Sanctimonious hypocrisy will end in WWIII

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Lead Editorial

2 March 2022
Vol. 24 No. 9

The first casualty of war is the truth, so it is foolish in the extreme to try to draw conclusions from the details coming out of Ukraine right now, especially from media reports. For the most accurate picture, we need to take the largest possible perspective, in terms of both time and geography.

Here’s what we know is true: Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent his forces into Ukraine, and they are advancing.

In response to Western threats of retaliation, Putin has put Russia’s nuclear deterrent on high alert.

Ukraine has entered into negotiations with Russia, which are being held in Belarus.

Despite Anglo-American claims the world is “united” against Putin, a growing number of the world’s largest nations have refused to condemn Russia, including China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

The above facts alone should give the citizens of countries in the Anglosphere and Europe pause, that the lines we are getting from our governments and the media are not just inaccurate, they are dangerous. Our leaders are telling us Putin is a madman, and the next “Hitler” (just as Saddam, Milosevic, Qadaffi, Assad and Xi have been the next “Hitler”), which justifies their not engaging with Russia’s perspective on this conflict. They are demanding punishment, kicking Russia out of the world economy, as well as sporting and cultural engagement, based on claims that Putin has committed a terrible act that is without precedent since WWII. One of the oft-repeated claims is that this is the first attack on a European capital since WWII.

Except none of this is true. In 1999 NATO bombed Belgrade and Serbia for more than 70 days, entirely in breach of international law (one of the bombs hit the Chinese embassy, killing Chinese diplomats).

In 2003, the USA, UK and Australia, again in breach of international law, invaded Iraq, starting with a massive bombing campaign to which the Bush-Cheney administration gave a Hollywood title: Shock and Awe! There was no concern then for the civilian victims under those bombs, which set off the destruction of Iraq that would claim a million lives. The excuse for invading Iraq was that Saddam threatened “our” security, from the other side of the world. When weapons of mass destruction weren’t found, George W. Bush presented a comedy routine at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner of him looking for those elusive weapons.

The USA, UK, France and other accomplices followed up the Iraq debacle with similar atrocities in Libya and Syria, again based on lies which were later acknowledged.

What punishment did we receive? What sanctions did we suffer? None. Yet our leaders, who have never expressed even regret for our actions, get to pretend that somehow Russia’s actions are the equivalent of Hitler’s. Their sanctimonious hypocrisy will push us into WWIII.

The fact that so many major countries refuse to condemn Russia shows that they know that Russia has valid concerns. What they all know, is what many, many Western statesmen have warned over the years: that this war is the consequence of the relentless eastward expansion of NATO up to Russia’s borders, after the USA pledged to Russia in 1990 that NATO wouldn’t expand.

Even a partial list of such statesmen and when they warned of these consequences is striking:

Former Australian PM Paul Keating–1997; former US Ambassador to USSR Jack Matlock–1997; former US Ambassador to the USSR George Kennan–1998; former US Ambassador to Russia (current CIA director) William Burns–2008; former US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger–2014; former Australian PM Malcolm Fraser–2014; former US Defence Secretary Robert Gates–2015; former UK Ambassador to Russia Sir Roderic Lyne–2021. And many more.

When such warnings are ignored, the consequences are disastrous. We must demand our leaders commit to achieving peace, not dishonest moralising that will doom us all.

In this issue:

• Continue Christine Holgate’s great work: save regional banking services!
• AFCA tips scales for banks against small business
• Billionaire’s AGL bid is ‘green’ corporatism (fascism)
• Dump economic ‘rules of game’, or face breakdown
• Global showdown with Russia threatens us all
• A year of strategic battles and victories
• European fusion breakthrough another step towards abundant, cheap energy

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