Featured Image: Cologne after the bombing by Britain – 30/31 May 1942

Indeed, the history of humanity is a bloody one. Did any people, tribe, language, or nation ever stop murdering other people, tribes, languages, or nations for any reason? Most likely, the truthful response would be no. War has been the recurring theme throughout history, as any history book will tell you. War produced great heroes, and great battles were praised; however, the heroes of one side were also the villains of the other, and the majority were ruthless murderers whose consciences were burned by the art of killing.

The emergence of Hollywood films romanticised war while portraying its brutality. Think of classic epics like “Saving Private Ryan.” War is a conflict between good and evil, with the good guys and the enemy on one side of the queue and the enemy and the good guys on the other, supported by the opposing sides’ ceaseless propaganda demonising the other. The villains on one side are the heroes on the other.

War has no positive aspects. It is all guts and blood, devastation and pain. One would think that the heroes in the eyes of those outside the conflict would be the people who defend the people who are being attacked. Unfortunately, it is not always the case. First of all, it depends completely on whose side you are on, and there is always a good deal of hypocrisy in this situation.

This leads me to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The outrage at what they see as an unwarranted attack on a sovereign nation is evident, distinct, and apoplectic in the Western World and many other nations that are not classified as Western. Ukraine is portrayed as a virtuous democratic country that has been thrown into the forefront of protecting Western free societies from the demagogic tyranny of Russia and its “Mordor”-style dictator Vladimir Putin, who is emulating Rasputin, another Russian madman.

To truly understand what is happening, however, one must look past the obvious, read between the lines, and shine a light in the dark. Although it is obvious that Russia is committing a heinous act by invading Ukraine, the western media, as is customary, have concealed any reason the Russians may have had for doing so behind a curtain of propaganda and the standard designation of conspiracy theories, disinformation, and outright lies.

For over ten years, the United States of America has been increasingly criticising Russia, and Putin in particular. The Trump years made this even more obvious. There is no question that Putin is a brutal tyrant. It is less evident whether the United States is working behind the scenes to overthrow its largest adversary. It is suspected that Putin was tricked into a war that was planned long in advance to bring him down and finish the devastation of Russia as a global force.

Such ideas will undoubtedly be criticised as imaginative and fantastical fiction deserving of a Tom Clancy book, but all of the assumptions—reasonable ones at that—are laid out like a pied piper’s trail.

First off, the United States, under President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, specifically George Soros, meddled in Ukraine’s internal affairs in 2014 by toppling a pro-Russian leader and establishing an unelected pro-Western puppet regime. The Russian ethnic regions in eastern Ukraine rebelled against this unelected government as a result. Western governments and media mainly suppressed information about this ethnic conflict. Despite the fact that more than 90% of the population voted to join Russia, the west declared the Russian occupation of the Crimean Peninsula to be an invasion. Russia and Ukraine never carried out the Minsk agreement. Blaming one another for the lack of implementation is standard procedure.

Nevertheless, in the never-ending geopolitical competition for global dominance, the Ukraine situation was and still is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. The two major nuclear powers have been engaged in a proxy war for the past 70 years or so, but this time it is very different. In contrast, the USA was directly drawn into the war against Soviet influence and support in a proxy nation in the first two significant conflicts between Soviet and American hegemony, Korea and Vietnam. This time, Russia, the Soviet successor state, is being drawn directly into a conflict with a Western proxy for the first time.

As the bombs falling on civilians are instantly broadcast to billions of television sets, Russia has been dubbed the Most Evil of Nations, and Putin has been dubbed the New Hitler. In contrast to the previous conflicts, the United States and the Western alliance have nearly total control over the media and the financial sector. Of course, history would tell you otherwise. You will not hear it on any of the major media outlets.

War can never be objective, especially when the news media is constantly bringing up pictures of women and children suffering from its effects. Any logical attempts at explanation will always be overshadowed by emotions, and those who attempt to do so will only be mocked by those who are affected emotionally. I will, however, make an effort.

There is an inherited memory among the Russian people. They recall that the west was the source of every existential attack they have ever had to repel. Napoleon’s superior force invaded Russia. Hitler also invaded Russia, and according to some estimates, Russia lost 27 million people during World War 2. The only thing that saved them in both situations, in spite of valiant resistance, was the Russian winter.

The United States and its NATO allies have been the most belligerent countries in the 77 years since World War 2. That fact cannot be erased by any amount of emotional denial.

Initially, the United States and Great Britain punished the Nazis for their actions during World War II by destroying many civilian-populated cities, particularly Hamburg and Dresden. Then, using nuclear weapons, the USA destroyed two cities in Japan that were populated by civilians. In other words, the Western defenders of Germany and Japan against Nazi aggression surely killed more civilians in Germany, its allies, and Japan than these aggressors did in their own countries. Some, but not all, claim that Russia suffered the greatest number of civilian deaths of any country involved, with China coming in second to Japan.

Then came the above-mentioned proxy conflicts against the USSR in Korea and Vietnam, where more than two million—yes, two million—civians lost their lives on both sides. Approximately 80,000 US soldiers lost their lives. The United States employed chemical, biological, and possibly weapons of mass destruction against its adversaries in Vietnam.

NATO bombed the Serbs during the Yugoslavian liberation and regime change wars, and some would argue that this was justified. Next came Iraq, where more than 207,000 civilians perished, Afghanistan, where about 241,000 civilians have been killed since 2001, and Libya.

The West leads the world by a wide margin in terms of warmongering. One recalls hearing about the widespread use of Agent Orange in the Vietnamese jungles, the US drones destroying entire wedding parties in Afghanistan, or the bombing of entire towns inhabited by Iraqi holdouts. It must be the height of hypocrisy for the West to demonise Russia as the epitome of the ruthless bombing of civilians, no matter how terrible it is. It appears that thousands of non-Europeans in the world’s backwaters are worth the death of one European in Ukraine.

Does any of this make Russia’s actions acceptable? Obviously not? The Russian Bear has been forced into a difficult situation by the US and NATO nations. This bear has the ability to completely destroy the world as we know it, and cornered bears become incredibly dangerous and unpredictable.