Grand narrative, money and weapons. The unfolding scenario in Ukraine looks too familiar. This is not hollywood and from Afghanistan to Albania, we must not forget.
The dangerous trend I am seeing with the Russian occupation of Ukraine, is the constant appeal to our emotions and not our reason. The grand narrative is that this is a war between good and evil and not between two rival imperialist powers. On the one hand, we have the US that have been using NATO as their military spearhead in Europe, on the other, Russia that is being lead by Putin who dismisses the very existence of #Ukraine as a sovereign nation and after years of warning, wants to keep NATO out of his backyard.
At the same time, the very Western powers that banned Bosnians from getting any weapons to defend themselves to the point of being butchered, raped, burried alive in the heart of Europe (remember former French President François Mitterrand who spoke of not wanting to see a Muslim nation in the heart of Europe to justify the ban*
), are now pledging 100's of millions of dollars to ukrainians.
This flee forward is creating a de facto Syria or Afghanistan on the continent. Calls to join the "front" by Zelensky have even been met with total support by the British Minister of Foreign Affairs and with supportive silence from the rest of the EU. What will happen when these weapons fall in the wrong hands -and they will-? I take bets that we will see new warlords and years of instability in the not so distant future thanks again to western cowardness that portays sending civilians to the slaughterhouse as a beautiful story of popular resistance.
Ukrainians are indeed facing a binary choice, live under occupation or take up arms and have a shot at living free. Their resistance is worthy of support but the unfolding scenario is rather that of a people being used for the interests of much bigger players like the US, NATO and the EU.
Meanwhile, the West and its allies are losing it over Russia. A College had initially announced banning teaching Fedor Dosteovsky because he's Russian, academics are reportedly being banned from seeking funding for their research projects, an italian news anchor suddently disappeared from his channel after reminding his audience that NATO had been expanding and not Russia until it invaded Ukraine, Russian composers such as Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff among others have been banned by the Polish Symphony and Opera. Even the FIFA, which had previously refused to ban israel from attending international competitions despite its long track record of bombing civilians and even mutilating palestinian football players, has decided to jump on the bandwago of the anti-Russian hysteria by banning the Russian national football team. These are just few examples that are sources of worries but also of suspission.
When governments with a long track record of promoting racism and militarism both at home and abroad start singing altogether against a common enemy, there is more than one reason to remain cautious and not buy into it. We are in the first days of this invasion and everyone should be wary of the dominant narrative. It may feel good to dismiss this invasion as the act of a lunatic dictator whom is reaching the end of his time in power. But is this same narrative that was used in the case of Albania, Libya, Syria or Afghanistan with the consequences we are old enough to remember.
*The Clinton Tapes: "President Francois Mitterrand of France had been especially blunt in saying that Bosnia did not belong, and that British officials also spoke of a painful but realistic restoration of Christian Europe."