War lessons for East and West

The Russian war on Ukraine is not over yet, and it may last a long time. It is difficult to predict the outcome of this conflict and its effects on the world, but we can draw some lessons from the course of events. What concerns me here, is what is currently happening with the collective awareness of peoples and governments. What was accepted on the 23rd of last February was shattered on the rock of the Russian attack on the 24th of the same month.

The first of these postulates on the European continent is the permanence of peace. Since the end of World War II, more than 75 years ago, the European arena has not witnessed conflicts between its main countries that threaten its peace and prosperity. This impression of the end of the time of wars, especially after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the subsequent economic progress, and technical and scientific progress in all fields, forget the peoples and governments, the foundations on which the European Union was built. What led, for example, to Britain’s exit to protect its labor market from the arrival of workers coming from Eastern European countries, in particular, as well as what prompted the rejection of the European Constitution in all referendums, the return of calls for states to control their borders, and the strengthening of extreme right-wing political parties, raising the slogan of nationalism and even Exit from the union.

The feeling of eternal peace, then, has become an obstacle to the completion of European unity, an impetus for it to turn into a club of rich countries and peoples that do not share real existential concerns, but are only competing for who will reap the fruits of economic prosperity. Suddenly Europe returned to the founding concept of the Union: ending the wars on the continent first and foremost is what, in my estimation, will lead to the establishment of another alternative consciousness, pushing in the opposite direction, that is, more unity, more military power, and cohesion with the United States under the umbrella of NATO.

Economy priority

The features of this trend began to be clear in the awakening of the German genie, and his exit from the complex of military power. Its first steps are to allocate one hundred billion dollars, to the development of military industries. Such a thing would have been impossible before the war. The general trend in all Western countries was to reduce military expenditures. On the other hand, the neutral countries of Europe began to think of belonging to the Union and NATO to protect themselves. This also shows the error of the political analyzes that were waiting for the unraveling of the Western decade, and its dissolution in favor of the developing powers, especially China.

The second of these axioms, and related to the first, is the primacy of economics over politics. Global trade competition to win more markets is what determines policy choices, not the other way around. This translated, at the level of Europe and America, into forgetting the massive violations of human rights in several countries, including, of course, Putin's Russia. Western countries did not pay attention to the decline of public liberties in the Russian Federation, not even to its internal wars, and to its destruction of part of its people, as it did with the Chechen Republic, and the obliteration of its capital. As well as deepening the centralization of the state at the expense of the rights of the nationalities and nationalities that make up the union, suppressing the political opposition, neutralizing the media, controlling the judiciary and rigging elections by all means, to reach a parliament that follows the decisions of the president without the slightest objection. The Europeans and Americans did not see these as sufficient reasons to reconsider their relations with Putin, not even his military intervention in 2014, and his occupation of parts of the Ukrainian Republic, and before that, parts of Georgia.

The priority of commercial profit is not a Western peculiarity. We see it in all countries of the world, which has allowed the continued suppression of opposition in several countries, such as Arab countries, or the suppression of minorities, as happened and is happening with Muslim minorities in China, Burma or India.

The Russian war on Ukraine awakened the West from a deep sleep, because supporting authoritarian regimes is not always a source of luxury, but rather, as we see now in the Russian case, it is a source of terror and a threat of a third world war. The current crisis may also lead to a new awareness, which is a return to the priority of politics over economics. Building a global economic system that takes into account good governance and respect for human rights in all countries of the world, not only in Western and democratic countries. Of course, these are utopian wishes, but the current circumstance may be appropriate to push in this direction.

Will there be a change in Western policies towards Arab issues, the first of which is the Russian war on Syria since 2015, as well as the right of the Palestinian people to return to their homeland and obtain their rights, and the Ukrainian case reminds everyone that the Palestinian people have been suffering from the scourge of the occupation for many decades, and find no one to support them . As well as the movement of the Arab peoples to liberate from tyrannical regimes since 2011, and what we see of the return of these regimes with the support of Western countries, under the slogan, the priority of economic profit over politics or what is called realpolitik.

What we see now indicates the opposite. The need to blockade Russia is pushing America to lift sanctions against the tyrannical Iranian regime and some dictatorships in Latin America. But this is in fact a political act with a clear objective, and it will end as soon as the need for it (isolating Putin and replacing Russian oil and gas) will end.

This new Western awareness, of the priority of politics over economic interests, will not be translated into action on the ground, except when the peoples of the countries deprived of freedom defend themselves, as the Ukrainian people do these days. Engaging in the struggle work, to obtain the desired reforms in each country, is what will push the West and democratic countries, in general, towards respecting the rights of other peoples. Will the Arab opposition and the Arab Spring youth be able to push this trend, while exposing Western complicity with regimes such as the Egyptian regime or the Sudanese military and ethnic discrimination in Palestine?

The peoples of the Mediterranean basin, north and south, must realize the unity of their destiny. The prosperity of the North cannot continue forever, at the expense of the poverty of the South, and the democracy of the North at the expense of supporting the authoritarianism of the South. The tragedies of immigration to Europe and the spread of terrorism in the countries of the South as well as in the North, is evidence of the need to unify the interests of all, not conflict. The interests of the countries of the South are first in obtaining freedom and democracy. This is what the countries of the North must understand in order to be able to preserve their well-being and the security of their citizens in the long term.

Ukrainian lesson

The last lesson of this war is the lesson of the Ukrainian people for the Arab peoples. The steadfastness and unity shown by this amazing people, and their willingness to sacrifice at all costs, is the basis for defeating the project of the Russian dictator. Putin does not want on his borders, not even in the world, any democratic soul.

We will not defeat our enemies only by shouting and begging and asking for support and support, when we ourselves are the ones who bring the occupier to our country, as happened in Syria with the Iranian and Russian presence, or in Iraq after the war on Kuwait, and the formation of a Western Arab Muslim alliance to occupy this country. We are the ones who brought Iran to Yemen through the Houthis, and the Russians to Libya through Field Marshal Haftar. This is a historical Arab peculiarity, to bring the occupier to us and then cry from him, the Palestinian ideal with the Oslo Accords and coordination with Israel on several levels, while expanding settlements at the same time.

The lesson of the Ukrainian people for the Arabs is to rise up first, before asking for the support of the other. President Zelensky rejected the American offer to flee from Kyiv at the beginning of the war, and showed courage that we do not find in most leaders of the Arab nation, not even its opponents. This young president from the art world will be able to bravely defeat the Russian project, and do not forget that it was President Ronald Reagan who brought down the Soviet Union, and at the beginning of his life he was a failed actor in American Western films. The Ukrainian people are historically called Cossacks, who have never accepted colonization and subordination to anyone. The word Cossack means in the Ukrainian language free men.