[News] The Western Allied Nations Bully the World While Warning of Threats From China and Russia

[Anti-Imperialist News]

counterpunch.org
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/02/18/the-western-allied-nations-bully-the-world-while-warning-of-threats-from-china-and-russia/>
The
Western Allied Nations Bully the World While Warning of Threats From China
and RussiaVijay Prashad - February 18, 2022
------------------------------

On January 21, 2022, Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach attended
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/an-important-strategic-partner/mr4mp3/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
a
talk in New Delhi, India, organized by the Manohar Parrikar Institute for
Defense Studies and Analyses
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-02-17/mr4mp5/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>.
Schönbach was speaking as the chief
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/en-529330-529330/mr4mp7/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
of
Germany’s navy during his visit to the institute. “What he really wants is
respect,” Schönbach said
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/watch-v-ODmkoGQw1TU/mr4mp9/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>,
referring to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. “And my god, giving someone
respect is low cost, even no cost.” Furthermore, Schönbach said that in his
opinion, “It is easy to even give him the respect he really demands and
probably also deserves.”

The next day, on January 22, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba
summoned
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/220122-ukraina-1769080963-html/mr4mpc/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
Germany’s
ambassador to Ukraine, Anka Feldhusen, to Kyiv and “expressed deep
disappointment” regarding the lack of German weapons provided to Ukraine
and also about Schönbach’s comments in New Delhi. Vice Admiral Schönbach
released a statement soon after, saying
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/schoenbach-ruecktritt-103-html/mr4mpf/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>,
“I have just asked the Federal Minister of Defense [Christine Lambrecht] to
release me from my duties and responsibilities as inspector of the navy
with immediate effect.” Lambrecht did not wait long to accept the
resignation.

Why was Vice Admiral Schönbach sacked? Because he said two things that are
unacceptable
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/germaniya-1769079837-html-in-t/mr4mph/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
in
the West: first, that
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/watch-v-ODmkoGQw1TU/mr4mp9/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
“the
Crimean Peninsula is gone and never [coming] back” to Ukraine and, second,
that Putin should be treated with respect. The Schönbach affair is a vivid
illustration of the problem that confronts the West currently, where
Russian behavior is routinely described as “aggression” and where the idea
of giving “respect” to Russia is disparaged.

*Aggression*

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration began to use
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ary-jen-psaki-january-25-2022-/mr4mpk/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
the
word “imminent” to describe a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine toward
the end of January. On January 18, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
did not use the word “imminent,” but implied it with her comment
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/itch-landrieu-january-18-2022-/mr4mpm/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>:
“Our view is this is an extremely dangerous situation. We’re now at a stage
where Russia could at any point launch an attack in Ukraine.” On January
25, Psaki, while referring to the possible timeline for a Russian invasion,
said
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ary-jen-psaki-january-25-2022-/mr4mpk/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>,
“I think when we said it was imminent, it remains imminent.” Two days
later, on January 27, when she was asked about her use of the word
“imminent” with regard to the invasion, Psaki said
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ary-jen-psaki-january-27-2022-/mr4mpp/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>,
“Our assessment has not changed since that point.”

On January 17, as the idea of an “imminent” Russian “invasion” escalated in
Washington, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rebuked
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/world-1389175/mr4mpr/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
the
suggestion of “the so-called Russian invasion of Ukraine.” Three days
later, on January 20, spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry Maria
Zakharova denied that Russia would invade Ukraine, but said
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/world-1390797/mr4mpt/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
that
the talk of such an invasion allowed the West to intervene militarily in
Ukraine and threaten Russia.

Even a modicum of historical memory could have improved the debate about
Russian military intervention in Ukraine. In the aftermath
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/conflict-explained-a-decade-on/mr4mpw/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
of
the Georgian-Russian conflict in 2008, the European Union’s Independent
International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia, headed by
Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, found that the information war in the
lead-up to the conflict was inaccurate and inflammatory. Contrary to
Georgian-Western statements, Tagliavini said
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/r-report-idUKTRE58T45X20090930/mr4mpy/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>,
“[T]here was no massive Russian military invasion underway, which had to be
stopped by Georgian military forces shelling Tskhinvali.” The idea of
Russian “aggression” that has been mentioned in recent months, while
referring to the possibility of Russia invading Ukraine, replicates the
tone that preceded the conflict between Georgia and Russia, which was
another dispute about old Soviet borders that should have been handled
diplomatically.

Western politicians and media outlets have used
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/world-europe-ukraine-maps-html/mr4mq1/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
the
fact that 100,000 Russian troops have been stationed on Ukraine’s border as
a sign of “aggression.” The number—100,000—sounds threatening, but it has
been taken out of context. To invade Iraq in 1991, the United States and
its allies amassed
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-iraqi-troops-in-gulf-war-html/mr4mq3/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
more
than 700,000 troops as well as the entire ensemble of U.S. war technology
located in its nearby bases and on its ships. Iraq had no allies and a
military force depleted by the decade-long war of attrition against Iran.
Ukraine’s army—regular and reserve—number
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-of-vladimir-putins-phoney-war/mr4mq5/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
about
500,000 troops (backed by the 1.5 million troops in NATO countries). With
more than a million soldiers in uniform, Russia could have deployed many
more troops at the Ukrainian border and would need to have done so for a
full-scale invasion of a NATO partner country.

*Respect*

The word “respect” used by Vice Admiral Schönbach is key to the discussion
regarding the emergence of both Russia and China as world powers. The
conflict is not merely about Ukraine, just as the conflict in the South
China Sea is not merely about Taiwan. The real conflict is about whether
the West will allow both Russia and China to define policies that extend
beyond their borders.

Russia, for instance, was not seen as a threat or as aggressive when it was
in a less powerful position in comparison to the West after the collapse of
the USSR. During the tenure of Russian President Boris Yeltsin (1991-1999),
the Russian government encouraged the looting of the country by
oligarchs—many of whom now reside in the West—and defined its own foreign
policy based on the objectives
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/n-relationship-their-own-words/mr4mq7/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
of
the United States. In 1994, “Russia became the first country to join
NATO’s Partnership
for Peace
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-4-pdf-2003-NATO-Russia-en-pdf/mr4mq9/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>,”
and that same year, Russia began a three-year process of joining the Group
of Seven, which in 1997 expanded
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/3Bqf9St/mr4mqc/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
into
the Group of Eight. Putin became president of Russia in 2000, inheriting a
vastly depleted country, and promised to build it up so that Russia could
realize its full potential.

In the aftermath of the collapse of the Western credit markets in
2007-2008, Putin began to speak
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/120411-putin-duma-constitution/mr4mqf/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
about
the new buoyancy in Russia. In 2015, I met a Russian diplomat in Beirut,
who explained to me that Russia worried that various Western-backed
maneuvers threatened Russia’s access to its two warm-water ports—in
Sevastopol, Crimea, and in Tartus, Syria; it was in reaction to these
provocations, he said, that Russia acted in both Crimea (2014) and Syria
(2015).

The United States made it clear during the administration of President
Barack Obama that both Russia and China must stay
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ng-russia-china-together-10735/mr4mqh/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
within
their borders and know their place in the world order. An aggressive policy
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2c-7aeb-4b59-8d5f-1d8c94e1964d/mr4mqk/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
of
NATO expansion into Eastern Europe and of the creation
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/t-with-china-through-the-quad-/mr4mqm/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
of
the Quad (Australia, India, Japan and the United States) drew Russia and
China into a security alliance that has only strengthened
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/S60eccc9aa310efa1bd66154a-html/mr4mqp/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
over
time. Both Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping recently agreed
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/unprecedented-close-ties-china/mr4mqr/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
that
NATO’s expansion eastward and Taiwan’s independence were not acceptable to
them. China and Russia see the West’s actions in both Eastern Europe and
Taiwan as provocations by the West against the ambitions of these Eurasian
powers.

That same Russian diplomat to whom I spoke in Beirut in 2015 said something
to me that remains pertinent: “When the U.S. illegally invaded Iraq, none
of the Western press called it ‘aggression.’”

*This article was produced by **Globetrotter*
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-02-17/mr4mqt/999370378?h=z2uWBymsDDrRo-0x9-JLy_1lt4fKVmia6KrC80ufrbo>
*.*

*Vijay Prashad’s most recent book (with Noam Chomsky) is The Withdrawal:
Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and the Fragility of US Power (New Press, August
2022).*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20220218/ecb104e1/attachment.htm>