A few hours before the first results of the US presidential election come in, on Tuesday, November 5, a handful of American volunteer fighters gathered in a Kyiv bar to discuss the future of their country. “Tomorrow’s going to be chaos, that’s for sure,” said Ryan O’Leary, 38, commander of the “Chosen Company,” an assault unit made up of foreign volunteer servicemen attached to the Ukrainian army’s 59th Brigade.
His seven comrades nodded in agreement. This tattooed, bearded Iowa native, who defined himself as a “conservative Democrat,” regretted the degradation of the American political system and the radicalization within the Democratic and Republican parties, which has polarized the debate on Ukraine and led to military aid deliveries being blocked. “Some of my men are dead because of the lack of ammunition and weapons,” he said, blaming both President Joe Biden and the Republicans in Congress.
Neither he nor any of his comrades have voted in the election. “I feel that as a combatant in a foreign army, taking part in the elections would be a conflict of interest,” explained commander O’Leary. The others, to explain their abstention, instead cited a complex administrative procedure requiring them to vote by post, well in advance. Yet they all felt very concerned by the election’s outcome, and by a possible explosion of violence back home.
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“The Democrats are big cowards. There’ll only be violence if the Republicans lose,” O’Leary said, drawing laughs from his men. “The Democrats set fire to their neighborhoods, while the Republicans ransacked the Capitol,” added a 29-year-old fighter known as “Jumbo” – his call sign – a lanky man with a long red beard, who was also covered in tattoos. Unlike their commander, the Chosen Company’s volunteer fighters have preferred to hide their identities by going by their call signs.
Originally from Connecticut, on the east coast of the United States, “Jumbo” defined himself as a “centrist libertarian,” and declared that “there is no good candidate in this election.” While he said he was anxious about the outcome, he added that he wasn’t going to “fall out of bed at 4 am to watch the news,” which amused the group. “Either way, there’s going to be trouble,” he predicted. “There’s no risk of civil war,” said O’Leary. “It takes time to shatter a society. As someone who fought in Iraq and Syria, I can see that we’re still a long way from the breaking point in the US.”
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