Loss of US’s moral standing, Ukraine’s delusion prevent end to conflict

After three decades, since the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, the United States finds its free run come to a halt with the rise of an aggressive Russia.  The inability of the US-led NATO countries to put an end to the six-week old Russian pounding of Ukraine is a clear sign that the unipolar world is again shifting to a bipolar if not a multi-polar system.

The Western media has commented on how the Russians encountered unexpected resistance from Ukraine leading to the lengthy standoff between the two.  But, as usual, it is a sleight of hand reporting. For the real resistance is the one experienced by the US.

Having provoked Russia by dangling the NATO membership card for Ukraine, the US repeatedly warned of a possible invasion by Putin.  If the US-led West had believed its own assessment, it would not have exposed Ukraine to the dangers of a Russian attack.

The membership of NATO could have waited for a few more years. Ukraine would not have lost anything by being patient. After all, the bigger battle — that of dismantling the Soviet Union — had already been won by the US-led West three decades earlier. There was no compulsion for Ukraine to be part of NATO, at this point in time, in the face of a belligerent Russia. Yet, US President Joe Biden refused to concede Putin’s demand to drop NATO membership for Ukraine.

Obviously, this meant that either the US and its NATO allies were hell-bent on testing Russian determination or grossly underestimated Putin’s response. And, the result: a six-week carnage of a country (as of April 7,  1,611 have been killed and 2,227 injured) that blinded by its newfound proximity to the West trusted the US and NATO only to find that none has been able to come to its rescue in this time of catastrophe.

Cynical as it may sound, for the US and its NATO allies, it would appear that Ukraine was expendable in the larger tussle for global supremacy. If the US expected Russia to be the target of world anger, it is gradually realising that a large section of dispassionate observers in countries like India are actually outraged by the US.

No moral heft left

The US finds it no longer has the moral heft to influence the world in its favour. The conflagration in Ukraine has shown that the US is not the same nation that the world looked up to after the Second World War. At the time, the US was projected as a nation that won freedom for the world in the fight against Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union too played an equally major role in the allied victory, but the undermining of liberal democracy under Communist rule made it easy for the West to tarnish its reputation in popular perception.

The US’s role in Vietnam in the late 1960s and its eventual defeat at the hands of the VietCong fighters dented its image somewhat but it still managed to hold on to its reputation as the leader of the so-called free world, following the Watergate scandal and the display of independence by the media in that country.

Also read: How far will Putin go in Ukraine? Georgia may hold the answers

In the 1990s, when Rwanda was in the throes of a blood-curdling genocide of the Tutsis by the Hutus, and atrocities were committed by Serbian troops in Bosnia against the Muslim community, the US was looked up to for deliverance. Whether Washington did that or not is another story, but the fact that it was seen as a messiah indicated it still had the moral authority to make a difference to the world.

In the face of a relentless attack on Soviet interests during the Cold War, it was again the positive image of the US and its allies in Western Europe that swung public opinion in Moscow-controlled East Europe and in the various provinces of the Soviet Union in favour of Washington and their preference for the “free world”.

Exposed post-Soviet disintegration

The Soviet Union’s cardinal error in invading Afghanistan in 1979 was effectively harvested by the US to paint its Cold War rival as the world’s villain.   Moscow’s eventual defeat, its loss of control over East Europe and the controversial pro-West role played by a section of the ruling elite in the Soviet Union led by the former president Mikhail Gorbachev finally resulted in its disintegration.

With its existential rival gone, one would have expected the US to preside over comparatively more peaceful post-Cold War era. But the US, fresh from its victory over the Soviet Union, presented its true face to the world, as an aggrandiser. The last time it received unqualified world sympathy was in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington DC. Its invasion of Afghanistan received complete support from the rest of the world.

Yet the US’s hegemonic mindset proved to be its undoing. And, in one mindless action —  its invasion of Iraq in 2003 — lost its entire goodwill,  moral authority and reputation as a nation that stood for the “good” of humankind, despite its dubious role in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Following up on Iraq, in the period after 2011, the US’s brazen interference in the spontaneous popular uprising across the Middle-East resulted in the subversion of the movement for democracy. Ironical, coming from a country that purports to swear by democracy.

US’ role questioned

Today, when the US and its allies attempt to project Washington as the leader of the “free world”, all one can see is a sarcastic response. In a world democracy meet organised in December last, countries like China and Russia questioned the credentials of the US as a democracy, quoting its action in Iraq among others.

In the context of the invasion of Ukraine, the US-led caucus has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia, and facilitated the airing of footage purporting to show Moscow’s attack on Ukraine civilians. Russia has been evicted from the UN Human Rights Council for its role in the Bucha killings.

Also read: US desperate to cut Russia to size over Ukraine, but odds favour Putin

Beyond these peripheral attempts, the US and its allies have been unable to mount pressure on Russia to end the fighting. Their attempts to invoke international laws under the United Nations have come up with nought as in the past the US itself has circumvented the Security Council, thereby diluting its credibility.

It would not take long for the invasion to end if the US-led West backed off, and allowed Ukraine to negotiate a deal with Russia — to end the wanton killing of innocent people and destruction of a nation. That this is not happening should be a lesson for other countries that hope for a better future by tying their fortunes to big powers.