"America is unwavering in its support for Ukraine sovereignty, territorial integrity and Euro Atlantic aspirations."
-unnamed Biden Administration Official in August of 2021 (Matyushenko)
US troops will not fight in Ukraine.
-Joe Biden State of the Union Address, February 2022
"In short [Putin] rolled a powder keg to the border where the Russosphere meets the West...
...But nobody except Jiǔ Bèndàn has a match.
If it explodes, the world needs to remember both of those facts."
-This author, in an article from 16 February.
In case it's not been made clear, I was born a US citizen.
In May of 2002, I went to Fort Jackson, South Carolina. There, I began my training to be a US soldier, to shed my blood and spill the blood of others for my country.
I was later a US cop. I saw the worst element of people my country can produce; murderers, serial rapists, arsonists, kidnappers, and have spent day after day in the endless struggle against that element.
I was briefly a teacher in US schools, a job from which I resigned in utter disgust at the brainless Neo-Communist dogma forced upon me under the label of "curriculum" by a Democrat-led government.
I have lived 38 years, have walked away from my country three times, and in each case I had no intention of returning.
And yet, as disgusted as I was with Washington, as much contempt as I had for the decay of America's culture, as repulsed as I was at the average Far-Left millennial's belief that their so-called "struggle" was worth comparing to the hardships endured in other lands, I truly cannot say there was ever a day when I was ashamed of my country itself; a day when I would turn my face away in shame and sigh "well, I'm afraid I'm from the States," when someone asks me what country I am from.
Until now.
It began in the days leading up to the invasion. When Jiǔ Bèndàn (1) issued a statement that all Americans should get out of Ukraine, I stayed. The statement was made that the US would not sent troops into Ukraine to rescue any Americans left behind, because Biden feared it would cause a confrontation with Russia (Finn). Now, I didn't expect OR WANT there to be US troops running to my rescue if I turned out to be wrong (as I did) in my belief that Putin was not stupid enough to invade. But to hear the president so openly admit that the reason for this, was fear, was an embarrassing moment, especially considering that other countries, including India and China, HAVE been attempting to launch such operations (Fan & Chen).
But that didn't make me ashamed of my country; only of Jiǔ Bèndàn, the man I will NEVER refer to as "my president."
When the impossible happened (namely, it turned out that Jiǔ Bèndàn was actually RIGHT about something) and Russia actually did roll tanks through the city where I lived, I didn't expect help from my government. I was the one who stayed behind. My decision, no regrets. And I didn't expect the full force of NATO to respond. After all, Ukraine is not a NATO member. But I (and the Ukrainians themselves) did harbor the apparently vain hope that the United States would honor the pledge they made in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum (Memorandum, text visible as PDF here) to provide Ukraine with "security guarantees," rather than hiding behind a technicality in the English version (a technicality not present in the Russian and Ukrainian versions) which only obligates them to act if Ukraine is attacked by nukes.
When the White House's "strong and united response (Mahshie)" was a toothless regime of sanctions so pathetic that even Jiǔ Bèndàn admitted it would take them months to take effect (while Ukraine's people don't HAVE months), which he himself admitted would not stop Putin (until he backpedalled three minutes later and denied he had ever said that), and which were so empty and lackluster that even his own carefully selected press corps of faithful sycophants started eating him alive over it, and when Jiǔ Bèndàn's State of the Disunion address reaffirmed a total absence of any US military support for Ukraine, that hope was laid to rest. I wouldn't blame the US for not getting involved (as I said, Ukraine is not part of NATO), if it hadn't been for the number of times they insisted they would.
And yet, I STILL can't say I was ashamed of my country. Only of my spineless government.
When Jiǔ Bèndàn went on, later on in the same address, to introduce the Ukrainian ambassador to the US, and said "everyone, if you are able, stand and give her a warm welcome, to send an unmistakable message to the world," I sat, stunned.
I asked myself "Does Jiǔ Bèndàn truly think applause in the US legislative halls, is an 'unmistakable message to the world?'"
Let's consider that. Does a man who met bombs with sanctions, tanks with speeches, and cruise missiles with diplomatic protests, truly think that a military aggressor is going to be swayed by such mindless, empty, meaninglessly symbolic virtue-signalling? Is this man truly stupid enough to think ANYTHING he has done is actually helping the People of Ukraine?
And as I look on social media, and see the number of fawning Americans who are proud of the "strength" of this limp-dicked response, I find that the answer is "yes, he does actually think so, and so does the average American." This was when I began to feel a twinge of awkwardness when my girlfriend and I encounter other Ukrainians here in Poland and they ask if we're Ukrainian, leaving me to answer "well actually, I'm American."
But the clincher, was when Anthony Blinken proposed to let Poland fly their outdated jets to Ukraine (Quinn), Poland said "let's give them to you instead and YOU fly them to Ukraine," and Washington said "well, AYK-shually... dat's not such good ah-dea," and scrapped the deal (Bostock), claiming the Poles came up with the idea and never consulted them.
...Never mind that it had been Washington's idea, 2 days prior.
See, it comes down to this. The plan was to fly MiG's, which Ukrainians know how to fly, into Ukraine from Poland, and let the US send Poland F-35's to replace them. The Poles didn't like the idea of Russia seeing combat planes flying out of Poland on their way to Ukraine and retaliating. So they said "let's fly them to a US base in Germany and let the Americans fly them to Ukraine," since Russia would be more hesitant to attack the US. The US response, in Joe Biden's classic fashion, was to backpedal and say "uh... well... let's reconsider this."
In short the Poles didn't trust us to honor "NATO Article 5" and back them up if Russia attacked. And the US's "it was a good idea as long as you were the one taking risks and not us" response basically proved they had good reason to doubt it. Why would the US honor our security guarantees to NATO when the Ukrainians have just watched us abandon them (as the Afghans did last summer)?
It was a a Ukrainian soldier in Kyiv who said it best. "Your sanctions do not know where are the bombs... Your guarantees mean nothing! ...You are a nation of fucking liars!"
And what has Ukraine's response been?
Well first and foremost, they are no longer interested in joining NATO (Scroll Staff). How's that for irony. Putin tried everything from begging to bribery to coercion to outright force to keep Ukraine from pressing forward with it's NATO bid, and he never made Zelensky give up that goal. But Jiǔ Bèndàn's overwhelming lack of any meaningful response to Russian aggression, his undisguised fear of ANY confrontation with them at all, was enough to make Zelensky turn up his nose in disgust. And truthfully, I can't blame him. Ukrainian babushkas armed with jars of tomatoes, or with teacups full of laxatives in one hand and matches in the other, have a better combat record against the Russian military than all of NATO combined! Right now it looks like NATO is an acronym for "Never Arrives 'Til it's Over."
And yet, most Americans are patting themselves on the back, saying "look what a great thing I've done for Ukraine with all these pretty blue and gold ribbons. Look what a 'strong and united' response the West has given. Look how proud we all are of our 'dear leader,' Joe Biden. We're with you, Ukraine." They, truly, are, stupid, enough, to think they've DONE something.
Ukraine no longer trusts NATO, especially America (and when they get through kicking Russia's ass and America tries to take credit for it, they're going to be quick to let America know that). And frankly, Ukraine is not alone in that assessment. I don't either. I cannot believe the day has come when I will say this, but it is here.
I wash my hands of you, America!
The act of changing citizenship is long, complicated, and expensive. And I have never wanted to go through it because I didn't want to give up the level of privilege and prestige that comes with a US Passport. But the day has come when I am so disgusted with my country that I would rather take up a less privileged passport than deal with the shame of being a citizen of a country whose word is that, fucking, worthless.
Today it was Ukraine that was left in the cold with nothing but empty promises. Tomorrow it will likely be Taiwan. Who will be next? Latvia abandoned to Russian predations? Or maybe Vietnam thrown to the Chinese? Sooner or later, the country that gets abandoned will be the Philippines, where my children live.
And when China comes a-calling on the Philippines' doorstep and America is too spineless to honor their MDT, I do not intend to be stuck calling the Philippine embassy in the US to inquire about their fate. I intend to be there to fight. I see now that my countrymen will not.
The US is not in decline, in terms of geopolitical power. It will continue to remain the world's dominant power until at least the 2080's, possibly later. The US will continue to set most of the world's rules for decades to come. Not because of their power, but because of their ability to get rivals to fight each other and avoid having to wade into the fray themselves until everyone else is already beaten to Hell and back (see also, both world wars). It's not "US Decline" that I'm afraid of. What I am afraid of...
...is that the day will come when American pre-eminence stops being a good thing.
And frankly, watching friends and neighbors die while they wait for US support that was promised and never arrived, and watching Americans praise themselves for all the support they think they have provided, has made me think perhaps that day has already come.
Regardless of whether that day has already come or is still in the future, I can no longer agree with Lee Greenwood when he sings "Proud to Be an American."
(1) Pronounced "Joe Bunden." Jiǔ (Hanzi: 酒) is Chinese for "wine," and Bèndàn (Hanzi: 笨蛋), is Chinese for "idiot." All-in-all, I am hard-pressed to think of a more perfect name for Beijing-Biden, the dimwitted, geriatric, Chinese-controlled twit currently sitting in the office his puppeteers used artificial mail-in ballots and mass voter fraud to put him into.
Works Cited
Bostock, Bill. "Pentagon rejects Poland's offer to send fighter jets to the US to send to Ukraine, saying it raises 'serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance'." Business Insider. 9 Mar, 2022. Web. 11 Mar, 2022. https://www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-rejects-poland-offer-send-jets-us-air-base-ukraine-2022-3?IR=T
Fan Anqi and Chen Qingqing. "Chinese nationals' evacuation in Ukraine complete! All safe: embassy." Global Times. 9 Mar, 2022. Web. 15 Mar, 2022. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1254447.shtml
Finn, Teaganne. "Biden warns Americans in Ukraine to leave, says sending troops to evacuate would be 'world war'." NBCnews.com. 10 Feb, 2022. Web. 11 Mar, 2022. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-warns-americans-leave-ukraine-russia-troops-world-war-rcna15781
Mahshie, Abraham. "Russia Invades Ukraine, Biden Calls on NATO for ‘Strong, United’ Response." Air Force Mag. 24 Feb, 2022. Web. 11 Mar, 2022. https://www.airforcemag.com/russia-attacks-ukraine-biden-calls-on-nato-for-strong-united-response/
Matyushenko, Yevgeny. Trans. Hryhorenko, Maryna. "Ukraine making progress on defense reforms – Pentagon official." Unian. 6 Aug, 2021. Web. 10 Mar, 2022. https://www.unian.info/politics/ukraine-making-progress-on-defense-reforms-pentagon-official-11447050.html
Memorandum on security assurances in connection with Ukraine’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Russia, UK, US, Ukraine. 5 Dec, 1994 (Registered with UN Secretariat 2 Oct, 2014). https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%203007/Part/volume-3007-I-52241.pdf , Accessed 11 Mar, 2022.
Scroll staff. "Ukraine says it is no longer interested in NATO membership." 9 Mar, 2022. Web. 11 Mar, 2022. https://scroll.in/latest/1019082/ukraine-says-it-is-no-longer-interested-in-nato-membership
Quinn, Melissa. "Blinken says NATO countries have "green light" to send fighter jets to Ukraine." CBS News. 7 Mar, 2022. Web. 11 Mar, 2022. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-russia-nato-fighter-jets-antony-blinken-face-the-nation/