The current war in Ukraine has drawn
comparisons to the War for Southern Independence. Compatriot Rob Schwartz stated as such in a
Tweet recently. Although Ukraine
achieved independence from Russia with the breakup of the USSR in 1991, Russia
has long sought to bring Ukraine back under the control and influence of Moscow
if not as a state of Russia. In 2014,
Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed the Crimean Peninsula and has since backed a
rebellion led by pro-Russia separatists in the eastern region of Ukraine. Pro-Western actions by Ukraine to tie the
country more closely to the European Union economically and even NATO military
defense has angered Russian leadership and prompted the invasion of their
sovereign neighbor. “Putin has said
Ukrainians and Russians “were one people — a single whole.” “ (https://www.vox.com/22917719/russia-ukraine-invasion-border-crisis-nato-explained) While Ukraine has been an independent
nation for thirty years before this , Putin’s War, whereas the Southern states
in 1860 and 1861 only briefly claimed their independence before Lincoln
launched his War, many statements and observations by pundits are strikingly
reminiscent although the world’s collective reaction is much more accepting of
the concept of freedom and independence today a century and a half after the
War for Southern Independence.
In a parallel with
Putin supplying rebel forces in the eastern regions of Ukraine over the past
decade and gathering 150,000 troops in Belarus and along the Ukrainian border in
the months prior to the invasion on February 24, 2022, after South Carolina
declared its independence in December 1860, Lincoln responded by attempting to
resupply Union forces at Ft. Sumter on April 12, 1861 provoking a response from
the independent sovereign Confederate forces in Charleston across the harbor. “On April 15, 1861, just three days after the
attack on Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling
forth the state militias, to the sum of 75,000 troops, in order to suppress the
rebellion (as he viewed the Southern states in secession).” (https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/civil_war/LincolnEmergencySession_FeaturedDoc.htm#:~:text=On%20April%2015%2C%201861%2C%20just,order%20to%20suppress%20the%20rebellion.) Confederate
President Jefferson Davis stated in an address to the Provisional Congress of
the Confederate States of America in Montgomery on April 29, 1861, “We seek no
conquest. All we ask is to be left
alone.” Union troops invaded Virginia and Missouri in
June of that year. Putin claimed the Ukraine
government was guilty of genocide against the separatist rebel forces. Four days after Putin’s forces invaded, Ukrainian
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba appealed to the people of Russia and to the
world, "Ukraine has not attacked anyone and does not plan to attack anyone.
We want to live in peace." Putin
and Lincoln manufactured threats to justify or provoke aggression.
Why the war in
Ukraine? President Zelensky was elected
in 2019 and has proven to be more pro-Western than the Kremlin would like,
seeking greater economic ties to the West and even EU membership. Just
as in all wars, one need only follow the money.
Ukraine is the breadbasket of eastern Europe. The Southern states were the agricultural
engine of the United States. Critical
strategic gas pipelines run thru Ukraine.
Putin cannot afford to allow Ukraine to form permanent strategic
economic ties with the West including European Union membership at the expense
of Russian influence and control.
Similarly, Lincoln's stated purpose for invading the Southern states was
to collect his tariff revenues from the Southern ports. Lincoln long espoused protectionist policies which
required the agricultural goods and resources of the Southern states to fuel
Northern industries and the captive populace of the Southern states as a market
for the products manufactured in the Northern states. (https://blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/6229202435605220184/8458143139681021623 , https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln1/1:423.1?rgn=div2;view=fulltext )
Just as Lincoln
prosecuted his “total war” and imprisoned critics, the Kremlin has banned
social media inside Russia and arrested protestors. Russia news media spews propaganda claiming Ukrainian
genocide akin to the Lincoln administrations adoption of the emancipation and
abolitionist crusade against the atrocity of slavery. Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the
U.S., told reporters Saturday February 26th, "We are defending
our homes, we are defending our families, we are defending democracy, we are
defending our choice to be sovereign.” (https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/russia-ukraine-invasion-war-donbas-kyiv-troops-today/) Our
Confederate ancestors fought and died in pursuit of independence to preserve
the founders ideals of liberty and freedom and the rights guaranteed by the
Constitution and in defense of their homes, families, states and their
sovereign Confederate States of America.
US Rep. Waltz has stated Putin may start “Scorched-Earth' Attacks on
Ukraine reminiscent of the punitive indiscriminate scorched earth campaign of
Sherman’s March to the Sea. US Sen Ldr
McCarthy was quoted saying the Ukrainians "are fighting for their
freedom" and using kitchen knives, Molotov cocktails, anything as they are
outgunned by the Russian forces, the world’s second most powerful army (in
terms of defense expenditures). The
Confederates were similarly outnumbered and outgunned, resorting to muskets and
hand to hand combat against the Union forces superior in numbers and possessing
the most advanced repeating guns and more artillery.
But today, 162 years
after the Southern states attempted independence to form their Confederacy,
with a century past of World Wars, a Cold War, the crumbling of the Soviet
empire, and countless countries gaining their independence from colonialism and
communism, world acceptance to the concept of self-determination and sovereignty
is much greater whereas the Confederate States had much difficulty being recognized
by the European nations of the Victorian era.
"One reason Ukraine’s fight has engendered such a strong emotional
reaction is that there is something inherently stirring about a people
defending their homeland from a would-be imperial overlord, and that’s
fundamentally what’s happening on the ground in Ukraine. If anyone had any
doubt that Ukraine has its own national identity, the early days of this war
should have eliminated it. And another layer of national heroes and national
lore is being created as we speak. Of course, Putin is appealing to nationalist
sentiment and themes himself, but his case that Ukraine isn’t an independent
nation is spurious, and he explicitly pines for a return to empire. His war
trespasses against the norm of national self-determination established after
World War II. The Latvian prime minister put the issue very well the other day,
underlining how the struggle in Europe is between nation-states and a budding
empire. The defense of true nationalism — i.e., self-governing peoples who
don’t want to be swallowed up by countries seeking a return to supposed
imperial grandeur — is going to be a key element of the West’s pushback against
the Russia-China challenge in the years ahead." (“Nationalism’s Finest Hour” by Rich Lowry of
National Review) As Jefferson Davis stated,
"The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it
may be at another time and in another form."
