US learns nothing from lesson in Ukraine
- Washington is replicating a similar anti-Russian strategy against China, but hopefully pragmatic countries in the Indo-Pacific will resist for the sake of regional peace
Everyone and their dog thinks China must learn from the Russian war in Ukraine. But Beijing is not the only “pupil” or even the one with the highest stake.
Besides Ukraine and Russia, the day’s lesson really belongs to the United States.
And signs are that the Americans are learning nothing because they are buying into their own propaganda.
Refusing to recognise this conflict is turning into a global disaster, they are trying to replicate a similar strategy, in the Indo-Pacific, against China. It is bound to fail, but there is a great possibility that it will still cause a great deal of havoc before the dust settles.
Can a top US diplomat be more (self-)deluded?
Hopefully, pragmatic Asian nations will wisely resist before the conflagration in Europe is repeated in their part of the world.
The European Union and the United States may have a renewal of purpose, but not the rest of the world.
After the initial shock of the invasion petered out, even some US allies and friends such as India, South Africa, Mexico and Israel preferred to sit on the fence.
Across Africa, the Middle East and much of Asia, the war is all about the economic fallout, from food and energy inflations to ensnared or broken supply chains. It spells a far deeper crisis for low-income countries.
What the bear case for China’s economy says about its global ambitions
A food crisis looms across Africa. Others, such as Sri Lanka, are struggling with debt repayment. That’s why the rest of the world are calling for an end to the war in Ukraine.
But the US and its Nato allies are not. Many Western leaders still believe “the world” is with them when it clearly is not. They are now aiming for victory over Russia by effectively turning the conflict into a proxy war.
In the words of US defence chief, Lloyd Austin: “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine … Ukraine clearly believes that it can win, and so does everyone here.”
Actually, even President Volodymyr Zelensky has said repeatedly he wants to make peace; he never claimed he wanted “victory” over Russia.
Now, if the rest of the world won’t go along with the Nato-US proxy war even in the face of outright Russian aggression, those in the Indo-Pacific will be even more reluctant to provoke a far less aggressive China on Washington’s say-so.
The Americans, of course, will never learn.
