The War in Ukraine has unleashed a new word: Ruscism. A portmanteau of "Russia" and "Fascism" An affliction impacting 44 million innocent Ukrainian people for sure; but it could also be anti-Russian racism against 144 million innocent Russian people. One way or another, 1939 is back.
In World War II Russia saved Europe from the clutches of a racist regime characterised by its collective punishments against masses of innocent civilians. Europe is now leading collective punishment against 144 million Russian citizens who have done nothing wrong. Even when, according to the Europeans themselves, the Russian people are not at all capable of influencing those who control them.
The attempt to solve the terrible disaster that is happening right now to 44 million innocent people in Ukraine, by causing a slow-burn disaster to 144 million innocent people in Russia, proves that the only thing we have learned from history is that we have learned nothing from history.
That today's Europe has learned no lesson from the Europe of 1939-45.
Anyone who thinks that the Holocaust is a thing of the past, does not understand that what led to it in 1939 is exactly what is leading to it nowadays: blind collective hatred against millions of people who did nothing wrong. Russians AND Ukrainians alike.
Even today, the world could stop this war immediately, in the same way it could have been prevented: simply by refraining from encouraging Ukraine to violate the status quo that ensured its security and prosperity for so many years before the war; and by not making the citizens of Ukraine the cannon fodder of Western Europe by persuading the Ukraine government to place NATO weapons on its border with Russia that endanger Moscow’s security.
While I unequivocally condemn the horrible things Putin is doing to the citizens of Ukraine, I can not understand why Europe, NATO and the world at large should have insisted on weapons in Ukraine against Moscow when the price would clearly be this terrible and unnecessary war (alongside the crippling inflation and food crisis worldwide).
The obvious harm to Ukraine - and to all the poor people worldwide - from this casus belli is far worse than the dubious benefit to anybody from it.
The legitimate demand of near-border security was right and proper when it came in the past from the United States in the missile crisis with Cuba, just as it is right and proper today when it’s coming from Russia to Ukraine. Anyone who thinks that the West is allowed to do what Russia (or China) is forbidden from doing, has a worldview that is no different from Nazi Germany’s wrong and racist perspective in 1939.
There is no hidden support here for Russia; nor anything against Ukraine. I love Ukraine just as much as I do not hate Russia.
But with the due respect that both Ukraine and NATO deserve, an independent state should not opt to pose a military threat against a neighbouring country just because it has right to do whatever it wants in its territory.
Keeping a neighbourhood peaceful requires mutual respect between neighbours; just as in your private home you should not play music that gratuitously disturbs the peace of the neighbours. If you do so, then the police have every right to use force against you in your own home, because what you're doing - even on sovereign territory - is depriving your neighbours of their right to live in peace.
In this war there will be no winners, no matter what will be the outcome. Two great nations have already lost each other. For nothing.
It is time to end this going-nowhere war now, without declaring winners and losers. All that needs to be done is to restore the status quo ante that has allowed both nations to live in peace with each other and with Europe, and ensured 15 years of prosperity and progress for both.
Any alternative scenario will lead to the risk of another holocaust. And if you're on the victim-side of genocide, it's not really important who's killing you. The world's responsibility is to make sure a holocaust never happens again. Not to anyone.
The attempt to solve the terrible disaster that is happening right now to 44 million innocent people in Ukraine, by causing a slow-burn disaster to 144 million innocent people in Russia, proves that the only thing we have learned from history is that we have learned nothing from history.
That today's Europe has learned no lesson from the Europe of 1939-45.
Anyone who thinks that the Holocaust is a thing of the past, does not understand that what led to it in 1939 is exactly what is leading to it nowadays: blind collective hatred against millions of people who did nothing wrong. Russians AND Ukrainians alike.
Even today, the world could stop this war immediately, in the same way it could have been prevented: simply by refraining from encouraging Ukraine to violate the status quo that ensured its security and prosperity for so many years before the war; and by not making the citizens of Ukraine the cannon fodder of Western Europe by persuading the Ukraine government to place NATO weapons on its border with Russia that endanger Moscow’s security.
While I unequivocally condemn the horrible things Putin is doing to the citizens of Ukraine, I can not understand why Europe, NATO and the world at large should have insisted on weapons in Ukraine against Moscow when the price would clearly be this terrible and unnecessary war (alongside the crippling inflation and food crisis worldwide).
The obvious harm to Ukraine - and to all the poor people worldwide - from this casus belli is far worse than the dubious benefit to anybody from it.
The legitimate demand of near-border security was right and proper when it came in the past from the United States in the missile crisis with Cuba, just as it is right and proper today when it’s coming from Russia to Ukraine. Anyone who thinks that the West is allowed to do what Russia (or China) is forbidden from doing, has a worldview that is no different from Nazi Germany’s wrong and racist perspective in 1939.
There is no hidden support here for Russia; nor anything against Ukraine. I love Ukraine just as much as I do not hate Russia.
But with the due respect that both Ukraine and NATO deserve, an independent state should not opt to pose a military threat against a neighbouring country just because it has right to do whatever it wants in its territory.
Keeping a neighbourhood peaceful requires mutual respect between neighbours; just as in your private home you should not play music that gratuitously disturbs the peace of the neighbours. If you do so, then the police have every right to use force against you in your own home, because what you're doing - even on sovereign territory - is depriving your neighbours of their right to live in peace.
In this war there will be no winners, no matter what will be the outcome. Two great nations have already lost each other. For nothing.
It is time to end this going-nowhere war now, without declaring winners and losers. All that needs to be done is to restore the status quo ante that has allowed both nations to live in peace with each other and with Europe, and ensured 15 years of prosperity and progress for both.
Any alternative scenario will lead to the risk of another holocaust. And if you're on the victim-side of genocide, it's not really important who's killing you. The world's responsibility is to make sure a holocaust never happens again. Not to anyone.