While hope dies, hypocrisy lives.
This equation kind of came to mind as I watched the Russian invasion of Ukraine on TV in real time with a depressing mix of grief, sadness and fear.
As diplomats called for restraint at the United Nations, which was sitting in serious circles, familiar images of “shock and awe” resumed, and an equally familiar sense of déjà vu once again seized the consciousness of a war-torn world.
It shouldn’t have ended this way.
I’ve read on the opinion page and elsewhere that it’s unlikely that Vladimir Putin will do what he did. The reasons given by the authors, who knew Russia’s leader, the region and its history much better, were logical and reassuring to me.
Perhaps, like you, I clung to the hope that war could be avoided, diplomacy would prevail, and that more innocents elsewhere in the world would be spared the inevitable pain, suffering humiliations and horrors caused by little men. with large armies.
“Analysts” and we were wrong.
Now, hope seems lost – again. Another stupid, useless casualty of war started by another small, incompetent man with a big, powerful business.
Maybe, like you, before Putin chose war, I dreamed of possibilities on the not-so-distant horizon. As some of us are surviving the clutches of a deadly virus, I imagined a spark of optimism could finally come out of this gloom. And I’ve seen selfless, kind, and intelligent people guide us through loss and uncertainty to a welcomed measure of healing and promise.
The weak expectation of knowing probability, optimism, and promises was soon erased; suddenly and clearly got a premonition for the fate of millions of Ukrainians caught up in the deadly pros of this latest spasm of madness and a world reverting to a “cold war” we thought we had left behind.
Since the early hours of Thursday morning, an already damaged, scarred world has become more fragile and ominous. The chances of a new, erupting cold war turning into a larger hot war, over time or by crazy design, are more plausible today than it was a few days ago.
These are bleak times for those who value our neighbors far beyond our parochial interests and borders. All the hard, necessary work done by so many good people in so many places trying to get a full and complete return to life came out of nowhere.
Yet it is our duty, our obligation, to offer as much help and consolation as we can to the Ukrainian children, women and men trapped in bunkers and metro stations to escape the death and destruction above. It is our duty and obligation to help Ukrainians – as much as we can – find a safe haven whenever and wherever they want. It is our duty and obligation to help Ukrainians resist and – if possible – regain their origin in their home country.
Brave Russians understand this duty and obligation. In the cities of Russia, thousands of people took to the streets to say no to despair, inhumanity and war. They risked their freedom to show solidarity with neighboring Ukrainians.
We should commend the enlightened Russians for their fair and humane attitude when faced with such a challenge.
But the other actors in this unfolding drama deserve our disdain and condemnation for their blatant hypocrisy on display in a startling fashion.
It was shocking to watch an American president and a British prime minister and their deputies at the UN condemn Russia for allegedly violating sacred and binding conventions and international law when it was a devastating reflection of American and British foreign policy for generations. arrogant disdain for the same statutes and laws.
History is littered with countries and peoples who have collectively paid and continue to pay the price for decisions made by American presidents and British prime ministers, particularly those ending diplomacy in favor of power and “regime change”.
It is surprising to announce that an American president and a British prime minister and their deputies have fervently defended Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” while American presidents and British prime ministers – especially – treat the “territorial integrity” of many other sovereign nations. as an inconvenience to imperial designs.
Examples of British and American “exceptionalism” abound – Vietnam, Cambodia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, Chile, Venezuela, Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan and of course Iraq and many more.
It’s surprising to hear an American president and a British prime minister warn Putin to avoid making a “historic mistake” when an American president and a British prime minister reject the definitive (and forward-thinking) advice offered by a number of diplomats earlier this century. At the UN Security Council and later millions of anti-war protesters who were defamed as pure quislings in the service of a dangerous autocrat.
As a result, it is surprising to read the columns of leading British and American newspapers entitled “The West Must Show Putin How Wrong It Was” – which often endorse editorials as covers for illegal invasions and coups. To Choose War”.
It’s surprising to watch American and British cable television reporters denounce the Russian military’s cruise missile-fueled “shock and fright” campaign as proof of Putin’s malign plans, while watching silently and sometimes in awe of the “shock and horror” unleashed by American and British forces. awe” in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Finally, when Western politicians and commentators giggle like angry asses when they are human, it’s surprising to watch Western politicians and commentators rush at a sprinter’s speed to demand immediate imposition of crushing sanctions on the Russian “regime” and Putin’s facilitators inside and outside the Duma. Human rights groups propose sanctions against other regimes found guilty of apartheid.
From where I am writing, hope that once seemed attainable is on the verge of extinction. Meanwhile, hypocrisy thrives, as it always does.