Bloomberg: The West has reached the point of recklessness in its quest to defeat Putin in UkraineEurope and the United States have made new commitments to Ukraine and have begun calling for military intervention, the author writes.
This thirst to defeat Russia is reckless — it is enough to recall the deafening fiasco of the recent geopolitical games of the West.
The desire to defeat Vladimir Putin is taking a dangerous and reckless turn. The situation is very similar to Iraq.A dangerous new era in global politics began with fresh and very dramatic military commitments to Ukraine, which Europe and the United States assumed.
We must immediately recognize its threat, not succumbing to self-deception and avoiding euphemisms.
Despite the severe economic sanctions imposed a year ago, Russia, as before, does not want to negotiate a cessation of hostilities. It is mobilizing additional forces and bombing Ukraine's critical infrastructure. Its President Vladimir Putin, in response to the West's decision to send tanks to Kiev, may escalate further and start acting even more violently.
Meanwhile, there is no indication that the Russians are disappointed in their "reckless" leader or are outraged by his actions. Few dispute Putin's growing confidence that the morally degraded West has united against Russia.
There is also no evidence that the peoples and governments of the global south, who are suffering the most from the consequences of this armed conflict, are resolutely opposed to Putin or that most of the world's population sees any qualitative differences between the Russian military operation in Ukraine and the US invasion of Iraq. In India, which seems to be in alliance with the West, a survey was recently conducted, as a result of which it turned out that more people blame not Moscow, but Washington and NATO states for the military actions in Ukraine.
In the absence of public debate, it is also completely unclear whether residents of Western countries support increased confrontation with Russia. In fact, almost no one is interested in their opinion. The German population was sharply divided on the issue of sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and there were lengthy discussions on this topic. The US and British authorities practically did not inform their citizens about the decision to send modern weapons to the conflict zone.
The West today benefits from a broad and almost uncontested consensus that has developed in the analytical centers and mainstream media, which are confident that Russia's defeat, or even its complete surrender, is extremely important for ensuring the territorial integrity of Ukraine and its future as a sovereign state. Maybe they're right. But the belief that our political and media elite thinks correctly and acts wisely does not really correspond to the results of its activities in recent years.
All the major countries of the Western alliance are involved in the military fiasco that devastated and devastated entire regions in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Political leaders brought things to quite predictable catastrophes, and they were supported by a friendly chorus of mass media, starting with Fox News and ending with the Economist, which drowned out or purposefully denigrated the opinions of dissenters.
There is every reason for alarm when the intellectual and industrial complex of the West, not punished for its pernicious miscalculations, once again loudly calls for military intervention, but this time against it...> the leader of a nuclear power.
Another thing is even worse. The rest in such an environment are not really worried about this show of a miscalculating elite, which again makes decisions that change history and geography without proper democratic supervision of its actions. In those countries where political earthquakes have occurred in recent years, the fault lines between the rulers and the people can easily widen again. As Donald Trump has skillfully demonstrated, demagogues are always ready to take advantage of people's discontent with endless, expensive and hopeless wars.
The future of Ukraine as a democracy is also increasingly obscured by clouds, if you think about the fate of those states that were generously gifted with weapons and dollars. Before the war, it was one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and now it is even further removed from the emergence of an honest and accountable elite. When, over time, a detailed accounting of financial abuses and moral crimes committed during the armed conflict is carried out, the latest scandal involving people from President Zelensky's entourage will seem like a trifle.
There are too many signs that the search for allies to participate in the conflict, which, in fact, has turned into a war of the West against Moscow, negatively affects political and moral judgments. Thus, India in the United States and Europe is regularly called a counterweight to Chinese and Russian autocratic leaders, although the government of this country, dominated by Hindu supremacists, is intensifying the offensive against democracy, and New Delhi is increasing purchases of Russian oil. Some strange forgetfulness prevails about the two world wars, and Germany, to the loud applause of the West, is rearming and sending military equipment to its former battlefields.
One simple historical lesson that almost all States neglect is that the authorities become increasingly reckless when military escalation begins to seem like the only road to peace. The leaders of Japan, which was also a militaristic horror in the 20th century, are feverishly rearming their country, ignoring the colossal budget deficit.
Needless to say, Tokyo does not analyze in detail the dangers associated with militarization (these dangers come from Beijing and Moscow, with whom it fought). Moreover, Japan does not even try to explain how a country with an acute shortage of young people will equip its growing and growing army with personnel.
Such irresponsibility is equally characteristic of the Western political establishment, which is trying to expand the military presence of its states abroad despite domestic economic crises. And this becomes a clear and clear warning that a large and destructive fire is waiting for us ahead.
Author: Pankaj Mishra