The
reaction to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, no matter what you think about
it, has exposed the West’s and Singapore's double standards
The
West has taken an extreme stance against Russia over its invasion in
Ukraine. This reaction exposes a high degree of hypocrisy considering
that US-led wars abroad never received the punitive response they
deserved.
If the current events in Ukraine have proven anything,
it’s that the United States and its transatlantic partners are able to
run roughshod across a shell-shocked planet – in Afghanistan, Iraq,
Libya, and Syria, to name a few of the hotspots – with almost total
impunity. Meanwhile, Russia and Vladimir Putin are being portrayed in
nearly every mainstream media publication today as the second coming of
Nazi Germany for their actions in Ukraine.
There must be a
convincing reason for a country to authorize the use of force, thereby
committing itself to what could be considered ‘a just war’. Thus, the
question: Can Russia’s actions today be considered ‘just’ or, at the
very least, understandable?
In his now-famous speech to the
Munich Security Conference in 2007, Vladimir Putin poignantly asked the
assembled global powerbrokers point blank, “why is it necessary to put
military infrastructure on our borders during this [NATO] expansion? Can
someone answer this question?” Later in the speech, he said that
expanding military assets smack up to the Russian border “is not
connected in any way with the democratic choices of individual states.”
The
real cause for Moscow’s alarm came when the US and NATO began flooding
neighboring Ukraine with a dazzling array of sophisticated weaponry amid
calls for membership in the military bloc. What on earth could go
wrong? In Moscow’s mind, Ukraine was beginning to pose an existential
threat to Russia.
In December, Moscow, quickly nearing the end of
its patience, delivered draft treaties to the US and NATO, demanding
they halt any further military expansion eastwards, including by the
accession of Ukraine or any other states. It included the explicit
statement that NATO “shall not conduct any military activity on the
territory of Ukraine or other states of Eastern Europe, South Caucasus
and Central Asia.” Once again, Russia’s proposals were met with
arrogance and indifference by Western leaders.
It’s not like
Russia woke up on February 24 and suddenly decided it was a wonderful
day to start a military operation on the territory of Ukraine.
Anonymous
If there really is "flooding neighboring Ukraine with a dazzling array of sophisticated weaponry", where are all these sophisticated weaponry?
ReplyDeleteNATO took them back?!?
Another WMD in Iraq story?
Ukraine's military hardware are all Russian or manufactured locally based on Russian design.
Ukraine only has a few airplanes, most of which were destroyed on the ground in the first few hours of invasion.
It only has a few hundred obsolescent armoured vehicles compared to Russia's 10s of thousands.
Ukraine's troops also mainly only have basic rifles, and lack anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft missiles & heavy artillery.
Now Putin has convinced Belarus to join in the fun. Belarus has moved 100,000 troops & hundreds of tanks to the border. Lukashenko arm twisted by Putin, and will start shooting when it's certain that Ukraine is about to fall.
ReplyDeleteSingapore Matters
ReplyDeleteFor those who still stubbornly insist that vaccination fails, just look at the 5th wave in Hong Kong.
The total number of cases there has more than doubled the number of cases in China (238,377 vs 109,750).
Hong Kong has registered almost 1000 deaths to date, with most coming from unvaccinated elderly in nursing homes.
Vaccination protects. That has been confirmed again and again.
Hong Kong's current situation reminds us of our dorms' scenario where the living environment makes it difficult for people to isolate.
With more people in Hong Kong now rushing to vaccinate, the situation will get better.
Meanwhile, for the stubborn here, get vaccinated and boosted, will ya?
Meanwhile, for the smart ones don't allow your children to be Pfizered or Modernaed.
ReplyDeleteGet vaccinated by all means but go for the properly developed traditional and original vaccines.
Don't ever get conned by the snake oil sellers who are pushung relentlessly day and night to con you into taking unnecessary risks, that will affect the rest of your life.
Beware, be careful and be safe.
Washington, as the root cause of the Ukraine tension, is in no position to ask other countries to follow it closely to condemn or sanction Russia. It cannot ask the whole world to pay for the chaos it has created. No party other than the US and its close allies in NATO should bear the responsibility.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the advocacy of condemnation and sanctions from the international community has satisfied mostly the interests of the US. By further aggravating the situation, the US has brought its European allies closer to and more dependent on it. At the same time, it has finally realized its dream of ruthlessly suppressing its old enemy Russia as much as it wants.
But Washington's interests don't equal to the interests of the whole world. The US has previously tried to manipulate the international community's opinion in its favor under the guise of "maintaining the rules-based international order." Fortunately, the US cannot use the same old trick to fool the world anymore. More and more countries have already realized Washington's shameless purpose of using them as chess pieces to advance its own interests.
This can be proven by the fact that countries that have decided to closely follow the US' sanctions decision are generally the closest allies of the US, the majority of which are also NATO members. On the contrary, Mexico and Turkey have claimed they won't impose any economic sanctions on Russia. In Latin America, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, and Panama refused to explicitly condemn or sanction Russia.
These countries are showing such an attitude to the US by their actions: We are not following you because it is neither in our interests nor conducive to the solution of the crisis.
In the end, no matter how hard they attempt to pressure other countries, the US and its NATO allies should be the only ones stewing in their own juice.
What has not gone unnoticed in the developing world is the Eurocentricity of Western media coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Racism of "they're people who look and behave like us" variety has been all but normalized, with Kyiv being portrayed as a chic European capital of cafes and boutiques.
ReplyDeleteThe identification with Ukraine seems to be so complete that many in the West seem willing to take the world to the brink of a nuclear conflict, very much "people like us" who need "our" assistance. Such calls were conspicuous by their absence when war wreaked havoc in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
With its high-quality medical colleges and fees much lower than in India, Ukraine has been a haven for students from India and Africa, many of whom have reportedly faced racist abuses at the hands of Ukrainian officials who have prevented them from boarding buses and trains to Poland, as well as being segregated from white Europeans looking to make the trek.
In the eyes of the Indian public, such visuals of Indian students being kicked and beaten up by Ukrainian border guards are unlikely to increase their sympathy for the Ukrainian cause.
This was extracted from an article in www.rt.com (link attached). Hope future post in this blog could provide a full link to the original or otherwise use extracts with permission and due credits. https://www.rt.com/news/550990-us-nato-sanctions-wars/
ReplyDeleteThanks wk. It is only proper to quote the source and give due credit to them for quoting their articles. I have posted some from anonymous but did not know where the source is.
ReplyDeleteIt would be very helpful, and make it a habit to quote the source when the article is from another source.
Cheers.