–Nasir Khan, Feb. 24, 2022
The military attack by Russia on Ukraine today is a sad and disturbing moment for all of us, but the Russian action has to be seen in the context of international politics and the militarism of the United States and its close allies. The role NATO has played since the end of the Soviet Union and its expansion in the former Soviet republics has been the main cause that produced the Russian response.
Now Russia was encircled from all sides by the US and NATO forces. The only major country that was not yet in a formal military alliance was Ukraine, but it had all the military equipment and advanced weaponry to use against its eastern neighbour – Russia.
What was the purpose of NATO’s expansion in the former countries that once formed part of the Soviet Union and putting NATO and US forces there? It was a hostile and an unwanted policy of military confrontation with Russia when the geopolitical landscape of this country had drastically changed after 1991.
Since 2014 when the Minsk agreement was signed, Ukraine has continued its military actions against the Donbas region with the military weapons from the West and NATO. That has resulted in the deaths of some 14000 people. There was an opportunity for the US and NATO to stop the right-wing rulers of Ukraine from such killings by their forces. But they did not do so.
Now the warmongers were using Ukraine further to carry out their military objectives against Russia.
What was left for Putin to do? He could say to America and NATO: You can do as you want. You can install missiles directed against us next door as you have in other East European countries. Or, he could say: Enough is enough, and no more! It seems Putin chose the second option.
We who oppose wars and warmongers are fully aware that imperialists will stop at nothing. The present confrontation can easily lead to a bigger and more disastrous war whose consequences are unimaginable. The use of nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out if things are not brought under control soon.
The sane course which I believe none will follow is this: Biden and his European partners say that the military escalation is not in the interest of any country or power. Let us take the bitter pill and negotiate a new security arrangement with Russia where its encirclement would end. The countries where NATO expanded after the end of the Soviet Union will discuss their future security arrangements with Russia and not become tools in the hands of American militarism.
I honestly think the path US and NATO have pursued for so long against Russia is only in the interests of war profiteers, weapons industries and contractors, not in the interest of ordinary citizens of America, Britain or Europe.
Russia has also a great responsibility. Even though it is encircled by US and NATO, it should think again about its ways of coping with the Ukraine situation by engaging in political negotiations with the West.
I also appeal to all peace-loving people and my friends to do what they can to oppose wars and the designs of imperialists.
Peace and Justice Post 