Ukraine: World needs new morality for super powers
The outrage with which the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been greeted in the West by the US and her key NATO allies would almost be amusing if it was not over such a tragic issue.
The US and NATO allies have zero credibility in this matter. They, especially the US, are among the biggest warmongers in the world. They have for decades now been invading weaker countries at will either directly or through proxies.
It is sheer hypocrisy for them now to manufacture outrage against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. No wonder Russia simply shrugs off their outrage
A short walk down memory lane will suffice to illustrate this.
In 2003, the US led a bunch of its allies- Britain, Australia and Poland in invading Iraq supposedly to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. The evidence then was scanty, and this was subsequently proved to have been completely false. Iraq was destroyed, and its leader then, Saddam Hussein, was deposed and hanged by the allied forces. The US and its allies then occupied Iraq to facilitate a major plunder of its oil resources.
In early 2011, the usual suspects—the US, and its NATO allies comprising UK, France and Canada-intervened in a civil war in Libya on the side of insurrectionists. These insurrectionists were having a hard time making any headway, and looked set to be defeated militarily by Libyan forces.
Warplanes from these four countries pounded Libya with airstrikes, destroying most of its fighting equipment, and laying to waste a huge swathe of the country. During the war, Libyan leader, Muammar Gadaffi, was captured and killed. The rest of the country was destroyed by the civil war.
The US and its allies then abandoned Libya to its devices, a once proud nation destroyed. A former first world country is now a complete shambles, with no end in sight.
No, the US and its NATO allies are not the people to start sanctimonious posturing when others do exactly what they have perfected. They do not have a shred of moral authority.
Back to Ukraine.
Russia used to be a global power that held the balance of terror side by side with the US. That power went down when the Soviet Union it led disintegrated on its internal contradictions.
Russia is beginning to assert itself as a global power once again. With a global-size economy, and the world looking for leadership beyond the current unipolar power structure dominated by fading US, Russia has seen opportunity to expand its hegemony.
Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, a relic of the cold war, relishes nothing more than a “cold war” stand-off that profiles his country’s military prowess. That’s why there’s so much unnecessary bombing of hapless Ukraine.
The foregoing is not to justify the Russian invasion. It is to raise the real issue that must be addressed beyond all the sanctimonious posturing- that of global powers running roughshod over weaker countries whenever the fancy hits them simply because they can.
There has to be a new mechanism to deal with this matter. Unfortunately, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the organization designed to act as the “conscience” of the world, is hostage to these very powers with their unbridled appetite for global hegemony. They can veto any resolution of the Security Council that goes against them or their allies. Case closed.
A new mechanism is needed. This mechanism must bring a new morality to bear on global affairs. That means that the global powers themselves must sit down and agree to stop invading other countries, and put together a mechanism that addresses the concerns that are likely to lead to such invasions.
The global powers must accept to bring their grievances before such a mechanism for resolution when they find compelling imperatives for invading other countries.
Nothing else will work. Unless such a mechanism comes into force, powerful countries will continue invading weaker countries at will, facilitated by powerful propaganda being deployed depending on what side of the invading forces one falls.
