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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Independence Day Military Parade Rehearsals

I don’t think it’s a good idea to hold a Hr. 70M military parade — for a second consecutive year — amid the country’s deepest economic crisis since the ‘90s.

Our military’s acute fuel shortages and constant power outages further illustrate my point.


But all is fair in love, war and a presidential campaign.





Sources:
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/130293.html
http://5.ua
http://stb.ua

5 comments:

Unknown said...

These parades are to demonstrate power. I saw Medvedev's Inauguration last year and that was the same as yours, just with better weapons.

However your stuff seems to be better than ours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n42ehlWRbU

However I am not the expert of the topic.

akarlin said...

I was about to disagree, but then I watched the videos and saw the "parade" was really lame... no inspiring music, no columns of armored vehicles, no ICBM launchers... so yes, canceling it would have been for the best.

Gabriela said...

The factors you mention indeed illustrate your point. The question here is: are the resposible ones illustrated enough?
Saludos.

elmer said...

You know, Taras, one doesn't get a lot of confidence when one of the soldiers says, in effect:

"well, umm, gee, there seems to be a country like Ukraine?"

as if he's not sure if there's a country, or what it is that he's doing for his country.

Goddamnit, when I was in the Boy Scouts we had tons more spunk and spine than that:

cильно
красно
обережно
бистро

СКОБ!

Taras said...

Ropi,

The major difference is Russia has nukes (ICBMs) and Ukraine doesn’t (not anymore).

In other respects, the composition of Russia’s conventional forces hardly differs from Ukraine’s to any significant degree. Besides, Russia relies on Ukraine for air-to-air missiles, aviation engines and the maintenance of its SS-18 (“Satan”) ICBM force, designed and manufactured in Ukraine.


Sublime Oblivion,

You saw two skimpy news reports that focused on the rehearsals. If you're interested in the particulars, you can watch videos of our 2008 parade or wait until you can watch our 2009 parade.

We have no ICBMs. We only have SRBMs and ICBM-based satellite launch vehicles.
As of today, Ukraine remains a non-nuclear state. If I were president of Ukraine, I'd pursue renuclearization. To hell with NATO.

This year, I'd rather spend money on our theater ballistic missile project rather than on festivities.


Gabriela,

The responsible ones will be illustrated during the parade:)


Elmer,

Patriotism is a precious asset. I don't want to debate who's more patriotic: Ukrainians in Ukraine or Ukrainians outside Ukraine. They have different stories, but same roots.

The good thing is, in Ukraine, an entire post-Soviet generation is coming of age this year.