Double standards

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We are awash with evidence of the depravity and criminality of western nations and powerful elites. Enough to at least know that self-interest, a commitment to the rules based on international order, fighting terrorism nor any other euphemism that attempts to veil and conceal our geopolitical motivations, and not humanitarianism, are the real drivers of western exploits.

Like Russia, the United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and as such does not recognise its jurisdiction. In 2018, faced with the threat of an investigation into US war crimes in Afghanistan, White House National Security Advisor John Bolton denounced the ICC calling it “unaccountable” and “outright dangerous”, threatening to arrest its judges should the courts pursue the US or its allies. No investigation followed. Unlike the US, Russia has indeed been the focus of court investigations leading to the issuing of a war crimes warrant for Vladimir Putin. The cynical opportunism of western officials and media who have eagerly embraced these developments to further convince the public of the unique evil we face, is rank with hypocrisy and double standards.

Many would no doubt agree with post WW2 Nuremberg trials conclusions that “to initiate a war of an aggression is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime”. Few would argue that Russia has not committed war crimes, exactly as every country at war before them has done. But silence reigns, despite mountains of evidence, when it comes to observing our crimes and those of our allies.

Not even the latest comments by former head UN weapons inspector in Iraq Hans Blix, that George Bush and Tony Blair should stand trial in the Hague for war crimes, has prompted commentary on our side of the world.

Pretending that we are morally superior and willing to stand up to the bullies and tyrants of the world is an outrageous lie and obfuscates the west’s prominent role in bringing us to this perilous point in history. Hot war with Russia is dangerously close as the recent alarming confrontation between a Russian fighter jet and a US drone demonstrates. The escalation in tensions between China, another nuclear armed party, and the USA is all too real and follows a similar pattern. And all the while the public remains aloof, inundated with western propaganda promoting a fairy tale fiction of a noble west and its virtuous motivations battling those who seek to dominate our world for nefarious reasons.

Vagner Castilho
Member of Transition Écologique La Pêche Coalition for a Green New Deal