Editor’s note: Friends have asked why they haven’t heard from me in several weeks. The answer is simple. I am writing for our company called Ready2Roll Cycling. It’s a cycling community of several hundred who want to ride long distance morning rides in our beautiful Texas countryside. I will keep writing Happenings on the Way to Heaven on a monthly basis and resume a weekly column after May 15 when the cycling season ends.
We also have a school board election coming and I will be organizing a forum in Chappell Hill and ole Washington soon.
Meanwhile…
Please read my research on Ukraine. This is the shortest clearest defense that I can make for why Ukraine needs to exist as a country and not be overrun and absorbed by Putin’s maniacal thirst for expansion. As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments. Even if you disagree, I would love to hear from you. Write to me at Kathryn@TexasHeritage.net.
Nine Talking Points on Why We Must Support Ukraine compiled by Kathryn van der Pol
Adapted from the article “How to Talk to Republicans” by Stephen Miller
Russia, North Korea, China, and Iran are coming for America and its allies. These four hostile countries are working together to cause chaos in Ukraine, Israel, and much of the rest of the world. The world needs America now more than ever to unite our allies and defend free countries who are under direct attack from our enemies.
Any peace plan in Ukraine would just give Russia time to re-arm and renew its attack against Ukraine and Europe.
Vladimir Putin is already in violation of dozens of peace agreements and treaties with several countries, including the United States. There is no reason to believe he would honor any peace agreement in Ukraine.
More than 90,000 reports of rape and sexual abuse by Russian soldiers have been reported since February of 2022. Many of the victims are little boys and little girls.
If America stops military aid to Ukraine, millions of Ukrainians will be under the control of the Russians who are already persecuting and torturing Evangelical Christians, raping elderly women, and kidnapping Ukrainian children.
Vladimir Putin will not be satisfied until he takes over Ukraine and other eastern European countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.
Part of the reason Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine is because President Biden showed weakness in pulling out of Afghanistan. If we continue to show weakness by letting Putin have Ukraine, it will embolden Iran, North Korea, and China to invade Israel, South Korea, and Taiwan, bringing World War III to our doorstep.
If Ukraine falls, Vladimir Putin will have the resources of Ukraine behind him. Russia will be on the border with nine NATO countries. Putin has said that Russia will invade Poland and Finland next after Russia defeats Ukraine. If Ukraine falls, it will bring World War III closer.
In 1994, America and the United Kingdom convinced Ukraine to give up the nearly 5,000 nuclear weapons they inherited from the Soviet Union. In exchange, America agreed to come to Ukraine's defense if they were attacked. If Ukraine still had nuclear weapons, Russia would not have attacked. America must honor its agreement to keep Ukraine safe.
An Analogy
Reading various links on a blog, I discovered this tweet, an analogy written by a Ukrainian. Here it is:
“Imagine if in the 1770s and 1780s the French began to question the revolutionary war of the Americans against the British, questioning whether they can defeat the British, and threatening to end all support while suggesting that the Royal Army keep New York, Philadelphia, and other major cities in North America.
“Imagine the French King visits the British King and discusses a “peace” treaty without including the Americans, saying, “The killing and dying must stop.”
“Would a patriotic freedom-loving American accept this “peace” treaty? Would he even stop fighting defending his home, family, and country? Think about it.
“This is what is happening right now in Ukraine. Ukrainians are not fighting because their government told them to do so. They are fighting because the Russian invader wants to subjugate and destroy them.
“Putin literally denounced Ukrainian identity and has already killed hundreds of thousands in Mariupol and elsewhere. No persistent ceasefire, let alone peace treaty is feasible. Only Russian defeat is. Period.”
While Trump, you the reader, and I may wish to force a peace agreement in Ukraine, we can't assume that Ukrainians will naturally cease to fight once the agreement is signed. The Ukrainian people's cause is not transactional. For them, it's survival.
In response to this analogy, a prominent author and geo-strategist named J. R. Nyquist responded to this tweet to a commenter in his latest blog. Here is what he wrote.
“For Ukraine, the situation is even more dire than it was for Americans fighting the British during the Revolutionary War.
"Ukraine was under a tyranny much bloodier, more corrupt, and much more violent. King George would not have done any of the things to the Americans that the Kremlin has done to Ukrainians. There is a moral gulf that separates normal countries in history from a formation like the Soviet Union or the Russian Federation — which is THE continuation state of the USSR.
"Also, there is more at stake in Ukraine; namely, the future independence of all Europe. The European Union is the largest economic bloc in the world, with the second largest GDP after the United States. One might say that the fate of the world is at stake.”
So, please support Ukrainian independence. Putin is a bully, and bullies understand one thing and that is strength. Ukraine stands in the gap between the civilized world of the west and the barbaric aggression of Russia, China, Iran, and N. Korea. As author-film maker Trevor Loudon once said to me, “What happens if Russia is defeated in Ukraine? Ukraine will be independent; Taiwan will not be invaded; N. Korea will not attack S. Korea, and Iran will not attack Israel. The entire world is a better place.”
Peace at any price is not peace. It is appeasement to a bully that will result in loss of freedom for the world.
Slava Ukraine!