The Fluid Frontier
“The Ukraine is a very fertile country, but by no means agreeable.”
– Madame de Staël
“500 million Europeans are asking 300 million Americans to defend [Ukraine] against 140 million Russians.”
– Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland
For three years, many who couldn’t previously distinguish the Ukraine from a ukulele confidently identified heroes and villains in that corner of the world.
The last several months, as the futility of the fight became undeniable, even the most ardent warhawks appeared ready to move on. They seemed almost bored with Ukraine, resigned that a wasteful war would wind down… and began putting their fury on other fads.
But then, last Friday, this happened:
And suddenly… Blue and Gold was back in fashion!
I’m neither a Russophile (except with regard to one woman) nor a “Putin apologist” (whatever that is). But I do have an aversion to being vaporized in a nuclear war.
About multi-faceted conflicts in distant lands among people we’ll never meet, it’s OK to be indifferent. In fact, it’s probably smart.
To almost everyone, particularly flag-emoji outsiders who are most emotional in their predictable opinions, foreign affairs are incomprehensible. The more we learn, the less we know. Which is ample reason to keep our distance.
Hunk of Meat
That is particularly true regarding the sticky web weaving Russia to Ukraine. Let’s pull some threads, and see what we can untangle.
Albeit to a lesser degree than many Mideast countries that were completely made up, the Ukraine is an amorphous construct. Even its modern Slavonic name means “on the edge”, what Americans might call a frontier.
As with Poland or the Punjab, it’s historically been a hunk of meat buzzed by hungry flies, and regularly contested by rival dogs. Over the centuries, Russians, Ottomans, and Mongols tugged it east, whereas Poles, Austrians, and Americans have pulled it west.
On occasion, the hounds drop the slab, show their teeth, and turn on each other. Which is why canines from distant neigh
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
