30 Days Standing Alone
Today marks the 30th day since Russia invaded Ukraine (for the second time) and unfortunately the war rages on.
Technically, this conflict started back in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea. Ever since then a bloody and protracted battle has raged in the Donbas region between Russian backed separatist and Ukrainian Forces.
Here in Canada, far removed from the chest rattling crump of artillery impacts, snap of small arms fire, and terror of a society in upheaval, a different war is being fought. While it lacks the media coverage, the surreal combat TikTok videos, and worldwide coverage, it is no less important. The battle here is over our principles and ethics, not our infrastructure or lives; it is our very soul and identity as country that stands to be most grievously injured.
When the war broke out, I watched videos of Russian jets firing missiles into residential areas, these munitions could be heard exploding just out of view and were made even more heart wrenching because of the cries of a child in the background gripped in terror. Tanks rolling through streets, cars being crushed with their occupants in them...it affected me deeply and I wrote, later that night, a post on my blog called “A Winters Night Walk”. It helped but I still feel conflicted about the war and our response.
President Zelensky, and the people of Ukraine were given incredibly poor odds by nearly every military strategist in the world when it appeared Russia would invade. But in what can only be described as a miracle in the making, they have defied those odds. In standing up to the might of the Russian Army, and the insanity of Vladimir Putin, they have proven to the world what unity, resolve, bravery and national pride can do. This is an example that we and our government should heed and begin to emulate.
30 days (about 4 and a half weeks) into this conflict and Ukraine still stands alone...despite what all the hashtags and politicians say. Sure, weapons and aid have come in from western nations, including Canada, and sanctions against Russia have been ratcheted up, but the only people actually standing with Ukraine are Ukrainians, plus the few thousand fighters from around the world who’ve joined their foreign legion. Why is this so?
Do Canada and the rest of the western democracies lack the same resolve, bravery, national pride and sense of justice that Ukraine apparently has? Are we not willing to help promote and uphold the values of our Charter and face injustices in the world anymore? Have we become content to simply watch confrontation play out from afar? Is this Canada, and what Canadians are about now, just “conveners” as our Foreign Affairs Minister recently expressed.
Watching a sovereign democratic nation, with many similarities and ties to Canada and the prairies, be invaded, while sitting comfortably on our hands begs the question, is this all that is left of the nation that stormed Vimy Ridge after every other great allied nation failed? Would the country that played a significant role freeing Holland from the Nazi’s, that sent troops to Korea, Somalia, Rwanda, and Afghanistan even recognize itself in the mirror if it could look?
Do I want a war? No. Having been involved in one personally, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But just for a second think of the worst the worst thing you can to do to another person, now imagine that thing it is happening to a dear friend, or family member. In this hypothetical situation you have a chance to stop it, but to do so will comes with significant personal risk. Do you sit idly by and let whatever horror it is you imagined be carried out, or do you stop it, knowing it’s the right thing to do.
This is the figurative front line of the pivotal battle being fought in which Canada’s values, principles, and morals are at stake. It’s the same question that NATO, the US and all western democracies are facing. An unimaginable horror is being committed against an entirely innocent nation. Do we act to stop it, knowing we will shoulder some of the same pain that Ukraine is suffering alone? Or do we watch, content to hurl terse, but ineffective words and social media posts at the belligerent until it is too late to act and then console ourselves that we did all we could.
If it is to be the latter, then Canada best look in the proverbial mirror now, because if Ukraine falls to Russia, the next time our nation goes to gaze upon its reflection there’ll be nothing to see but a ghastly shadow of its former self.