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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Demagogy Rules for Lack Of Reason

10 April, 1999 - 00:00

By Viktor ZAMYATIN, The Day
There is only one country left in the world, Yugoslavia. This is what one
may think, listening to, reading, and watching the news. In Yugoslavia,
good (NATO) combats evil (Milosevic), reiterate Western politicians and
press. The same, but with the roles reversed, is being shouted by the Russian
and Ukrainian parliamentarians, for they seem to have nothing better to
do. Television news is teeming with the two truths of the war. The West
only shows the Albanian refugees whose number has exceeded half a million
in two weeks. Yugoslavia only shows fires and ruins after NATO strikes.
Kyiv and Moscow show both, but who is watching?

Demagogy is on the march. Our parliamentarians are for all kinds of
aid, including military, to their Serbian brethren. But it is next to impossible
to imagine dear Mr. Tkachenko, the author of the statement, in the Balkan
mountains and woods, sporting fatigues, with beard and a machine gun in
hand, defending his beloved fraternal Serbs. Also heard are demands to
immediately break relations with NATO and restore Ukraine's nuclear status.
However, nobody, except our friends, is afraid. Some may even believe it.
For, as a wise diplomat explained to me, the world also knows the price
of such statements.

Great and mighty fraternal Russia still frightens the world with probable
military assistance to Yugoslavia, but so far this assistance is confined
to a demonstrative voyage by a reconnaissance ship, which makes the world
laugh heartily. Moreover, great and mighty Russia is steadily heading for
self-isolation and, to ward off sadness, coaxes Ukraine to keep it company.
Perhaps this will be a subject of discussion during Yevgeny Primakov's
visit to Kyiv. However, nobody there is going to fight NATO. Perhaps, the
ignominious Chechnya war still jars in their memory.

The world overtly ignores the Russian-Ukrainian hysteria, for it knows
that both countries cannot do without Western loans, whoever comes to power.
The world rejects Ukrainian mediation, for it knows the price of Ukraine
itself. No notice is taken of the failure of NATO's Balkan blitzkrieg,
for otherwise one would have to explain things to the taxpayers, bury the
discredited alliance, and frantically create something new for which no
one seems to be ready.

In ancient Greece, all wars stopped during Olympic Games. In today's
Europe, wars are not suspended even on Easter.

The world of today clearly has a shortage of politicians capable of
elementary thinking and calculation. We also clearly lack politicians capable
of respecting themselves and their people. It is for this reason that Europe
is likely to enter the new millennium with its old conflicts and problems
of refugees and terrorism, and none of those who initiated the NATO strikes
will be brought to court. And Ukraine in 2000 will still remain in a gray
or some other security zone, for it will still be vacillating between West
and East, Europe and a Eurasia moving far her away from Europe by the day,
complaining about Balkan war losses and with no chance to occupy its legitimate
place in a united Europe. It is all so sad, dear friends.

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