Daily Times

The world is in the grip of another imperialist war: a clash of Titan is indirectly taking place in Ukraine, and a smaller nation, as ever, has become the cannon fodder for their expansionist design. “It is Putin’s war,” the west is shrieking hoarsely to make the world believe that a paranoid individual has imposed the war on a peaceful nation biding its business. However, the massive sanctions imposed by the west on Russia tell an altogether different story. History stands witness that sanctions do not stop a war if anything, they themselves are a war. One need not go to a distant past to see half a million children dying in Iraq due to sanctions. Since then, only in Iraq, more than a million people have lost their lives, the infrastructure has been destroyed, and oil continues to be stolen by the empire. But is it worth discussing? Do the lives of developing countries matter, especially if they are not white? Ask the Nigerian students facing overt racism in Ukraine.

Let us leave Libya, Syria and Yemen aside, but it is difficult to neglect Palestine, for whatever happens in Ukraine has already happened in Palestine with no one from the western media to its politicians blinking an eye. Ukraine is assaulted by Russia, for Putin did not want NATO at his doorsteps. A plausible reason, because in 1962, Kennedy did the same when the Soviet Union fixed its nuclear missiles in Cuba. Palestine was wickedly partitioned by the British to leave a permanent colony behind. The partition plan endorsed by the UN was unjust. It gave more than half of the land to the Jewish community, having only six per cent of land previously. Will it be unjust, if today Russia partitions Ukraine, and after annexing a bigger chunk for the Russians of Donetsk and Luhansk, leaves a part for the Ukrainians, forcing them into ghettoes while imposing a puppet regime upon them?

If the Ukrainian fighters begin the guerilla warfare against the Russians tomorrow, the west will certainly arm them, the process has already begun. Will they be called freedom fighters or terrorists as Palestinians are demonized for throwing rocks in their defence? The International Court of Justice in Hague has taken merely six days to start a hearing against Russia for committing war crimes against humanity—a commendable step. Will it need another 70 years to decide the case of Israeli war crimes or is it too short a time to proceed?

Europe continued to support the realization of capital by backing the US in its wars against Middle East-North Africa without thinking that war could inundate its shores.

It is heartening to see the international stalwarts and players protesting the Russian invasion at major playing events, a right that cannot and should not be usurped at any cost. Will athletes like Fethi Nourine—protesting the Zionist’s barbaric onslaught against the Palestinians—be restored to their pedestals or continue to be dubbed as subverters?

The western media is highlighting the misery of Ukrainian citizens, especially the children, who are forced to live in hard conditions, after the Russian aggression. The war must be condemned but will the plight of one million children of Gaza also be highlighted, who lose their lives and their parents every day without any respite? “When Israel is on “good behaviour,” more than two Palestinian children are killed every week, a pattern that goes back over fourteen years.” (Mads Gilbert report to United Nations Relief and Works Agency,2014). Do we need to seek the gods as Brecht did, to give, “a slight reduction of the precepts, the illustrious one, a slight alleviation…gracious one, in view of difficult times?”

Russia has allegedly attacked the western values: democracy and freedom, albeit the people of Latin America, especially Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, and many other countries will be left dumbfounded by this allegation. Allende, Lula da Silva, Morales, Maduro, and many others will disagree. For them, democracy and freedom are fetishes meant to slaughter the nonconformist leaders of the countries that refuse to accept the US hegemony. But it is beside the point. Let us ask the great democracies of the world to remove the ban on Sputnik and Russia Today. They have the democratic right to express their opinion. People can only make an informed decision when the press is free. If an alternative opinion is not permitted, the Russian veto used in the Security Council cannot be condemned, for both are forms of violence and violence cannot be condoned.

Russia demands Ukraine to De-Nazify itself. Apparently, a senseless demand, but it isn’t altogether illogical. Who toppled the elected regime of Yanukovych in the revolution of [in]dignity? Despite the agreement with the opposition to hold a national election, Yanukovych was illegally deposed the next day when Victoria Nuland and George Soros’ Endowment of democracy backed Azov Battalion, a fascist organization took over Rada-the Ukrainian parliament by force and formed a parallel government. The assistant secretary of state in her conversation with Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador in Ukraine, even named the next desired president. She allegedly distributed biscuits among the protestors at Maidan; expressing her sympathy for the protestors publicly. If it is true that on November 12, the neo-Nazi organisation was incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine, Russia that lost 27 million soldiers of the red army in the second world war combating fascism has the right to demand the purge of fascist elements from the Ukrainian army and the state.

The senseless war could have been avoided had the US timely backed off and Zelenskyy used his clairvoyance to anticipate the extent of destruction brought by the war. His deliberate or unconscious failure to assess the design of the imperialist power and the intentions of the Russian ruling class brought the nemesis on him and his people who elected him to make peace. Barring a brief period after the hara-kiri of the Soviet Union and plunder of eastern Europe, resources capitalism fell victim to its inherent flaws, overproduction, and loss of rate of profit. It needed new markets and found the solution of its problems first in Latin America by attacking Panama and forcefully removing Noriega and later starting a full-scale war against Iraq. Europe continued to support the process of realization of capital by backing the US in its wars against the countries of Middle East-North Africa without thinking that war can inundate its shores.

The US capitalists need expansion of their market to Russian and Chinese resources. They want someone like Yeltsin who opened Russian markets to the US capital. In China, they are looking for a Gorbachev. When Kissinger met Ding-Xiaoping, he thought he had found one, but Ding’s thinking transcended the cunning of the neo-colonist’s intentions. China opened its market partly but learnt technology and, more importantly, the science behind the technology that led it to the pedestal of the second biggest economy in the world. For the US, the Sino-Russian cooperation has become a threat to its expansion and hegemony, but for its military-industrial-complex, it is an opportunity to start a war and sell its weapon to anyone prepared to fight the US war and Zelenskyy–a Hamlet–has presented himself and became a darling of the west overnight. It looks as if the world belongs to a comedian who is playing tragedy on his country and humanity.

The war may strengthen NATO. Despite their dependency on Russia to meet their energy needs, the hapless European are shepherded by the US to join the warmongering club. But the emergence of an alternative powerful block challenging the US domination of the world has come to the fore. Powershift to Asia has become an authentic fact and Russia knows which way the wind is blowing, but unfortunately, it’s not Lenin’s Russia but a Tsarist one with hegemonic designs.

The writer is an Australian-based academic and has authored books on socialism and history. He can be reached at saulatnagi@hotmail.com.