Sir, – A quote attributed to Oscar Wilde says "whenever people agree with me , I always feel I must be wrong". Patrick Smyth disagreed with comments I made about the downing of the Malaysian plane in eastern Ukraine ("Blaming the EU over Ukraine easy, but misguided", July 26th, Opinion & Analysis). In my original letter, I suggested the EU and United States must accept ultimate responsibility for this tragedy, since they had created the conditions for the illegal coup in Ukraine. Mr Smyth suggested this was " the logic of a Provo". If memory serves me correctly, the Provos attributed each atrocity to " 800 years of British oppression". Well the coup in Ukraine occurred just six months ago, so cause and effect can be readily established and the comparison is simply arrant nonsense and indeed odious. Apologists for the western action, such as Mr Smyth, give the impression that the coup was somehow excusable, on the basis that the government of Yanukovych was "deeply unpopular". Using that criterion, we could excuse coups in virtually every European capital and Washington, at the moment.
The violence we see in eastern Ukraine now is a symptom of the fear and mistrust engendered by the coup, in a country which is deeply divided. In the example of a pedestrian killed by a drunken driver, we attribute the fatality, not to two tonnes of metal colliding with flesh and bone, but rather to the excessive alcohol consumed by the driver. This is the root cause. Easy to understand for most people surely!
I do not intend to bore your readers with details of the American involvement in the coup.
Victoria Nuland, a neocon hawk in the Obama administration, has herself boasted of it and her work in this area is well documented. Also documented are talks she held with the neo-Nazi group, the Svoboda Party, who provided the “muscle” for the coup, forcing Mr Yanukovych to flee for his life. In a taped phone conversation in Kiev, Ms Nuland is heard discussing with the American ambassador essentially just what type of government they should install. I am not greatly concerned with the Americans, however. We know they will always serve their own self-interests and we know also there are hawks in Washington hoping to start a new cold war. A military budget of $1.75 billion each day demands constant conflict and tensions in the world. If they are not there, they must of course be created. I am sure Mr Smyth is familiar with this, given his time in Washington.
It is the debacle that is EU foreign policy that should be our real concern. We are bearing the brunt of Russian sanctions to further the interests of the United States! Whether the EU has been malevolent or just plain stupid is difficult to tell. When Catherine Ashton is involved, naivety can never be entirely ruled out. Whatever the truth of the matter, it should have been plain to EU member states that the economic package offered to Yanukovych would place him in an impossible situation. Damned if he did and damned if he did not. The manner in which Europe, the bastion of democracy, accepted the coup was quite astonishing and disappointing. Let us be clear also, that the current regime in Kiev, linked closely to ultra nationalist groups, has no legitimacy. The post-coup election was held in a state at civil war and with fascist gangs intimidating voters in the west of the country.
For many years Russia has been nervous of the aggressive eastward expansion of the EU and Nato. Just as the United States would not accept missiles in Cuba, so Russia has a perfect right to refuse such an outcome in Ukraine. This is the real American and Nato agenda and the EU seems to be a compliant conspirator. Europe has nothing to gain from a poor relationship with Russia. On the contrary we should be looking east for future strategic alliances which will be necessary to counter the hegemony of the United States and China in the future. To those who believe our future lies with the Americans, just let me mention Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks. As our good “friend”, Ms Nuland commented, when told that Europe was reluctant to impose sanctions on Russia, “f*ck Europe”.
That just about says it all. – Yours, etc,
ALAN McPARTLAND,
Grange Court,
Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.