The ugly war in the very heart of Europe is a war that has transformed world stability into one of economic and social mayhem as well as inflation and insecurity! Under the guise of "Democracy, Freedom and Liberation” elected governments often use those same noble words to justify wars and topple dictators or unfriendly regimes in the name of democracy; a word now bastardised to elected dictatorship where the minority rules!
It is amazing how the European Union institution-for it is in fact not a country or a nation- has been bragging for years that: "since the creation of the EU, Europe has been a war-free zone”.
The conflict in Ukraine unfortunately has been transformed into a proxy war of convenience, where disorder and conflict has become an art of carnage with thousands of dead soldiers paying with their lives for the failure of their leadership to negotiate for a solution.
Taking away the propaganda, in fact, the real reasons behind the Russian/Ukrainian conflict are certainly well hidden in the translation. Both sides are definitely not angels! The media on the other hand has not been impartial but a source of biased misinformation that muddies the truth depending on who their paymaster happens to be.
Russia's "Special Military Operation” in Ukraine without a doubt has opened a Pandora's box full of misery, chaos and disorder. Hope it's nowhere to be seen! Is this Destiny's erratic trice of our times, or is it a warning of more things to come with horrible results for humanity?
The "law-of-the-gun” in a society which advocates that "might is right”, has once again replaced common sense!
The war has definitely unleashed a monster with brutal battles but also the indiscriminate usage of sophisticated missiles and deadly drones guided from hundreds of miles away. The conflict has now become a war of desensitized machines without human reasoning or consideration! The chilling threat of using nuclear missiles during the conflict could not only bring about an absolute disaster for Europeans but also the world at large.
The recent decision by the UK Defense Minister to supply Ukraine Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles – with a reach of over 1000 miles, and capable of carrying nuclear warheads, has moved the conflict one notch higher and closer to the abyss of madness!
Ukraine's government had real ambitions of restarting its nuclear programme – one of the reasons for Russia's decision to kick off the special operation! This is in direct contravention of the Lisbon Protocol Treaty signed on 23 May 1992 by Russia, the US, Belarus and Ukraine. The Treaty was calling for the abandonment of nuclear weapons but that agreement has now gone up in smoke!
Russia objected to Ukraine's nuclear plans by the Zelenskiy regime-a regime that Putin considers a Neo-Nazi far-right Azov* Command. He has vowed to stop Kiev's nuclear ambitions, which in fact could pose a real threat to Russian security. Most critical, Moscow strongly objected to NATO's military plan of expansion (using Ukraine) alongside the Russian borders.
Yet that is precisely what US President Kennedy objected to during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1962 he mobilised America for war to stop President Khrushchev of the Soviet Union from installing nuclear missile bases in Cuba and close to the US borders, which threatened American security.
Not so different from Moscow's security concerns! Common sense prevailed at the time and a nuclear war was averted! Today, political hypocrisy and double standards rein supreme!
There is a common perception in some quarters that NATO has been trying to fortify its military expansion in the region and courting Ukraine to join the NATO alliance-including Finland and Norway-is not a coincidence but a well-planned strategy to cripple Russia's influence in the region.
Finland's formal accession to NATO (April 4, 2023) offers NATO over 1200-kilometres of additional new military border alongside Russia. The move has provoked Moscow-and just like President Kennedy's response-Putin warned Finland with reprisals if NATO builds military bases there! The verdict is not out yet but the fear remains valid and especially if Norway also joins the pact!
Today, geopolitics in Europe is on a razor's edge! Security in the Eurozone's "one happy family”has changed forever; one wrong move and things could get nasty not just for the EU but also for world peace!
Indo-Pacific NATO Alliance
Under its sphere of military expansion and influence "for international security” NATO has now set its sights in the Indo-Pacific region where it seeks to work "ever closer with like-minded countries”.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida acknowledged (May 2023) that the US-led military pact was planning a NATO Tokyo office-the first in Asia- to "facilitate consultations in the region”.
Spearheaded by the US to "strengthen relations with its global partners in the Indo-Pacific region”, the proposed NATO alliance in the Pacific may soon become a multi-powerful military force to be reckoned with. Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan would most likely play a critical role in the formation of this NATO Indo-Pacific Alliance.
Meanwhile, under bravado threats (so reminiscent to the cold war tactics of the past) military exercises by the US, China and North Korea are being conducted in the region. The possibility of "accidentally firing” a nuclear missile by one of the rival super powers cannot be ignored or be discounted!
On February 2023 in retaliation to America's active military role in support for arming Ukraine, Putin suspended Russian's participation in the nuclear arms control pact START Treaty. Soon afterwards, Russia tested its latest Sarmat next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads.
The rising tension between the three rival super-powers (US, Russia and China) paints a gloomy picture for world security and certainly escalates the danger of a doomsday scenario!
The latest ballistic missile testing by North Korea and Russia certainly does not ease anxieties but rather intensifies the chances of a mishap and takes a step closer to Armageddon in the name of "freedom and democracy”.
The EU/NATO alliance has vowed to support Ukraine and as long as Kiev receives the steady flow of weapons, the Zelenskiy government refuses to consider the possibility of negotiations. Ukraine's appetite to raise more arms has been very aggressive and Oleksiy Reznikov, the Minister of Defense, has been nation-hopping with a military shopping list to do just that.
Determined, the Ukrainian minister had recently visited Greece and Cyprus attempting to convince the smallest two EU member states to send their Russian defence systems to Ukraine-especially their Russian S-300 missiles-so the war can continue until "Russia is defeated.” Both refused and are unwilling to become defenceless from Turkey's constant military threats!
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian people are paying a high price while the Zelenskiy regime insists the war must continue to its bitter end. The Kiev government dismisses the ugly reality that there can only be one winner out of this conflict: the global arms manufacturing industry!
The dishonourable global banking institutions and death merchants of our times, are more than ready to provide weapons and cash to warring factions to kill one another; as long as the winner guarantees the losses of the loser!
The global arms industry is gleaming with joy by the current Ukrainian lucrative opportunity handed to them on a silver platter. The sale of weapons, missiles, armaments and munitions offer employment and massive dividends for institutional shareholders. The rising value of shares of the arms industry in the Stock Market, it's a clear indication of why wars are a profitable business for some and misery for others!
Last year, the Kiel Institute tracked €93.8 billion from 40 countries in financial and military aid to Ukraine from 24 January to 3 October 2022. The largest donor has been so far the US with billions-worth of modern weaponry, training and hard cash.
Save the spin peddled by both factions, the outcome of the war remains unclear but one thing it's for certain: the Ukrainian/Russian conflict will stimulate the weapons manufacturers with vast profits and employment for years to come.
In fact, year 2022 has been a bumper year for the US arms industry:
The vast majority of those global sales are in fact generated under national government contracts, which means the unsuspecting taxpayer unwittingly funds corporate dividends! The appreciated value of shares and dividends paid out in 2022 by the weapons firms has been a windfall for institutional shareholders such as the IMF and private banks, insurance companies, hedge funds, governments and industrial global investors.
As long as the Ukrainian/Russia conflict continues there is another hidden bonus in the pipeline for those nations that support Ukraine; the reconstruction of Ukraine's infrastructure! It's been estimated at over $1 trillion and rising!
The final outcome of the conflict means that the Ukrainian citizens will be paying a war debt worth trillions upon trillions of euros plus interest for generations to come! This clearly indicates "economic subservience” and total obedience to private global banking institutions and foreign governments!
One year on, some countries are now beginning to feel the results of a Ukraine fatigue. They started to question for how long they can continue their support for a war that shows no ending at the cost of their economies and hardship upon their own citizens!
Hypocrisy without barriers
Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin has been demonized and charged with war crimes against humanity (17 March 2023) by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The Court issued warrants for his arrest as well as Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova.
The ICC institution "dancing to the tune of Western states” it's often used as a springboard for ulterior political motives. The war crimes and atrocities committed by both warring factions are not much dissimilar from each other; neither of them are saints!
The demonization of enemies for political convenience however, has obviously become a modern trademark of expediency. Demonizing Putin-a head of a state-for war crimes against humanity as the Western alliance did for Saddam Hussein and Gadhafi of Libya it's certainly most hypocritical and a legal loophole of expediency.
Similar pretexts and spin were used 20 years ago (March 2003) to justify the disgraceful "Operation Iraqi Freedom” by the invading American military forces with its NATO allies. The US-led coalition sent 160,000 troops under false pretences "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and free the Iraqi people”.
Since then, it has been proven that Iraq never did possess such weapons! At the time, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan described the invasion as an "illegal war on Iraq”. Meanwhile, the war left thousands of Iraqis dead and millions of people displaced across a biblical nation and"cradle of civilisation”.
Yet the International Criminal Court (ICC) has failed to issue arrest warrants against former US President George W Bush and former Prime Minister Tony Blair's governments for spinning and authorising their illegal War on Terror against Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Thousands of civilians died and were conveniently treated as "collateral damage” in a war zone without responsibility for those deaths or any compensation.
Strangely enough, although the US played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Rome Statute it voted against ICC membership (1998) making it impossible for the International Criminal Court to hold the US President or army officials and soldiers to account for alleged war crimes!
Ukraine on the other hand-not a signatory party to the Rome Statute-used the ICC institution to charge Putin for "war crimes against humanity” and against Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova for "the abduction” of Ukrainian children and sent to Russia.
Fittingly, no sooner had the special military operation begun, (24 February 2022) US President Joe Biden denounced President Vladimir Putin as a "war criminal” and set precedence making sure the demonising stigma took root! In doing so, he opened up Pandora's box using the ICC institution to do the rest. The UK on the other hand-including the EU-quickly jumped on the bandwagon.
The European Union's ideals on moral grounds "to stop wars starting in Europe were soon forgotten. Not a party to ICC, the EU has now joined NATO's theatre of frenzy supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine through its European Peace Facility (EPF). Under the presidency of Ursula von der Leyen, the EU approved the supply of arms-for the first time-to a third country.
The EU decision can be interpreted as a radical policy change-one of peace to aggression-forcing EU member states to enter the fray of war not of their choosing or doing! Meanwhile, there are speculations that Ursula von der Leyen has ambitions of becoming the next Secretary General of NATO and effectively of becoming the new "iron lady”!
Today, the citizens of Ukraine and Russia are both being bombarded with misinformation and mind manipulation peddled by the state media. Real truth has become a rare commodity indeed! In fact, the current war is being conducted by a two-pronged attack: bloodshed and propaganda!
Without a doubt, as long as the Western powers keep supplying weapons and missiles to the Ukraine regime and fighting their proxy war "until Russia capitulates”, the misery will continue for years to come!
In the absence of common sense to negotiate for a viable solution and peace, it means that other nations could possibly be dragged into the current war frenzy of man's insanity in the name of "Democracy, Freedom and Liberation” — words that demand blood as nourishment to sprout.
While the war rages on, the killing fields will continue to devour thousands of young lives and thousands more of mothers would mourn their dead in a distorted warmongering society that disregards human lives as a disposable commodity for geopolitical power and control, profit and domination!
*terrorist organisation, banned in Russia