This horrible war must end

Since then, of course, there have been many wars in the world – big, small; short long; on its own territory, on the border, in a distant country; proxy wars, etc. The only eternal truth that has emerged from these 20th/21st century wars is that there will be no victor at the end of the war. War seems to offer no solution to a growing problem. Despite India’s convincing victory in the 1971 war, India and Pakistan remain bitter rivals locked in a territorial dispute. Although two superpowers take turns to “liberate” Afghanistan, this country is under the firm control of the Taliban.

Saucepan and Kettle

Thirty years after Russia supposedly threw off the yoke of the Communist Party, the Russian leader is a former member of the former Soviet Union’s fearsome intelligence agency. Mr Vladimir Putin has been in office since May 2000 and holds absolute power. Under Mr Putin’s rule, Russia annexed Crimea, recognized the two breakaway ‘republics’ of Ukraine’s Donbass region (Donetsk and Luhansk), prized two regions of Georgia (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) and granted assistance military to Syria to quell a civil war. However, nothing has prepared the world for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

It must be admitted that everything that Russia has done in the last 20 years, Western countries, especially the United States, had done in the 20th century. Regime change was the favorite pastime of American presidents. Provoking civil unrest, staging military coups, plotting political assassinations, installing puppet regimes, imposing economic sanctions – nothing was off limits. The most deplorable and unjustified war waged by the United States took place in Vietnam. In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq under the blatant false pretense that Saddam Hussein had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction.

The cause is not a cause

What is happening in Ukraine is a heartbreaking tragedy. The origins of the Russian-Ukrainian war can be traced, in part, to the relentless expansion of NATO. At the end of the Cold War, a unified Germany took the place of West Germany, and then-US Secretary of State James Baker assured Russia that NATO “will not will not move an inch beyond Germany”. The German border was 5,439 kilometers from Russia. Since 1999, NATO has grown to include 14 new member countries. As Georgia and Ukraine moved towards NATO with 30 members, and the organization also seemed willing to do so, Russia drew the red lines. If the two countries join NATO, Russia will look at NATO across its border. Far from NATO moving an inch past Germany, NATO would have come within an inch of Russia.

Russia was genuinely concerned about its security and received no credible assurances from the United States or other NATO countries, but no one had crossed the red lines drawn by Russia. In fact, when Russia annexed Crimea (which used to be part of Ukraine) and two regions of Georgia were absorbed by Russia, the United States and NATO countries quietly acquiesced. There was no reason for Russia to step up its opposition to Ukraine and start a destructive war.

The scale of the devastation and destruction caused by the war in Ukraine is appalling. Of Ukraine’s 44 million people, almost 3.5 million have fled the country and a further 6.5 million (half of them all children) have been driven from their homes. Cities have been razed; the port city of Mariupol was reduced to rubble. Millions of people are stranded without food, water or medicine. Thousands have been killed. Yet the President of Ukraine and the people are defiant and have refused to surrender. Whenever the war ends, there will be no winner. Of course, Russia will not be a winner. He will not be able to “annex” Ukraine. On the contrary, Russia would have gained a hostile neighbor and a permanent enemy, it would have lost thousands of young soldiers and billions of rubles of military equipment, many young and talented Russians would have quietly left the country and its economy would be paralyzed. . Russia will gain neither security nor respect.

India diminished

As an Indian, I feel helpless. I have no idea of ​​Indian government policy. In my opinion, no argument can justify war. So, despite the six principles enunciated by the foreign minister, why can’t India say that the war is unjustified? Why can’t India ask Russia to stop raining bombs on the civilian population and destroying homes, schools and hospitals? Why can’t the Prime Minister go to Moscow and kyiv and try to secure a ceasefire like the Prime Minister of Israel, who is bravely trying to do so? What made India so incapable of any initiative and so powerless to intervene?

This essay is not intended to be a scientific analysis of the conduct of foreign policy. This is a personal view I have and have heard from several thoughtful observers: silence in the face of grave moral challenge and repeated abstentions in global forums have belittled India.