Ukraine Conflict Commentary
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Posted by Jack Heslin on 13:12:32 07/26/22
For the past few months, I have been writing opinion pieces on an international geopolitical website called THEDURAN dealing mostly with the current Ukraine Russia conflict. I have enjoyed writing these pieces because it has caused me to focus my thoughts and it has provided me an opportunity to share those thoughts with a broader community. THEDURAN has published my articles on both their NEWS page and the main page of their website. They have also given me my own web page. I have also posted all 12 of my articles here on the Discussion Board of the Battle of Kontum website.
I have just published my latest piece called A LOSING HAND which is the twelfth in the series. I see this article as a sort of capstone to my effort and may be my last article, I m not sure yet but we will see.
I have used these articles as a means of linking the current Ukraine conflict back into historical events and especially the Vietnam War history. One of my great disappointments in life has been the failure of America to honor its commitments to the South Vietnamese government as provided for in the January 17, 1973, Paris Peace Accords. We all know the consequences of that failure. There is a link to the Accords on the Links Page of the Battle of Kontum website if anyone is interested in reading them. Few Americans know of the existence of the Accords or the contents. The American political leadership at that time, President Nixon, forced the South Vietnamese president to sign the Accords. President Nixon gave security guarantees to South Vietnam which were never honored. I know that as a fact because General Ly Tong Ba, who was an aide to the South Vietnamese President at that time, was in the room with both presidents and he told me what happened.
The precursor to the current Ukraine Russia conflict was a series of international agreements which were meant to end the war in the Donbas region of Ukraine. The first was known as the Minsk Protocol which was signed by many European leaders on September 5, 2014. However, the agreement failed to stop the fighting, so a revised and updated agreement called Minsk II was drawn up and again signed February 12, 2015, by European leaders. This agreement consisted of a package of measures, including a ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line, release of prisoners of war, constitutional reform in Ukraine granting self-government to certain areas of Donbas and restoring control of the state border to the Ukrainian government. While fighting subsided following the agreement's signing, it never ended completely, (more than 14,000 people died in the period 2015 2022) and the agreement's provisions were never fully implemented in spite of Russia s continual requests for signers of the agreement to enforce the agreement as they promised. The Russians stated many times that, if necessary, they would act to enforce the provisions of the agreement. No one listened to Vladimir Putin and now, many are suffering the consequences of not enforcing the Minsk Agreement. I doubt that many Americans are aware of any of this history.
I certainly don t know what the final outcome of this conflict will look like. I continue to pray for all the people in harm s way and suffering. I have suggested a possible outcome in my latest article, but no one knows for sure. There continues to be a clear and present danger of the conflict widening into a NATO/Russia confrontation which would be disastrous for all of us.
There are wide ranging economic and political consequences unfolding almost daily. We have seen the political leadership of Europe changing with the Prime Minister of Great Britain Boris Johnson resigning and the Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi resigning. We may well see other European leaders step down in the near future as the rapidly changing economic situation in Europe and the world continues to unfold.
I am hoping and praying for our future.
Jack Heslin - The Scribe
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