Opinion | As U.S. is doing the dictating, Ukrainian militiamen and civilians are doing the dying
By Augustus K. Yeung
Introduction
People the world over who have watched the Russia-Ukraine conflict on T.V. no doubt believe that President Vladimir Putin is on the wrong side of history: for invading Ukraine by amassing Russian troops along the border and marching into Ukrainian territories since February 24, forcing millions of refugees to cross the nearest borders for refuge, causing hundreds of helpless and unarmed civilians in Bucha to die violently.
None of the regional wars in the Cold War era have commanded the world's undivided attention as the conflict that is happening now in the new century, when the people unexpectedly wake up to such an acrimonious atrocity that is beyond human imagination.
Ukraine, a world-famous farming nation with its undersized army is understandably outnumbered and no-match for the Russian army, which has for decades been battled-tested in Afghanistan and Syria and elsewhere, fighting their enemies with American troops on the opposite side.
A sensible decision made by President Zelensky earlier that he would end the war "without delay" has been rescinded, replaced with the determination to continue the conflict.
Who is secretly doing the dictating from afar?
The Russo-Georgian War of 2008 Has Echoes in the Current Conflict
While the Ukrainians are doing the dying day-by-day, and yet the Americans unfailingly keeps sending supplies to sustain its war efforts. Why?
"Europe has largely been at peace since the end of the World War II. The Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956 and of Czechoslovakia in 1968 were exceptions, but they were localized attempts to keep the Soviet bloc intact rather than intrusions into the Western sphere. The Russo-Georgian war of 2008, meanwhile, has echoes in the current conflict," says Francis Xavier, senior counsel at law firm Rajah and Tann. ("West must take blame for failing to keep peace in Europe". South China Morning Post. Monday, April 18, 2022)
Truly dreadful were the Balkan wars that followed the destruction of the Soviet Union, which saw the break-up of Yugoslavia and resulted in war crimes ranging from genocide and crimes against humanity to ethnic cleansing and rape. Even so, the European peace has prevailed.
That peace came to an end in February with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It had been preceded by the 2014 Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. This time, though, Russia's war aims go beyond protecting the independence of the Donbas region to include Ukraine's neutrality between Russian and the West, its abstention from joining Nato, and its refusal to become a nuclear power or allow foreign military bases on its refusal to become a nuclear power or allow foreign military bases on its territory. Should these demands be met, they would represent the most fundamental realignment in European affairs since the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Why Should the West be Held Culpable Along with Russia?
They would occur against the backdrop of a punitive war. No matter who wins or claims to have won this war, European peace has been shattered. While Russia holds blame for having launched the invasion, the West must stand accused of having lost the peace that existed before Russia's "special military operation" began on February 24.
Why should the West be held culpable along with Russia? It is because European peace would have prevailed had not Nato's eastward expansion of its nuclear infrastructure threaten Russian security.
It was an expansive West, bent on exporting its self-serving ideology of freedom and democracy through overt and covert support for popular uprisings against regimes that it considered to be unfriendly, that created the political encirclement of Russia – a country that has never sought to export its autocratic model of governance to the West.
It was the West which would not allow even a great power such as Russia to stand in the way of its global ambitions, the scope of which amounted to nothing less than the total control of world affairs. It was America that would not let go of Europe as its strategic backyard.
This is the West that has Lost European Peace
During the Cold War, proxy wars between the West and Eastern blocs were a favourite instrument of hegemonic conflict. Civil wars in the Third World rages Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Now, the era of wars fought at arm's length has come to Europe.
Ukraine represents a half-proxy war waged between the West, which is arming Ukraine but not actually fighting alongside it, and Russia, which is engaged in direct combat. While no one can or should underestimate the determinization with which ordinary Ukrainians are resisting the Russians, the truth remains that they are participating in a half-proxy war. While the West is doing the dictating. Ukrainians are doing the dying.
In a nutshell, the bipolar world presided over by Nato and the Warsaw Pact is gone forever. What we have is multipolar world in transition. The outcome of that power transition remains uncertain…
Conclusion
No matter who wins, European peace has been shattered. In retrospect, America could have untied Nato forces after the collapse of the Soviet Union--in a genuine attempt to usher in an era of peace to Europe.
Failing to make any effort for genuine peace, America and it allies have given the Russians the bad feelings that they have been cheated, and that their leader Mr. Gorbachev was made to look like a loser. The Russians have become demoralized until President Putin made a strong comeback. The fact that the Russians support Mr. Putin in this war serves to prove this point.
A telling point: Can you imagine British and Canadian troops training Ukrainian soldiers in Ukraine? What for--if not to put military and political pressures on Russia! If these foreign forces weren't checkmated in Mariupol after its fall, this hard evidence could have been lost, and Russia stands as an out and out aggressor, courting world-wide condemnation.
The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:
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