A letter from an American officer in Ukraine

SOFRep has published a letter from a US veteran officer currently employed in the training of Ukrainian officers.  It provides a unique perspective on what's going on there.  Here's an excerpt.

Ukrainians are almost as much of a mixed culture as is the USA. There are leftists, rightists, centerists, and a few idiots. There is a small but vocal group that bears resemblance to the Nazi Party in Germany in 1939. There are human rights activists, well educated professionals, business entrepreneurs, and criminals. Just like home. What amazed me, however, was the level of corruption. I expected it, after having worked in former socialist countries before, and have seen what happens when you toss out the communists.

The only groups ready to replace the communists… the only groups with any formal/semi-formal hierarchy, organization, chains of command, resource procurement procedures, etc… the only groups immediately available… are the crooks and criminal organizations. What usually happens is the crooks make their way into government positions, both elected and appointed, and just raise the level of their operations to a national level. The people usually get tired of it, and either vote them out or kick their asses out. Once they do, the only groups ready to move back in and take charge are…. the old communists! They’ll have a new name, but old styles. So the folks kick them out and the damned crooks come back in… usually with less power.

. . .

When I got here I was just flat amazed how deep the corruption was. My translator asked me how I would handle such a situation back in [HOME STATE REDACTED]. I told him we had enforceable laws, much more accountability of officials… and as a last resort, the.45 on my hip and the AR-15 in my bedroom gun cabinet. He sighed…. said we have none of that. We can’t make changes.

Well folks. Ukrainians stood up on their hind legs these last few months, and they fought back against the crooks… and they won! More than one hundred of them died doing it. It’ll take the new folks in government to change what they had. It’s hard changing a nation, a culture of corruption, a business environment that doesn’t know how to enforce contract law. But they want to give it a chance.

And now, Vladimir Putin has decided that he can’t allow the new Ukraines to succeed. Because if they do, Russians might decide to get rid of the criminals who are the Russian Mafia, and the people like Putin who are trying to rebuild… not the Soviet Union… but the old Russian Empire. There are good geo-political reasons for him to desire that, but it comes at the cost of Ukrainian freedoms to chose.

There's much more at the link.  Highly recommended reading.

Peter