{"id":5409,"date":"2022-03-08T08:56:55","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T13:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=5409"},"modified":"2022-03-08T09:01:22","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T14:01:22","slug":"kyivs-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2022\/03\/08\/kyivs-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyiv\u2019s Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Note \u2013It\u2019s now six essays in a row about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not that there isn\u2019t important things happening in the US \u2013 the Supreme Court upheld Pennsylvania\u2019s and North Carolina\u2019s redistricting plans yesterday \u2013 among other things.\u00a0\u00a0And I\u2019ll get back to \u201cOur America\u201d soon.\u00a0\u00a0But the drama of Ukraine \u2013 and the risk it raises for the world, is too great to ignore.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eighth Grade History<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you remember Eighth Grade History, you remember the Civil War.\u00a0\u00a0It was usually the best part of the Social Studies year, sometime in the middle of winter, when a good history teacher could intrigue a class with the pathos of battle between brothers.\u00a0\u00a0You might even remember the original battle cries: \u201cOnto Richmond\u201d and \u201cOnto Washington\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Both armies aimed at their opponent\u2019s capitals, hoping to capture them and quickly end the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The list of battles \u201con the road\u201d to the capitals is long: First and Second Bull Run, Seven Pines, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and the others in the long and bloody campaign of the summer of 1864.  Both sides were convinced that capturing, and ultimately destroying the other\u2019s capital would end the war.  Both sides committed huge resources to defending Washington and Richmond.  And, in the end, they were right.  The fall of Richmond marked the final chapter in the end of the Confederate cause.  It was only weeks before the entire War was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee\u2019s Decision<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the War, the leading Confederate General, Robert E. Lee, made a strategic decision.  He was faced with three choices.  The first was a final, all-out battle with hugely superior Union forces, one that would result in the annihilation of what remained of his Army of Virginia.  He could find no value in that choice \u2013 a final battle to the death would only result in total destruction.  There was no \u201cup-side\u201d for his forces, or the Confederacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second choice was brought to him by his junior officers \u2013 dissolve the army.  The Army of Virginia could not escape the Union Army of the Potomac, but small groups of men without heavy equipment could evade the Union patrols, and escape to the western mountains.  There, they could continue an insurgency, carrying on the Confederate cause through what today we would call guerrilla warfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee recognized that this kind of warfare would continue for generations.  And he saw that it did not further the ideals of the secessionists, who argued a \u201clegal\u201d theory to leave the Union.  Insurgency would be the opposite of what the founders of the Confederacy intended.  Their \u201cplantation society\u201d with its \u201cpeculiar institution\u201d could not exist through insurrection.  The \u201cCause\u201d would not be furthered by it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So he took the third choice, surrender of his forces to the Union.  General Grant offered him a generous surrender agreement, allowing his men rations and the freedom to go home.  Lee\u2019s Army wasn\u2019t the last in the field for the Confederacy, but it set the precedent for what the other Generals would do.  Within two months, Johnson in North Carolina, Kirby-Smith in New Orleans and Chief Stand Watie in Oklahoma surrendered and the Civil War was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyiv<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are few strategic military targets in Kyiv, just three million citizens in the capital of Ukraine.  But the symbolism of the Russian attack on Kyiv is clear.  Take the city, and take the \u201cheart\u201d of the Ukrainian resistance.  While Kyiv stands independent, Ukraine remains unconquered, still a sovereign nation standing tall against the vaunted Russian forces.  Once Kyiv falls, the war will become an insurgency, a guerilla war of ambush and dissolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is not in the same position as Robert E. Lee.\u00a0\u00a0There is value in holding Kyiv.\u00a0\u00a0The longer he can maintain a government there, the \u201cworse\u201d the Russians look to the rest of the world.\u00a0\u00a0NATO and the United Nations has united against Putin and the Russians, something that might not have happened if Kyiv fell in the first few days.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And every time a Russian artillery shell or missile or bomb falls on the millions of civilians in Kyiv, Russia isolates itself even more from the world.  Unlike Lee\u2019s choice, the ultimate destruction of Kyiv does have meaning, if it happens.  It becomes the rallying cry for Ukrainian resistance as that resistance turns to the insurgency that Lee denied.  And it becomes the symbol that will continue to make Russia a pariah to the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lighting the Torch<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So President Zelenskyy revealed his position today, sitting in his office in the Presidential Palace in Kyiv.\u00a0\u00a0He is symbolically \u201cgiving the finger\u201d to the Russians.\u00a0\u00a0Just as Kyiv still stands, in spite of the massive amounts of Russian troops and tanks and planes, so does Zelenskyy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He is challenging them, forcing them to destroy the entire city in order to \u201cconquer\u201d it.\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t be surprised if the two hundred and seventy-eight year old Palace, ironically built for a Russian empress, is flattened soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be no \u201ccavalry\u201d riding over the hill to save Ukraine.  With the ugliness of total warfare, Russia will destroy Kyiv (and symbolically Ukraine) building by building.  Trapped in the city will be millions of non-combatants, civilians, many of whom will be killed.  And the sacrifice of the city and the people will serve as a torch light for the Ukrainian resistance to follow.  Whatever happens to Kyiv, or Zelenskyy; Russia has already lost their war of conquest.  The people of Ukraine will never forget, and never cease to fight.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will the world will still stand with them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine Crisis<\/h5>\n\n\n\n