Western Leaders Witness Loss of Ukraine National Freedom and the Russians are Coming and Coming!
[Photo: Alibin Alibin, Flickr, 4/14/2022]
By Mahboob Khawaja, PhD
We are in an era that is marked by many failures – environmental crisis, inequality, aggression, communication. Among the critical failures underlying them all is the lack of truth. We can point to many things chopping down this tree, from the capitalist success at “branding” and “marketing” everything from products and businesses to ideas and ourselves. This has led to what might be termed ‘the life of commercial’ where we are a living commercial. In commercials, the effort is to create an imaginary world where the product has magical powers – even when we are that product. There is little, if any, truth in the world of commercials. However, the commercialization of everything is but one threat to truth. However, it paves the way for our suspension of disbelief, which is critical to the erosion of truth and the ascendency of deceit and gaslighting.
Courtesy -Al Jazeera
‘Post-truthis a periodizing concept referring to a transnational and historically specific, empirically observable public anxiety about public truth claims and authority to be a legitimate public truth-teller. It also refers to the theories about the historically specific converging causes that have produced its communication forms and effects. The term was named Word of the Year in 2016 by the Oxford Dictionary where it is defined as “Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief“. As Oxford Dictionary’s web page on post-truth explains, the term’s use spiked with reference to the communication context in the period around the 2016 United States presidential election and the Brexit referendum. Oxford dictionaries further notes that post-truth was often used as an adjective to signal a distinctive kind of politics – It continues to be used frequently in this regard.’
Trump’s role was (and is) multi-layered. First, he was highly public and at the top of the GOP, and then as President of the U.S. His actions, even more so than other elected officials, sent the message that his behavior was acceptable (and literally, unimpeachable). Given that he is a pathological liar, and in a position to gaslight the nation, his role model is having ramifications not just across the United States, but across the world. His example has shown that if you break every law and rule you are likely to get away with most of it – especially if you are very wealthy or powerful, or connected to people who are.
A message that has been sent with increasing frequency is that everything is a matter of opinion, and that fact is what one wishes it to be, or simply doesn’t exist. We could have a long discussion about how ephemeral a life or world can become when it is rooted in our beliefs and opinions rather than even a loosely anchored reality.
Lastly, and in part, a combination of all of the above is that war is based on lies. Some would argue this is the case for security reasons, but more honestly in the modern era is that too many wealthy people and nations benefit from the deceptions. Leaders lie to their own people to gain their support for war, and to perpetuate national myths about the goodness and righteousness of the nation.
We are in a different global environment than we have ever been in before. I agree with Dr. Khawaja that it is critical that we tell the truth to the best of our ability and knowledge. This is not just for the ‘greater good,’ but as a moral obligation. So many millions of people’s lives are on the line and the horrors that many have and are experiencing demand our honesty and our witnessing. We cannot let lies and deception make invisible reality and the extreme cost of not just our leaders, but that silence implicates us – individually and collectively.
Mahboob Khawaja, PhD
The paralyzing fear and distrust emerging from the horrors of war in Ukraine must make us conscious to record the truth of global leadership’s failure. The truth must be written in the annals of history that we all failed to stop the tyranny of war by the people against the people and that we had no idea how we continued to harm our present and cripple our sustainable future with weapons that should have protected our freedom, not destroyed our existence. (The Author).
How to Stop the Leadership Cruelty
All tyrants get corrupted by their own tyranny.
The global warriors have infested mankind with tyranny and transgression. The resulting killing of civilians, destruction of human habitats, cruelty, and global disorder are widespread across West Europe having an influx of millions of refugees and the Russian sphere of strategic influence go unchallenged. All tyrants get corrupted by their own tyranny. Russia, America, and NATO need to be wise, not to become Warrior Empires in global future destruction. Obsessed with weapons and the power of energy (oil and gas), Russian and Western leaders have embarked on reinventing global disasters by a relentless proxy war in Ukraine and its spill-over immediate impacts on neighbouring Poland, Moldova, and the rest of Eastern Europe. NATO, the EU, and Russia created strategic divides and now bombing perpetuates animosities. There is no check and balance strategy open to international accountability – no international law and no so-called ‘preservation’ of the Geneva Conventions. Contrary to the official statements, the daily killings of the civilians go unabated across the Ukrainian war theater. Russia’s end goal seems to be the destruction of the national freedom and identity of Ukraine as a free nation.
We, the People, We, the Humanity are reliving the unthinkable horrors, bloodbaths, and massacres of innocent civilians watching the daily news on Ukraine and what happened during the Two European World Wars – still fresh on the human slate of memories. Wars and aggressions kill people and do not produce peace and harmony but resentment and degeneration. History illustrates when a nation or its leaders challenge the limits of the Laws of God and approach near the end of their lifespan, insanity takes over common sense and they tend to ignore warnings and reject all voices of reason.
Analyzing critically and comparatively, most Western leaders defy the logic of reason and honesty while reflecting on the current war between Russia and Ukraine and its spill-over impacts on all nations. Most are not truthful about their capacity of strengths and weaknesses; they pretend to be stage actors to appease the masses as if they are doing something useful to protect human lives as endangered species in war zones across Ukraine. Not so, words do not replace actions. They are fearful of their own obsession with an animosity that could not be defined in a simplistic narrative against Russia – the outgrowth of the former USSR. Do the Western leaders (America, NATO, and the EU) have the capacity and determination to stop Russia and its almost three-month-long invasion of Ukraine? If they claim unity of minds, why can’t they challenge Russia to stop its war against Ukraine? They launched a bogus war against Iraq for hypothetical Weapons of Mass Destruction (2003), but Russia has far more superior advanced weapons against the West and its affiliated entities than Iraq did. Even the US Congress joined the wrongful war against Iraq. Do the US, NATO, and its allies realize the horrible mistakes of the past? Have they learned any moral and intellectual lessons from the living history?
Perhaps, Western leaders have weapons but not unanimity of mind and aim to challenge Russia and its unexpectedly prolonged capitulation of Ukraine on many fronts. Do they view Ukraine as a test lab – how the war will go to encounter Russia in future war zones of common socio-economic and strategic interests. It is fast becoming unpredictable when the fateful conjunction between the old and obsolete and the beginning of new age of visionary peace and sustainable future will grasp the human wisdom. Whatever happens in-between, Ukraine is at a great loss being allowed by the Western political mythologists to be victimized by the Russian onslaught. History will haunt Russian, Ukrainian, and Western political thinking and cultures for rational answers for generations to come. All parties involved in the war zones seemed engaged in unbridled ambitions and power to enhance their own fame and fortunes.
The UNO Is Missing Its Credibility and Usefulness
The UN Secretary-General should have asked President Putin for an immediate ceasefire in Moscow. If he had the courage and self-confidence as a leader, he should have demanded compliance with International Law, peacemaking, and respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The UN and its leaders act as if they are ignorant of what is happening on the ground and forgetful of their own Chartered-based role-play in global peace and conflict resolution. The UN and its organs were supposed to be active to prevent such horror stories and massacres of the civilian population across Ukraine as happened during the Second World War, but its leadership is no different than the inept leaders of many other global enterprises. They issue statements of “grave concern” while Russia bombs Khairve, charcoaled Mariupol lives and habitats, and most importantly, created 10 million or so refugees displaced forcibly in neighboring countries. What kind of UNO is functioning today to resolve emerging conflicts and usher in peace for 21st-century humanity? Its leadership failed miserably as did the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to evacuate the civilians in war zone emergencies. Are international law and the protection of civilians in war zones (Geneva Conventions) just paper-based conventions that nobody cares about or respects in actual conflicts?
Towards Understanding the Facts, Not Fiction, of the Universe in which Mankind Lives – Civilizations Grow out of Peace, not Wars
Many Western and Russian scholars falsify facts and articulate media-based fictions about the ongoing war in Ukraine. Russian leadership terms it a “Special Military Operation”, contradicting the global view of a war against Ukraine. In March 2003, it was not different when the US-NATO invaded Iraq under a false pretext of WMD. Sherwood Ross (“US Sponsored Genocide against Iraq 1990-2012 killed 3.3 million including 750,000 children.” Global Research: 12/06/2012), outlined many such pertinent facts. The encompassed picture showed Arabs and Muslims as if they were born in the eye of a dangerous storm that should be crushed by advanced American–NATO technology available to pilots when bombing the Iraqi-Syrian landscape. The push for war is instinctively part of human ignorance and arrogance and is alive in Ukraine. What if the same could happen to Russia? If Russia’s military operations are too confident, they could end up getting surprises from the Western alliances. Whatever remains in the future – and however improbable at this moment – could become the truth of the future. Wars contradict human nature and the Nature of the living Universe. It is co-existence and peace that brings people and nations together and helps life and relationships to flourish and benefit humans, Nature, the Earth, and the larger Universe. Civilizations grow out of peace, not fear and conflicts. The global leaders are destroying the Future – Our Earth – Our Universe of Peace and Harmony.
Global leaders are obsessed with war. They need to learn how to co-exist in universal harmony. They should take a trip to outer space to view the existence of the Earth and how the all-powerful God has created it and continues to manage it harmoniously despite large-scale human ignorance and violations of the Laws of Nature. Could the warmongers grasp the basic knowledge – how the planet Earth exists and moves at its axis and rotates at 1675 km per hour or 465 meters per second which is 1,040 miles per hour. The Earth’s circumference at the equator is 40,075 km. And the length of time the Earth takes to complete one full turn on its axis is 23.93 hours. And how do all living beings get lifelong nourishment within the splendid Universe? Do people ponder and realize how human beings are created by the Divine process and how societies flourish since time immemorial? This understanding is critical for peacemaking and peaceful co-existence within the Universe.
History speaks loud and clear how in every age and time few powerful warmongers often mentally retarded individuals have always driven mankind to large scale slaughters, victimization, deprivation, and long term ripple scars that it never goes away from the human memory and written pages of human history.
To challenge the deafening silence of the American, Russian and Europeans, and of all the authoritarian rulers for global peace and security, the global community must find ways and means to look beyond the obvious and troublesome horizons dominated by the few warlords and continued to be plagued by daily massacres, displacement of civilians, barbarity against human culture and civilizations, destruction of the habitats and natural environment as if there were no rational being and people of reason populating the God’s created splendid and living Universe. The global human conscience feels an urgent need to organize peaceful public protests and sit-ins against the warmongers. What is happening between Russia and Ukraine must not be viewed indifferently by all the global war players. If Russian, American, and NATO leaders are honest, proactive, and accountable to the global community, they urgently need people with new ideas and creative strategic THINKING to cope with multiple scopes of the political conflicts and humanitarian crises and to find peaceful and workable solutions away from the entrenched political box of the few global warmongers.
Recall what this author proposed (or here) recently to the leaders on both sides of the iron curtain:
To stop the war in Ukraine, the US, the EU, and NATO should have direct face-to-face communication with President Putin. It could be facilitated under the G20 auspices. It is logical when people of diversity and opposing ideals come to talk directly, tensions and evil mongering are reduced to reason and mutual interest. This has not happened except for military options for weapon supplies and enlargement of the scope of regional conflict. Time and history will not forgive nor forget any of the leaders if they failed to agree to an immediate ceasefire and peace deal.
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace, and conflict resolution with keen interest in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany, May 2012. His forthcoming book is entitled: One Humanity and The Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution
