Ukraine’s Catch-22
In Catch 22, Yossarian is trying his damnedest to get out of suicidal bombing runs and he finds a way out. Get certified insane. There’s only one catch, as Doc Daneeka tells him.
‘Sure there’s a catch. Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn’t really crazy.’ There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
‘That’s some catch, that Catch-22,’ he observed.
‘It’s the best there is,’ Doc Daneeka agreed.
Today life is imitating fiction in Ukraine. Ukraine desperately wants to join NATO to chase out Russia. But in order to join NATO, they must chase out Russia. This is literally what NATO’s quisling leader Jens Stoltenberg is saying:
At the Vilnius summit and in preparation for the summit, we are not discussing sending an official invitation. We are discussing how to bring Ukraine closer to NATO. But most importantly, we all agree that the most urgent and important task now is to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent, democratic nation in Europe. Because unless we do that, unless Ukraine prevails, then there is no issue to be discussed at all related to membership. We all want this war to end. But a just peace cannot mean freezing the conflict and accepting the deal dictated by Russia.
People say Putin denies Ukraine’s existence, but here’s Stoltenberg denying it himself. He’s saying that Ukraine right now does not qualify as an independent state, and unless it ‘prevails’ as one, then there’s no question of joining NATO at all. And yet the very pussy-footing process of joining NATO is what got Ukraine in…
