The Eastern Front in World War Two: Germany vs The Soviet Union (Excerpt of "Flash of the Sun")

     It was during this lull in fighting on the Western Front that he deepened his interest on the developments of the war on the Eastern Front. He was initially shocked when he pried and found out that Germany had been committing about two thirds of its forces against the Soviet Union throughout the war and that most of the German casualties in the war came from the brutal battles fought against the Soviet Red Army. Further information picked up revealed the enormous price the Soviet Union had paid and was still paying in materials and human lives, especially during the early stages of the war.

     It soon became evident to him that the much talked about assistance the Soviets received from their American and British allies was overrated and that the Russians and their other fellow Soviet compatriots had managed through most of their own efforts to build a formidable war machine and a military industrial complex that was not only baffling the retreating Germany Army in the East, but that was also intriguing the Allied powers in the West. However, he didn’t have enough reasons to be optimistic about the authenticity of the information he was getting from the newspapers and journals reporting Soviet military advances in the east against the retreating German Army, reports spelling out the recovery of territories they had lost in Belorussia, Ukraine and Moldavia. He learned with misgivings that further Soviet offensives had forced German troops out of Eastern Poland and Eastern Romania, sparking off local uprisings in Poland and Southern Czechoslovakia, as well as coup d’états that brought down the pro-Nazi regimes in Romania and Bulgaria. When he found out that the advance of Soviet troops into Yugoslavia had forced the Germans to withdraw their troops from Albania, Greece and Yugoslavia, he knew the Soviet Union that his patron Joseph Nana Njike had talked to him about with guarded respect had truly arrived at the world stage as a super power or military force to reckon with.    

      The last month of the year was the time it dawned on him that there would be a race between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union on who would get to Berlin first. Also, he could not dispel a gnawing feeling that the retreating German troops would prefer to capitulate to the western forces than surrender to the Soviets and their new Eastern European allies. That meant one thing only—the war was virtually over for them and he was less likely to die from the impending campaign to overrun Germany and kick the Nazis out of power.

   

                                                                                                 

The Conflict in Ukraine and the Media as a Reflection of the Malfunctioning Geopolitical Setup and an Eschewed Vision for Humanity

The world needs a restructuring based on humanism, a recalibration of how relations between nations should be, one that is devoid of hypocrisy and where human values are put ahead of irrational national interests. The world needs that moment of a reset, even if for a short while. If the movers of the world do not engage in such a restructuring, then we are all doomed.  Our world also badly needs an openness or glasnost where “calling a spade a spade” would be the norm, where honesty, integrity and shared common interest prevail.

An engagement with self-interest driven geo-political novices gives advocates of social solidarity an idea of the narrow-mindedness of some of the movers  and shakers of  the world, supposed experts in international law, international relations and history whose actions and policies should direct humanity towards peace and progress, but which unfortunately are pushing the world towards self-destruction.

Most  humanists, altruists and advocates of social solidarity decry or deplore the hypocrisy going on in world politics today. In a world haunted by so many man-made conflicts that were avoidable, the Ukrainian conflict stands out as the most stupid, that is, for a rational mind.  Unfortunately, we are living in a world where rationalism is becoming scarcer and scarcer every day, and where many world leaders seem to lack an understanding of the repercussions of their actions and policies.

In the Ukrainian conflict, it becomes clear that Ukrainians allowed themselves to be used by their elites, that the West instigated the conflict with its actions in the country before, during and after the Maidan protests, a process that led to the ouster of the former democratically elected Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, which sparked off Russia's reaction, leading to the current standoff in the country today. I understand Russia's position in light of the West's underhand tactics in Ukraine. I do not support all of Russia's actions though, in as much as I deplore the actions and policies of the Western powers in Ukraine. Unfortunately, the common folks, the simple Ukrainian people are the victims of the mess that the country has become today, a mess where hooligans now direct the cause of a nation, pitting brothers against brothers. All the same, lessons can be learned from South Africa in building a "New Ukraine" where consensus is the watchword. After all, it is impossible for the pro-Western side or the Pro-Russian side to impose its will on the other without destroying Ukraine in the process.

What many humanist cannot understand is the hypocrisy and cherry-picking. Why work tirelessly to depose a democratically elected thief (Yanukovych) who replaced another democratically elected Western-backed thief (Yuschenko) in Ukraine, while at the same time sustaining evil, bloodthirsty dictators in power in other parts of the world, tyrants who are overwhelmingly rejected by their people? Western-backed psychopathic puppets abound in Africa (Paul Biya of Cameroon-33 years in power, Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea-37 years in power, the Edemas of Togo-5 decades, Bongos of Gabon-5 decades etc.) that are selling off their countries to the foreign entities, saving the loot in Western banks, impoverishing their countries and are pushing their best citizens to vote with their feet by moving to advanced countries, only to be called illegal aliens by some of the citizens of their host nations; yet the media  does not talk about this curse to humanity and the African people in particular, curses who are posing as heads of state; yet the major powers of the world do not even suggest their overthrow (they serve the interest of the foreign entities and serve the bigoted view that "Africans can amount to nothing".  That is why  rational minds find it strange that the same media is gleeful, if not okay ,with the removal of an elected president of Ukraine, a media that is wondering  why the people who voted Yanukovych to power had the "temerity" to oppose the Western-backed coup.It is like raping a person and getting angry that the person did not enjoy it and questions the rape.

Any genuine humanist and democrat would abhor the ways of the deposed Ukrainian president Yanukovych as well, but he was nothing more than a thief. The guys the West helped to power in Kiev through Yanukovych's deposal are also thieves, and even more killers with an exclusive agenda, propped up by a vanguard (far right groups) with fascist/Nazi ideas and methods that ostracize about half the population of Ukraine, a mindset that contaminates the world.

The leaders of the world need to start approaching geopolitical issues as humanists. They need to emulate Nelson Mandela. That is the only approach that would end up defeating political extremism and advance the cause for humanity. And without addressing the current hypocrisy in Africa as well, the continent would become the next geopolitical flashpoint between the rising China, Western nations and other rising powers of the world.  Africa needs to be allowed to its devices to clean the African house, or the most foreign powers can do is help it achieve the house cleaning. Truth be told, many foreign nations are partly responsible for the mess that many African countries are today.

Janvier Tchouteu-Chando