Rape and Murder in Front of Eye Witnesses
America’s reaction to what is happening to Ukraine today is incomprehensible and immoral while being encouraged by the so-called leader of the free world.
Thus far the international community, notably Europe, the former captive nations, Canada and a few others been incapable of stopping Russia from ravaging Ukraine for the sake of its imperial expansion and protecting Ukraine. Then add to this President Trump’s latest misguided expressions of support for the perpetrator rather than the wretched victim that goes against the grain of 249 years of righteous American history, including the 1959 Captive Nations Week Proclamation.
How can this be taking place in broad daylight in the 21st century? Hasn’t anyone read history? Certainly not President Trump and his assortment of myopic politicians pretending to be world class government leaders. Isn’t the catastrophic conclusion obvious? To most voters yes but not to this sorry group.
Thinking about this, my thoughts drifted to a tragic event that had its place in the borough of Queens in New York City six decades ago and to my blog of May 13, 2015. A young woman was killed in full view of her neighbors who actually witnessed the gruesome event from the comfort of their high-rise apartment windows and couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything to stop the assailant or protect the unfortunate woman.
Here is an excerpt from Martin Gansberg’s article in The New York Times of March 27, 1964.
For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.
Twice their chatter and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out, and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead…
Twenty-eight-year-old Catherine Genovese, who was called Kitty by almost everyone in the neighborhood, was returning home from her job as manager of a bar in Hollis…
The entrance to the apartment is in the rear of the building because the front is rented to retail stores. At night the quiet neighborhood is shrouded in the slumbering darkness that marks most residential areas.
Miss Genovese noticed a man at the far end of the lot, near a seven-story apartment house at 82-40 Austin Street. She halted. Then, nervously, she headed up Austin Street toward Lefferts Boulevard, where there is a call box to the 102nd Police Precinct in nearby Richmond Hill.
She got as far as a streetlight in front of a bookstore before the man grabbed her. She screamed. Lights went on in the 10-story apartment house at 82-67 Austin Street, which faces the bookstore. Windows slid open and voices punctuated the early-morning stillness.
Miss Genovese screamed: “Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me!”…
The assailant stabbed her again.
“I'm dying!” she shrieked. “I’m dying!”…
Gansberg concluded his article by writing: “It was 4:25 A.M. when the ambulance arrived to take the body of Miss Genovese. It drove off. “Then,” a solemn police detective said, “the people came out.”
Kitty’s neighbors offered a variety of excuses why they allowed her to be killed in their voyeuristic presence.
“I didn’t want to get involved.”
“We thought it was a lovers’ quarrel.”
“I didn't want my husband to get involved.”
“We went to the window to see what was happening … but the light from our bedroom made it difficult to see the street … I put out the light and we were able to see better.” Asked why they didn’t call the police, the wife shrugged and replied: “I don't know.”
“I was tired."
“I went back to bed."
On a personal, human level, the murder of Kitty Genovese and the callous disregard for her life by her neighbors was crass and inhuman.
On a national level, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the indiscriminate killing of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers along with the callous inability to stop the perpetrator from spreading bloody terror is also devastating and inhuman.
The murder 60 years ago does bear resemblance to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On a global scale, thanks to all sorts of technological advances, Russia’s undeclared war against Ukraine is being witnessed by the same callous, immovable, unconcerned, indifferent neighbors who witnessed Kitty’s murder five decades ago. Their apathetic explanations are identical to those who saw Kitty killed in cold blood. Their character, excuses and specious accusations are abetted by the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was undeclared and unexpected, the subsequent occupation of Crimea and Donbas, and Moscow’s advances westward did not occur without some sort of spy in the sky warnings. Remember the 40-mile-long Russian armored column approaching Kyiv? Furthermore, there has been a centuries long track record of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine that today has not been slaked.
The latest fallout has already begun. The United States will not co-sponsor a new United Nations resolution backing Ukraine. The draft UN General Assembly resolution condemns Russian aggression, backs Ukraine’s territorial integrity, diplomatic sources told Reuters on Thursday, February 20. This is the first UN about face regarding Ukraine in at least the past decade and another check mark for Russia’s global political victories spearheaded by Trump, who is apparently operating under the influence of a Russian kompromat.
In the past week, America’s desertion of Ukraine caught Ukraine and the free world by surprise even though Trump has been briskly walking down that path even before he was elected to the White House. Clearly, the United States is not supporting unequivocally Ukraine in the manner that it has in the recent past. Trump first put equal blame and responsibility for the war on Kyiv and Moscow and then the scales tipped in favor of Russia. Trump accused Ukraine of launching the war because it didn’t do anything to stop it early on when it, Kyiv, had a chance to do so.
Take a moment digest this. Three years ago, Russian cutthroats and armor were already approaching Kyiv from the north, Bucha has been destroyed, innocent men, women and children have been raped and murdered. Was this the moment in time, when Kyiv could have ended the war? What would it have taken for Ukraine to end the war then against a brutal invader? According to Trump and Putin, only Ukraine’s surrender. That would be national suicide.
Then Trump accused Zelenskyy of being a dictator because he had not called national elections. You should recall that during World War Two, Winston Churchill also suspended elections for the duration of hostilities. Trump continued to belittle Zelenskyy saying: “The leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval rating.”
Actually, Zelenskyy “retains a fairly high level of public trust” — about 57 percent, according to a report released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
An analysis of Trump’s rhetoric reveals that word for word, phrase for phrase, concept for concept, the American president is repeating Russian anti-Ukrainian propaganda going back to the Cold War. Gabrielius Landsbergis, former minister of foreign affairs of Lithuania, a former captive nation and NATO member, alluded to this when opined that Trump’s and Putin’s plans and goals for Ukraine are aligned.
Regarding this latest wave of Trump lies, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress issued the following statement:
“US President Donald Trump’s recent statement that Ukraine is to blame for Russia’s genocidal invasion is as revolting as it is false. Russia invaded Ukraine for no reason other than to destroy the Ukrainian state and annihilate the Ukrainian people.
“Trump’s insults directed at Ukrainian leaders and the undermining of Ukrainian sovereignty will only encourage Russia to further aggression against Ukraine and Ukraine’s neighbors.
“Moreover, to demand that Ukraine hold elections while Russian rockets and missiles rain down on Ukrainian homes, hospitals and schools is absurd and contrary to international law and norms, concepts that are foreign to Donald Trump.
“Trump has demonstrated that he is a willing instrument of the Kremlin and the war criminals who run Russia today. They are certainly rejoicing today. And well they should.
“It should by now be crystal clear to the EU and all other NATO leaders that the United States under President Trump is no longer a reliable ally – neither in the defense of Ukraine’s freedom nor in the guarantees of the Alliance.
“It is critical that Canada and other European allies dedicate far more resources to our collective defense and to supplying Ukraine with armaments and ammunition. The $300 billion of frozen Russian assets in European banks must be confiscated immediately and used to arm Ukraine.
“That would be a good place to start.”
As the war of words evolves, it is becoming apparent that the United States will remain the sole opponent of Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty, having taken sides with the Kremlin, which regularly reminds the world of its nuclear capabilities. BBC News on Thursday, February 20, reported that the United Kingdom, in the wake of Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine, among others, has reaffirmed its unshakable support for Ukraine.
Trump’s harsh words for Zelenskyy and Ukraine drew criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress, where Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression has had bipartisan support. Zelenskyy said Trump was falling into a Russian disinformation trap — and was quickly admonished by Vice President JD Vance about the perils of publicly criticizing the new president.
Vance told the Daily Mail that Zelenskyy’s criticism of Trump was not helping his cause. “The idea that Zelenskyy is going to change the president’s mind by bad mouthing him in public media, everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration,” Vance said.
Former Vice-President Mike Pence reminded Trump in a Tweet that Ukraine didn't start the war but rather Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion that claimed hundred of thousands of lives. "The road to peace must be built on the truth," he stated.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was appalled that Trump was blaming Ukraine for Putin’s invasion.
“It’s disgusting to see an American president turn against one of our friends and openly side with a thug like Vladimir Putin,” Schumer said.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said he disagreed with Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine was responsible.
“I think Vladimir Putin started the war,” Kennedy said. “I also believe, from bitter experience, that Vladimir Putin is a gangster. He’s a gangster with a black heart” who has Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s “taste for blood.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said Trump’s words were insulting to the thousands of Ukrainians who have died in the war, and he accused the president of parroting Putin. “I would call on President Trump to apologize to the people of Ukraine, but it would be a waste of breath,” Durbin said. “Donald Trump is a pushover for Putin.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota is among the Republican lawmakers who have supported Ukraine over the course of the war. He said the Trump administration needed space as it seeks a resolution. “The president speaks for himself,” Thune said about Trump’s sharpening rhetoric toward Zelenskyy. “What I want to see is a peaceful result, a peaceful outcome.”
As the war of words in the free world grinds back and forth, individual countries should do something while they still have time. Returning Ukraine to Russia’s prison of nations, even a part of Ukraine, will have dire consequences for all of civilization. It would mean that the West can be browbeaten into submission, invasions are legitimate and Moscow can win without firing a shot. Ukraine and the other former captive nations are pleading for us to do something before it’s too late.
The global village must consider what will be its steps when they hear: “Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me!”… “I'm dying!”
