So far, the visit of Viktor Yushchenko to this country has been about as exciting and informative as last night’s so-called opening night. The wave of optimism that recently has spread throughout the enslaved world and now seems stalled over Zimbabwe got its start in the earthquake of the Orange Revolution. The meeting of democracy’s two most maligned and respected faces should be cause for more than platitudes, innuendo and half-baked conjecture.

But of course, all we are feted to is the requisite opening paragraphs aching to point out that Ukraine is in the midst of withdrawing troops from Iraq. During this historic visit–and regardless of Yushchenko’s current baffling behavior it is indeed a historic visit–the press is not likely to miss an opportunity to sneak in a jab at Bush.

The president didn’t handle the first question from Terry Hunt (transcript here) particularly well although he did mention that he understood the politics behind the move. But get a load of the verbiage from Hunt:

Ukraine and Italy and other allies will withdraw their forces
from Iraq. Why should the United States continue to pay most of the
cost and suffer most of the casualties when our allies are leaving?

What is one to infer from this question? If Mr. Hunt were running the war, would he check each day to see if there was a satisfactory number of allies on the ground and then make a decision to withdraw or not? The posing of the question in this way betrays either a woeful lack of common sense or a loathsome attempt to degrade the war effort. Mr. Hunt seems to be suggesting that the US should pack up immediately, not because Iraq is making a turn for the worse, but because other countries’ soldiers are beating a retreat. The argument (and it is an argument) is craven as it is dumb.

Steve Holland got in another media lie about the Pope’s supposed opposition to the war. Again, John Paul’s statement about the war was to the effect that war should be used only when all other options are exhausted. The Pope never said exactly what in fact the criteria of “exhausted” would be. Presumably, one’s definition of enough is different from another’s. This is not that difficult of a concept. To put words in a dead man’s mouth may seem like a rhetorical tool, but it comes off as being merely juvenile.

When the life of the Pope is examined, one finds, for all his faults (let Christopher Hitchens enumerate them) the one thing that can be universally agreed upon was that he was in favor of freedom and revolution. In fact, he fomented and supported revolution. Not all revolutions, by the way, are velvet or orange. Some come about violently.

As for Ukraine’s cooperation in Iraq, these are the words of the president of Ukraine:

We stand for — we remain arguing that Ukraine is committed to pursuing training — retraining programs for the national guard of Iraq to the armed forces of Iraq. We are prepared to share the experience and the material on a mutually beneficial basis to make sure that this order remains. It is my deep conviction that momentum has been created when Ukraine and diplomats, businesspeople and politicians must do what Ukrainian peacemakers started. Thank you.

Mr. Yushchenko can be forgiven for playing footsy with the issue of troop withdrawal. However, he has consistently failed to address the questions raised by the Gongadze and Feldman cases and the Melnychenko recordings. These questions go to the heart why he was elected just as much as Ukraine’s involvement in the war does. If he cannot deal forcefully and effectively with the corruption and brutality of the last regime (including the sale of nukes to Iran and China) he will be remembered more for his failed presidency than his successful revolution.

Contributed by Daniel Berczik of Bloggledygook.