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"My own guess is that Hungtington's theory is roughly correct, and that the reasons for the current turmoil and god forbid imminent war in Ukraine (something along the lines of Syria) are ultimately due to the country sitting along the cultural fault-line in that country in a world driven more and more by "civilizational" forces rather than national or ideological forces."

The damage done by Islamophobes in Europe, Middle East and the US is immense. These groups claim to be 'believers' in the Clash of Civilization, but is false and pushing forward their own agenda. The exploitation of Huntington's thesis in a world where people searching for their identity, ethnicity and cultural history.

Many conflicts are sourced in the aftermath of WWI and the artificial borders drawn by old-colonial powers. See Iraq and Syria after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean peninsula was transfered to the Soviet Union. We still see a Cold War policy playing out in Eastern Europe: Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo and now in the Ukraine. The revolutions in Kosovo, Libya and Ukraine are part of a proxy war between handful Western nations and Russia, pushing the frontier deep into the heart of the old Soviet empire. Strategic interests in gas pipelines also play a role.

Look at the history of the Crimean and what has passed since Communism took hold in the Soviet Union. Handing the Crimea to the Ukraine was a 'gift' by Nikita Khrushchev in 1954 due to a 300 year-old anniversary. A similar 'gift' was by Stalin, handing Abkhazia and Ossetia to the republic of Georgia.

In the end, it's ethnicity, religion and cultural ties that will result in a nationalist movement for independence. The violent overthrow of the Yanukovich regime was not one that will unite, but will divide the people of the Ukraine into three federal states.

The Neocons and 'rolling back Russian imperialism'.  

See my earlier post - Nazi Collaboration by Banderists in East Galicia and diary - Ukraine's Holodomor of 1933 and the Maidan Revolution.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Sat Mar 1st, 2014 at 04:51:44 AM EST

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