Video:
U.S. Hypocrisy? Telling Russia To Stay Out of Ukraine
Double standards
are on display as Western leaders attack Russia regarding Ukraine, while
they themselves commit or endorse worse aggression on other countries.
WORLD attention has focused on Ukraine recently. With President
Victor Yanukovych making his exit and a new government formed, events
shifted to Crimea, with accusations that the Russian military took over
the region.
Yanukovych, resurfacing in a Russian town, said he left as his life
was at risk, the new regime is illegitimate, and he is still the
president.
Sizeable crowds in Crimea (many of whose population are ethnic
Russian) are showing anti-Kiev and pro-Russian feelings and the Crimean
Parliament had decided to hold a referendum on whether to remain in
Ukraine or break away and be part of Russia.
Western leaders have attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his alleged invasion of Crimea.
The Russian argument is that it has not invaded, that in any case it
has a legitimate interest in Crimea due to historical links and the
ethnic Russians who live there have asked for protection against the new
and illegitimate Kiev regime.
Whatever the merits or otherwise of Russia’s position and actions,
it is clear that there has been a long historical Russian-Crimea-Ukraine
relationship. The complex condition requires a correspondingly complex
solution.
The rhetoric of some Western leaders is aggressive. They accused
Russia of violating sovereignty and international law, among other
things.
The United States plans to ban visas for selected Russian officials,
followed by sanctions on Russian banks, freezing assets of its
companies, and possibly trade measures.
US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have
accused Putin of making use of false claims for its invasion, that
Crimea is in danger.
“This is the 21st century and we should not see nations step
backwards to behave in a 19th or 20th century fashion,” said Kerry. “It
is not appropriate to invade a country and at the end of a barrel of a
gun dictate what you are trying to achieve.”
Obama said “Russia cannot with impunity put its soldiers on the
ground and violate basic principles that are recognised around the
world”, adding that Russia is “on the wrong side of history”.
Listening to the American leaders lecturing Russia in their
self-righteous tone, one is struck by the double standards and hypocrisy
involved.
They don’t seem to realise how they have violated the same principles and behaviour they demand of Russia.
It was after all the United States that invaded Iraq in 2003,
massively bombing its territory and killing hundreds of thousands, on
the grounds that Saddam Hussein had amassed weapons of mass destruction.
The UN Security Council would not give the green light. No weapons
of mass destruction were found. Many experts considered the war against
Iraq a violation of international law, a view also expressed in a media
interview by the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal in 2011 found former US
president George W. Bush and former British prime minister Tony Blair
guilty of crimes against humanity and genocide as a result of their
roles in the Iraq war.
The United States also waged war in Afghanistan, changing the
regime, resulting in thousands of deaths. In Libya, the US and its
allies carried out massive bombing, which aided opposition forces and
led to the killing of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Even now there are sanctions and the threat of military action
against Iran on the suspicion it wants to develop nuclear weapons, which
Iran has denied.
In contrast, the US turns a blind eye on Israel’s ownership of
nuclear weapons. And when Israel conducted the blanket bombing of
Lebanon and Gaza in recent years, with thousands of deaths, there was no
condemnation at all from the US, which has also blocked UN Security
Council resolutions and actions on its ally.
The US has also come under attack from human rights groups for its
use of drones against suspected terrorists but which has also killed
many civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.
Last week, the UN Human Rights Council published a Special
Rapporteur’s report which detailed the deaths of civilians caused by US
drone attacks, and raised many questions of possible violations of
international human rights law.
All these actions were done in the 21st century, which adds to many other actions in the 20th century.
It’s thus remarkable that Obama and Kerry could with a straight face
accuse Russia of not acting in a 21st century manner, and being on the
wrong side of history.
There appears to be still one law for the most powerful, and another
for others. The former can invade and kill, while lecturing
self-righteously to others.
Whatever one thinks of Russia’s action in Crimea, it should be noted
that no one has been killed because of it, at least not yet. Compare
that to the hundreds of thousands or millions, who have died and
suffered from past and present wars of the US and other Western
countries.
Though much of the mainstream media also takes the establishment
view, some Western journalists have also pointed out their leaders’
hypocrisy.
In an article, “America’s Staggering Hypocrisy in Ukraine,” the
well-known American journalist Robert Parry remarked: “Since World War
II, the United States has invaded or otherwise intervened in so many
countries that it would be challenging to compile a complete list …
“So, what is one to make of Secretary of State John Kerry’s
pronouncement that Russia’s military intervention in the Crimea section
of Ukraine – at the behest of the country’s deposed president – is a
violation of international law that the United States would never
countenance?
“Are Kerry and pretty much everyone else in Official Washington so
lacking in self-awareness that they don’t realise that they are
condemning actions by Russian President Vladimir Putin that are far less
egregious than what they themselves have done?”
Parry concludes that the overriding hypocrisy of the media, Kerry
and nearly all of Official Washington is their insistence that the
United States actually promotes the principle of democracy or, for that
matter, the rule of international law.
Global Trends - By Martin Khor
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The views expressed are entirely the writer’s own.
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