The Land Of Mom's Friend

Ukraine can be given two assessments at once by the end of the third year of the war.

One of them will boil down to the fact that Ukraine does not pass the statehood exam well. That men in the rear prefer to avoid mobilization. And that people condemn the Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support but not the 'dodgers' on social media. That even a full-scale invasion did not become a panacea against corruption and schemes.

We will say that Ukrainians have plenty of those who use the war for enrichment. Those who prefer not to invest in the common good, but to appropriate it for themselves. Those who offer the country simple solutions, advising to abolish taxes, distribute money or transfer the army to a voluntary recruitment format.

Ukrainians may recall the dismissal of the competent and the appointment of the loyal. Recalculate lost cities and occupied territories. Compare the reality of the front with the reality of the rear and come to the conclusion that if war is a test, then we risk failing this test.

The second verdict will be the opposite of the first.

Ukrainians can say that they were given two weeks — and they have been fighting for three years. That the second army of the world could not even reach the borders of the Donetsk region. That they manage to resist the 'Axis of Evil', which includes Moscow, Pyongyang and Tehran — which, in addition to the rear functions, is provided by Beijing.

Ukrainians will say that they are single-handedly resetting the warehouses and arsenals created to conquer Europe and the United States. That we happened to be the first country on the continent that is at war not with guerrillas, but with a nuclear state. That only we know how to intercept ballistic missiles, shoot down strategic bombers and sink missile cruisers.

We will be able to remember our civilians who went to rallies in the occupied cities. About the volunteers who managed to pull out the situation at the time of the crisis. An unprecedented level of unity, which can be traced in opinion polls even after a thousand days of war.

The peculiarity is that both of these conclusions will be true.

To assess how Ukraine passes the test of war, we need a basis for comparison. A sample with which we will begin to compare ourselves. Example — from which we will proceed when making estimates. But we simply do not have such a standard.

To try on us the era of the First World War — you need to rewind the time for a century. Abolish universal suffrage. Introduce field tribunals with the right of execution. Make the censored press the only source of information. Forget about human rights, the universal declaration of which will appear only after the Second World War. And, judging by the books of Barbusse and Remarque, this will still not save us from indifferent rear, corrupt suppliers and scammers of all stripes.

And the next world war is also not suitable for the role of a model. Most European countries fell in a matter of weeks. And Britain, so beloved in our country at that time, was not a lonely surrounded island, but an empire over which the sun did not have time to set. In addition, our whole idea of how Great Britain coped with the challenges of the war is a myth born of its victory. At a distance of eighty years, we simply do not notice all the problems that London had to face in those years.

Foyle's War – is a British series dedicated to the work of the police in the English countryside during the Second World War. The British are quite honest with themselves — and therefore show the viewer the problem of the 'dodgers' and the trade in 'white cards'. Those who are waiting for the landing of the Nazis on the island and those who earn capital on general misfortune. In wartime Britain, there was everything that we see in Ukrainian news today — and that we consider only 'domestic shortcomings'. If we win, then in eighty years our entire winding path to triumph will be retroactively aligned in the same way.

Yes, perhaps today our country does not resist the invasion well enough. But the question arises — who coped better with a similar task? Which of our neighbors has experienced this? Who has the right to compare their recent experience with ours — to then reproach us for lack of solidarity, efficiency and dedication?

Who else drowned someone else's fleet without having their own? Who besides us had to burn dozens of enemy tanks and armored vehicles in daily battles? Who last mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to go to war with a nuclear state? Who has managed to wage a multi-year war against a superior rival better than we do?

If it seems to you that we fall short of the ideal, then I want to remind you. The land of mom's friend is impeccable, effective and perfect. And also — it doesn't exist.

Pavlo Kazarin, New Voice

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