). Yes, things could definitely be worse. It is sad when you think about it, though. How much time, energy and money (not to mention lives) were wasted fighting an enemy whose system was slowly collapsing from the inside out? In retrospect, all we had to do was wait....
