OPINION: There is a unity of purpose in the West opposing Vladimir Putin's totally unjustified invasion of Ukraine

FOR many of us this week will have had major significance as, for many, the end of this month of February has also represented the end of the Covid-19 pandemic with the lifting of all restrictions after two years of unprecedented and unforgettable experiences where you and I and so many others are concerned.

Some of us know people who died from the virus. Some of us had family funerals grievously constricted by the virus and, apart from family deaths form Covid itself, this was hardest  to take. Not to mention all those postponed weddings, the deferred visits to family at home and abroad and the total disruption of normal life as we knew it.

But even before we were able take pleasure in our new freedom from that plague we were faced with a possibly even greater calamity which may have even deeper implications for our years ahead. I refer, of course, to Russia’s invasion on Ukraine on Thursday, February 24.

Remember that date, though it’s likely you will not be allowed to forget it.

On December 7 1941 the Japanese air force attacked the US navy at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. It was a surprise military strike on a country which had been neutral up to then. Altogether 2,008 US sailors were killed and 710 others wounded as well as 218 soldiers and airmen with 364 wounded. A total 109 marines were killed and 69 wounded, while 68 civilians were killed and 35 wounded.

In total 2,403 Americans were killed, and 1,143 wounded, with 18 ships were sunk or run aground, including five battleships. All of the Americans killed or wounded during the attack were legally non-combatants, given that there was no state of war between the US and Japan when the attack occurred.

In time Japan would pay a shocking price when two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans in August 1945.

The day after that attack on December 7 1941, US President Franklin D Roosevelt delivered one of the great political speeches where  he described December 7 1941 as “a date which will live in infamy— the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

It is probable that this world hasn’t experienced such a day since December 7 1941 until last week when, on Thursday February 24, Vladimir Putin of Russia invaded his neighbour Ukraine from the north, the south, and the east.

That date and that event have altered the world we live in far, far more than Covid and has very significant implications for us all.  Our geo-political world has changed, changed utterly. And, unlike what happened the US on December 7 1941, it is not as if we didn’t see it coming.

Then, what we expected was that Putin would move his forces into those two Ukraine provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk whose independence he had recognised, but few expected he would attempt to subjugate the entire country – which is the largest country wholly in Europe. (Russia itself extends into Eurasia).

Yes, it is true the Americans had warned us again and again that invasion was on the cards but even then most thought that referred to those two provinces.

And yes, many were wary of these American forecasts because of recent history. But the Americans were right.

There is a deeply serious lesson here, and not just for American administrations. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on you.  The world hasn’t forgotten how America lied shamefacedly prior to its invasion of Iraq in 2003. How were we to know until last Thursday they might not be lying to us again?

As New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd recalled in her column for that newspaper over recent days “Putin draped the albatross of the unwarranted invasion of Iraq around America’s neck: to prove that there were WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) in Iraq, Putin said, 'the US secretary of state held up a vial with white powder, publicly, for the whole world to see, assuring the international community that it was a chemical warfare agent created in Iraq. It later turned out that all of that was a fake and a sham, and that Iraq did not have any chemical weapons'.”

She continued: “Hard to argue with that. George W Bush and (vice president) Dick Cheney let their own egos, gremlins and grandiose dreams occlude reality. George W wanted to outshine his father, who had decided against going into Baghdad when he fought Saddam Hussein.

And Cheney wanted to kick around an Arab country after 9/11 to prove that America was a hyperpower. So they used trumped-up evidence, and Cheney taunted (General) Colin Powell into making that fateful, bogus speech at the United Nations, chock-a-block with Cheney chicanery.”

That is an American tragedy. It has done enormous harm to that country’s reputation, even when a clearly honourable man such as current US President Joe Biden is involved. There’s a very serious lesson there for all political leaders.

Now we know the Americans were telling the truth when they warned again and again over recent weeks that an invasion of Ukraine was imminent. It has happened. It is without justification.

Arguments in favour of Putin’s security concerns over Nato on his doorstep (in the Baltic States and fellow EU members) go out the window. Nato has never, ever attacked Russia. Or the Soviet Union. It is a defensive alliance, as Putin well knows.

It is now him and us! Black and white. Since Thursday of last week we are all Ukrainians now. No debate, no discussion. We must do all we can practically, militarily, economically to support that valiant country and we must be prepared to take the hit in probably higher energy prices which will follow on from reduced importation to Europe of Russian gas and oil.

We must be prepared to take such an economic hit in support of a Ukraine that is literally fighting for its life. Of course, it’s not just Ukraine which has a bloody nose now right up against the cruelties of the Russian bear. We must also stand in solidarity with our EU colleague countries in eastern Europe – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania  etc – who joined the EU and Nato by free choice so they would never be subject to Russian oppression again.

With our own history we understand where they and Ukraine are coming from and we should also remember the unequivocal support we have received to date from all our eastern European fellow EU member states in the ongoing Brexit debacle.

Yes, there is discomfort ahead for Ireland as a result of the invasion of Ukraine – and not least when it comes to our own neutrality – but it is mild compared to what Ukraine is experiencing now and the anxiety being visited on our eastern European EU colleagues. 

What is heartening – even unexpected - is the unity of purpose with which the EU and the West generally is addressing this outrageous invasion of a sovereign, independent, brave country.

One thing Vladimir Putin has achieved this past week, and which many heretofore thought was well night impossible, is that he has united the West to a degree not seen since World War II. For that, at least, let us be grateful to the events of February 24 2022.

Long live Ukraine and her brave people!