President Zelensky Visits General Washington, part five

Cold pierced President Zelensky as he walked through Valley Forge’s winter camp. Soldiers in ragged clothing huddled around fires. They looked like a ragtag army. General Washington’s camp headquarters were ahead. Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in February 1778 appeared to be a place to die, desert, or struggle. It also built men who fought with loyalty to their cause in the coming war years. For President Zelensky, arriving from Ukraine, it was March 2022.

He was announced by the general’s aide, “General Washington, Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived. He wishes to speak with you.”

“Ask him to come in.”

As Volodymyr entered, all six feet and two inches of General Washington arose “Volodymyr, I am pleased to meet you. Lafayette has spoken to me about your visit.”

“General Washington, I am honored to meet you and come with urgent need for your help. May I observe you for five days? I will endeavor to not interfere with your work. Afterwards, I will return to Kyiv, Ukraine, where I serve as president.

“Your principles of leadership can help me to avoid leading the Ukrainian military to destruction by the Russians under Putin’s ruthless dictatorship.

“Your enemy, Great Britain, as ours, has greater power than you have. Russia and many military experts expect us to be defeated quickly. Your enemy as ours has many more soldiers than you have. Our enemy fights dirty, using war crimes on civilians. Our women, children, elderly, orphans, the sick in hospitals, and pregnant women in maternity wards have no safe place to hide. Your enemy, Great Britain, has greater moral conscience than ours has.

“We are stupid and naïve if we believe any official promises from Putin and his cronies. They lie to us and the world about what they do and will do. Must we accept defeat? Ukrainians want passionately to win. Somehow, they expect to win, even if they are bombed and shelled day after day. I must encourage them. They fight with passion and discipline. I cannot act like a defeated dog, head hung low and soon to disappear.

“Russian weapons are more sophisticated than ours. We do not have access to advanced jets, or belong to NATO. It is a league of thirty nations, whose forces would help our sovereign country. None of Ukraine belongs to Russia, though they invaded and took part of our country in 2014. For 31 years, we have had an independent democracy. Five years later we proudly adopted a constitution.”