Spirtual Direction: Waking Up To 1938 All Over Again

In the past few weeks, U.S. officials have warned several times that Russia planned to create the appearance of an attack on its own forces and broadcast those images to the world. Such a “false flag” operation, they alleged, would give Russia the pretext to invade Ukraine by provoking shock and outrage.  People simply refused to believe what they were hearing.  

In the information age, it is simply hard to believe that people can overlook the facts, or is it. In a society where we are preoccupied with Kim or Pete Davidson or Kim and Kanye West, does it surprise anyone that more is not always better?  We have more information at our fingertips than ever before but we actually know less, how is this possible. 

By exposing this plan, the Biden administration sought to undermine its emotional power and stop the Kremlin from manufacturing a casus belli, or justification for war.

But false flag attacks aren’t what they used to be. With satellite photos and live video on the ground shared widely and instantly on the internet – and with journalists and armchair sleuths joining intelligence professionals in analyzing the information – it’s difficult to get away with false flag attacks today. And with the prevalence of disinformation campaigns, manufacturing a justification for war doesn’t require the expense or risk of a false flag – let alone an actual attack.

But what people did not understand is why we should care about Ukraine.  We did not need to know why we needed to care about Kim, but maybe we should take some time to go over why we should care about the people in Ukraine. 

First and foremost look at these facts:

This is why Ukraine matters.

Being the second-largest country by area in Europe and has a population of over 40 million, Ukraine ranks:

1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores

2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in terms of titanium ore reserves

2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world's reserves)

2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons)

2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves

3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters)

4th in the world by the total value of natural resources

7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons)

Ukraine is an important agricultural country:

1st in Europe in terms of arable land area

3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world's volume)

1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil

2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports

3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world

4th largest producer of potatoes in the world

5th largest rye producer in the world

5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons)

8th place in the world in wheat exports

9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs

16th place in the world in cheese exports

Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people.

Ukraine is an important industrialized country:

1st in Europe in ammonia production

Europe's 2nd’s and the world’s 4th largest natural gas pipeline system

3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants;l

3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km)

3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in the production of locators and locating equipment

3rd largest iron exporter in the world

4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world

4th world's largest manufacturer of rocket launchers

4th place in the world in clay exports

4th place in the world in titanium exports

8th place in the world in exports of ores and concentrates

9th place in the world in exports of defense industry products

10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons)

Ukraine matters. That is why its independence is important to the rest of the world. These resources are why Russia is chomping at the bits to take it

Ukraine is the spiritual heart of Russia and the center of the anti-communist White Army that opposed the Red Army after the revolution.

Ukraine is where under St. Vladimir that the Russians became Christians

As fellow Christians, we should care about Ukraine and the people living there. President Putin is in effect putting together the old USSR.   This should be enough for us to look at two famous quotes by Bishop Fulton Sheen.

Communism is the final logic of the dehumanization of man. The industrial civilization of the Western world has no intent to destroy man's freedom or to deny his personality. But Communism does. Denying God, it reduces man to a robot.

As Bishop Sheen wrote in his 1964 book The Church, Communism, and Democracy, “to the Soviets, a person is very much like a grape who continues to exist only on condition that his individual, personal value is squeezed out of him so that he exists only in the wine of the state.”

If we are truly woke-maybe we should begin to check what is important in this life and the next.  Does it make sense to worry about the trivial and allow the precious rights to be stolen from us right beneath our nose?  We need to wake up out of our sleep and begin to stand up for what is right in this world so we can prepare our place in the next one.  Amen