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By Ramzy Baroud
A lot has been mentioned and written about media bias and double requirements within the West’s response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, when put next with different wars and army conflicts internationally, particularly within the Center East and the International South. Much less apparent is how such hypocrisy is a mirrored image of a a lot bigger phenomenon that governs the West’s relationship with conflict and battle zones.
On March 19, Iraq commemorated the nineteenth anniversary of the US invasion which killed, in line with modest estimates, over 1,000,000 Iraqis. The results of that conflict have been equally devastating because it destabilized the whole Center East area, main to numerous civil and proxy wars. The Arab world is reeling below that horrific expertise to today.
Additionally, on March 19, the eleventh anniversary of the NATO conflict on Libya was commemorated and adopted, 5 days later, by the twenty third anniversary of the NATO conflict on Yugoslavia. Like each NATO-led conflict because the inception of the alliance in 1949, these wars resulted in widespread devastation and tragic demise tolls.
None of those wars, beginning with the NATO intervention within the Korean Peninsula in 1950, have stabilized any of the warring areas. Iraq continues to be as weak to terrorism and out of doors army interventions and, in some ways, stays an occupied nation. Libya is split amongst varied warring camps, and a return to civil conflict stays an actual risk.
But, enthusiasm for conflict stays excessive, as if over seventy years of failed army interventions haven’t taught us any significant classes. Day by day, information headlines inform us that the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, Spain or another western energy have determined to ship a brand new form of ‘deadly weapons’ to Ukraine. Billions of {dollars} have already been allotted by Western nations to contribute to the conflict in Ukraine.
In distinction, little or no has been accomplished to supply platforms for diplomatic, non-violent options. A handful of nations within the Center East, Africa and Asia have supplied mediation or insisted on a diplomatic answer to the conflict, arguing, as China’s international ministry reiterated on March 18, that “all sides have to collectively help Russia and Ukraine in having dialogue and negotiation that may produce outcomes and result in peace”.
Although the violation of the sovereignty of any nation is unlawful below worldwide legislation, and is a stark violation of the United Nations Constitution, this doesn’t imply that the one answer to violence is counter-violence. This can’t be more true within the case of Russia and Ukraine, as a state of civil conflict has existed in Jap Ukraine for eight years, harvesting hundreds of lives and depriving entire communities from any sense of peace or safety. NATO’s weapons can not presumably handle the basis causes of this communal wrestle. Quite the opposite, they’ll solely gasoline it additional.
If extra weapons have been the reply, the battle would have been resolved years in the past. In keeping with the BBC, the US has already allotted $2.7bn to Ukraine over the past eight years, lengthy earlier than the present conflict. This large arsenal included“anti-tank and anti-armor weapons … US-made sniper (rifles), ammunition and equipment”.
The velocity with which extra army assist has poured into Ukraine following the Russian army operations on February 24 is unprecedented in fashionable historical past. This raises not solely political or authorized questions, however ethical questions as properly – the eagerness to fund conflict and the dearth of enthusiasm to assist nations rebuild.
After 21 years of US conflict and invasion of Afghanistan, leading to a humanitarian and refugee disaster, Kabul is now largely left by itself. Final September, the UN refugee company warned that “a serious humanitarian disaster is looming in Afghanistan”, but nothing has been accomplished to handle this ‘looming’ disaster, which has drastically worsened since then.
Afghani refugees are not often welcomed in Europe. The identical is true for refugees coming from Iraq, Syria, Libya, Mali and different conflicts that instantly or not directly concerned NATO. This hypocrisy is accentuated once we take into account worldwide initiatives that intention to help conflict refugees, or rebuild the economies of war-torn nations.
Evaluate the dearth of enthusiasm in supporting war-torn nations with the West’s unparalleled euphoria in offering weapons to Ukraine. Sadly, it is not going to be lengthy earlier than the thousands and thousands of Ukrainian refugees who’ve left their nation in latest weeks grow to be a burden on Europe, thus subjected to the identical form of mainstream criticism and far-right assaults.
Whereas it’s true that the West’s perspective in direction of Ukraine is completely different from its perspective in direction of victims of western interventions, one needs to be cautious earlier than supposing that the ‘privileged’ Ukrainains will in the end be higher off than the victims of conflict all through the Center East. Because the conflict drags on, Ukraine will proceed to endure, both the direct impression of the conflict or the collective trauma that may certainly observe. The amassing of NATO weapons in Ukraine, as was the case of Libya, will probably backfire. In Libya, NATO’s weapons fueled the nation’s decade lengthy civil conflict.
Ukraine wants peace and safety, not perpetual conflict that’s designed to serve the strategic pursuits of sure nations or army alliances. Although army invasions have to be wholly rejected, whether or not in Iraq or Ukraine, turning Ukraine into one other handy zone of perpetual geopolitical wrestle between NATO and Russia isn’t the reply.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He’s the writer of six books. His newest guide, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Imaginative and prescient for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Communicate out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Analysis Fellow on the Middle for Islam and International Affairs (CIGA). His web site is www.ramzybaroud.web
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