While this is often a hard pill to swallow for many living in the western world, it is even harder to accept for many Americans who have grown up under the auspicious presumption of their nation’s excellence and alleged heroics.
The war waging in Ukraine is a brutal and illegal activity undertaken by the Russian Federation. The nations leading the charge for the defence of the nation are the United States and the United Kingdom. Resisting the Russian invasion is good, and supporting the right of Ukraine to choose its own destiny is also good. However, the attempt to blackball Russia from the entire world by the US and its allies is bold-faced hypocrisy.
We need to look no further than 2003’s Iraq invasion by the US and UK as evidence of an illegal invasion based on fabricated evidence that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, the destabilization of the middle east and the rise of the Islamic Caliphate. This was an invasion that was launched without international support against an independent nation. An illegal invasion. The only difference between Iraq and Ukraine is that one is a white European nation. Iraq is hardly the only nation this has happened with.
It has been a consistent theme since the collapse of the Soviet Union for the US to undertake military actions against the international community at their convenience. If the US fails to persuade allies to join in, they do it anyway. We can see this in Serbia when NATO conducted a hostile action by bombing the nation whilst UN Peacekeepers were still on the ground. The same alliance that is allegedly a purely defensive alliance. We can see it in Libya, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Grenada, Venezuela, Vietnam and Chile as a short list. When the United States doesn’t like a leader of a nation, or the leader doesn’t like the US, then that is de facto permission for the American government to destroy those nations and install new governments.
Millions have died for American foreign policy decisions, against global peace and order. An American soldier or politician will never face the consequences of these actions because the US doesn’t participate in the International Criminal Court, although they helped the same court catch and try criminals from other nations. A decision that is no accident of course, as the US government has maintained a policy of their soldiers being above reproach.
The Russians bombing cities is no different from the US. Striking hospitals aren’t uniquely Russian either, with the US bombing a Doctor’s Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan despite knowing its location. Torturing prisoners is also certainly a horrible crime not only committed by barbarous Russian hordes, as the US operates Guantanamo Bay just for the purpose of torturing prisoners of war. The US also places sanctions on nations which they ideologically oppose regardless of those nations having actually done anything wrong. Then after decades of sanctions America will stand in front of the UN to criticize starvation and poverty in the same nations that they’ve made poor.
I know this line of thought will inevitably lead to eager defenders who claim I’m excusing Russia of what they’ve done. If you fully read this piece it clearly shows my thoughts about Russia and my thoughts about their invasion. As does the other articles on this blog about the war and my criticism of Russia. The point of this article is to make all of us think about the position of America and Britain in the world order, their position to determine what is right and wrong and the consequences of these nations wielding significant geopolitical power on the world. Their position of getting in line or getting sanctioned actively makes the world less peaceful.
The issue of nuclear weapons around the globe in nations like Iran and North Korea is a direct result of these kinds of actions by the west. Iran signed a deal which all parties but the US said they were following. It was then unilaterally cancelled and sanctions replaced. To then try and turn around to negotiate with North Korea on denuclearization is at best, arrogance and at worst, incompetence. Arrogant to believe North Korea would seriously consider this offer as if they wouldn’t be subjected to the same treatment as Iran or worse. Incompetence if the US honestly believes they are in any position to be a voice of peace. Every country that has voluntarily given up nuclear weapons has been betrayed, be it Libya, Iran or Ukraine. That’s something to think about.
Layman's Terms 