A Clean Election Should be the Goal

Instapundit linked to a post by the invaluable Clogman , who wrote, "this is about an entire system, not about an election..." - the Professor also linked to a skeptic who placed the current turmoil in the framework of EU versus Russian hegemony. With all due respect to Instapundit and the others, I think the supporters of Yanukovych are sincere Ukrainians and part of humanity, too. YES: Even the Russo-Ukrainians are human. And they cannot all be as corrupt as their leadership.

And yes: They may in fact be a minority, and their leadership may have tried to steal the election, but they are part of humanity, too. We should not dehumanize them. We should support a free and fair election, and all the efforts underway to make sure that they are free and fair which are non-violent - if possible. But that doesn’t include denigrating the other side, IMHO. Not now, and not after a proper election, either.

And whichever way a fair election takes Ukraine - whether to remain in the fold of Russian hegemony, or to bond more fully with the Europe and EU - this is their decision. If a fair election was actually won by the pro-EU opposition, then this should be the course that the Ukraine takes. If this leads them and Europe to other difficulties (as the skeptical blogger opined), well such is life. But the difficulties which arise from the result of a fair election will "owned" by the Ukrainian people, as such the Ukrainians will be more likely to surmount them.