Let me get one thing straight. I’m not a big fan of Uncle Sam and I think George Bush deserved that shoe in his face. The second Gulf War was totally unnecessary.
Having said that, I’m extremely grateful for the elimination of Osama bin Laden. As globocop, America got a lot of things very wrong, but they managed to get a few things right. Now let’s get down to business and I’ll come back to America’s “war crimes” in a moment. Everybody has been talking about the war in Ukraine for the past week or so. I don’t know about your circle of friends but the varied reactions and complete silence to Russia’s aggression within my circle of friends have been rather “interesting”. To set our bearings, let’s start from the beginning.
As early as March 2021, Russian forces began amassing at the border with Ukraine. In January 2022, NATO and the US began talks with Russia with the hope of deescalating tensions. Russia went back and appeared to be conducting military drills on its own territory. Some people were either foolish enough to believe that he was withdrawing his troops or they thought that he merely wanted to keep the rest of the world guessing.
On 18 February 2022, the Chinese foreign ministry’s Wang Wenbin posted on Weibo saying that on 18 February 2022, a CCTV journalist reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the UN Security Council a day earlier, warning that according to US intelligence, Russia was already setting the stage to invade, adding that the purpose of sharing this intelligence was to prevent a war. Another well-known Chinese diplomat by the name of Zhao Lijian brushed Blinken’s concerns aside and shared the post with the comment “The CIA is such a joke.”
On 24 February 2022, Russia began his “special operations” – a large military invasion of Ukraine, marking a steep escalation of a conflict that began in 2014. Some officials and analysts called the invasion the largest conventional military attack in Europe since World War II. A joke? Zhao Lijian became the real joker. Of course don’t expect any apology from these warrior wolves. Within hours from Russian tanks crossing the border into Ukraine, the general sentiment was – the war will be over soon. Most people believed that Ukraine would be overrun by the powerful Russian army and there would be peace and prosperity for everybody once Ukraine suffers the same fate that Crimea did in 2014. For the record, the majority of Crimeans supported annexation initially but that support is fast diminishing.
Anyway, the cheerleaders would be disappointed. Instead of accepting US offer to bail him out into exile, President Zelensky donned military fatigues and stayed to fight, inspiring Ukrainian people to respond to the attack not by surrendering but by bearing arms to hold back the invaders. And boy did they put up a good fight. Sportsmen competing overseas have returned to Ukraine to fight. The Ukrainians fought back bravely and surprisingly, many of the Russian soldiers (POWs) turned out to be clueless boys. Still, the bombs were raining down and destroying buildings, not just military installations as Putin had initially promised. To date, NATO is still not willing to implement a no-fly zone and drawing a lot of flak. Why the double standards? We shall see.
Nevertheless, in a shift from its longstanding policy of banning weapons exports to conflict zones, Berlin is opening up its Bundeswehr store, pledging to transfer 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 “Stinger” class surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine. It also finally approved the deliveries of 400 anti-tank rocket launchers via the Netherlands to Ukraine on 26 February 2022. The anti-tank launchers had been purchased by the Netherlands from Berlin, and The Hague had therefore required Germany’s green light to hand them to Kyiv.
There was overwhelming support for these heroes. But there were two worrying trends. One of them is the overwhelming support for the invasion by Chinese netizens. Many of them hailed Putin as their idol and said horrible things like” the more Ukrainians die the better”. When Putin announced that he was going to put “deterrence forces” (nuclear weapons) on high alert, you would expect anybody with a fibre of humanity in him to be outraged. But that’s not the case everywhere in the world. Malaysia’s NST and SCMP are infested with 五毛 and their disgusting posts. It explains why there is so much violence, bullying and ignorance in the world today. Some people actually think that nuclear war is fun, cheering for the Russian invaders when a nuclear power plant in Ukraine was hit.
On the ground in Ukraine, however, Chinese netizens were angry with their comrades back home. Many Chinese people residing in Ukraine were viewed with suspicion when Ukrainians were mocked in China. Perfectly understandable. If Singapore were attacked, would we not view foreigners whose home country supported the invasion with suspicion? Many of these ethnic Chinese people living in Ukraine have pleaded with their people back home to stop all this nonsense.
Officially, China takes a “neutral” stand on Russia’s invasion. In reality, they are promoting it, as evident in their selective censorship of Weibo posts critical of Russian aggression while allowing posts mocking Ukraine to go viral. Famous TV host Jin Xing had her Weibo account suspended from a post criticising Putin.
All she said was “The two most horrible events of 2022 are: 1. A Chinese woman shackled around the neck saying that the world doesn’t want me anymore and 2. A mad Russian man saying that if I can’t be president, I’ll destroy the world.” To be fair, there are voices from Chinese netizens condemning the war. It’s just that they are silenced by the authorities. Is the Chinese government’s position really “neutral”?
And it’s not just the belligerent influencers who are at it. A PhD student in America in his WeChat group, made some horribly insensitive remarks wishing the worst for Ukraine. It’s as if it’s cool to be cruel.
Next, I’ll talk about the Russian apologists who make a pathetic attempt to compare Russia with the US. These folks simply can’t tell the difference between a mountain and a molehill. They highlight what they see as “double standards”. When the US attacks, its liberation. When Russia attacks, it’s invasion. Yao mo gao chor ah? Apples with apples, folks. Has the US ever attacked its neighbour Canada based on some lame excuse that there are terrorists and Nazis there? For someone who has never really supported America’s foreign policy in the Middle East, I’m surprised by the folks who think I’m “pro-West” – whatever that means. As I’ve mentioned, George Bush deserved that shoe in his face. Saddam Hussein did not have any WMD and numerous innocent Iraqi people suffered for somebody’s selfish reasons. But did America get away with it? Was there universal acceptance that its second invasion of Iraq was an act of liberation? Hell, no. Some folks obviously have a short memory. Except for Britain, almost all European countries denounced America. There was such a huge spat between the US and France that some Americans wanted to rename their French fries “freedom fries”. When some people refer to the West, it’s like they are seeing it as one homogenous body ruled by a dictator. But no, George Bush didn’t manage to convince everyone – not even Americans. There were protests on the streets on a daily basis. I protested on online forums. But, if you ask me whether I want America maintaining world peace, my answer is a definite yes. Uncle Sam has made many mistakes, but it’s the lesser of several evils.
If not for the US and Australian navy in the South China Sea now, we would all need to abide by China’s intrusive maritime laws and the 9-dash line passed sometime in September last year. The Korean War was a proxy war between the USSR and the free world. If the UN had not intervened, there will be only one Korea today ruled by the Kims. If China had not entered the war, there would also be only one Korea – the one that is famous for K-pop. Konfrontasi was a China-backed attempt to extend the territory of a formerly pro-communist Indonesia under Sukarno. If Suharto had not staged a US-supported coup, we, along with most of what’s Malaysia today, could have been swallowed up by a communist Indonesia. The Vietnam War was yet another proxy war. America intervened but failed to stop the communists. Our leaders were very concerned about Thailand – the last domino. With US bases all over Thailand, the country was spared. I’m also thankful for American influence in Taiwan, allowing it to progress from military rule to today’s democracy. Would we be better off if the US had just stood by? I don’t think so.
Personally, I have no bone of contention with the Islamic world of the Middle East. They can be as radical and fundamentalist as they want to be. I don’t really care as long as they don’t impose on me and I believe that they won’t. But then, America had to create “Israel” to please their Jewish businessmen, modernise the thoughts of the Arabs generally and make a mess of the region. That’s a huge mistake on the part of Uncle Sam. But let’s get this straight. America is guilty of double standards, but that’s because Iraq had no nuclear weapons and Operation Desert Storm had the blessings of a UN Resolution. It’s just like you see your friend being beaten up. If the assailant were unarmed, you may want to pull him aside. If he has a knife, you would shout at him. If he has a gun, you would take cover then call the police. It’s the same principle. If NATO gets publicly and directly involved, it’s going to be the first time in the world that two nuclear powers fight a hot war.
What NATO can do however, is to repaint their old fighter jets into Ukrainian jets, then fly them across the border.
Then, at the other end of the spectrum, there was a foolhardy guy who proposed that the invasion would stop immediately if only Ukraine could declare that it would never join NATO. That’s just like the thief saying that as long as you promise to keep your doors unlocked, there will be no break in.
You can find the definition for gaslighting in the dictionary, but the term is often used inappropriately. Outside the field of psychology (layman terms), gaslighting happens when an abuser manipulates a victim by twisting their sense of responsibility and reality. Gaslighting is very well illustrated by the 五毛 who say “if Zelensky had surrendered, then fewer people would have died. It’s all his fault that so many people died”. Or a robber could tell the judge that if his victim had given up his valuables voluntarily, he wouldn’t have had to kill him. It’s all the victim’s fault. Of course, that won’t cut any ice with any reasonable judge or jury, but that’s how 五毛 logic often works. I’m sure you’ve encountered similar instances of gaslighting in your daily lives. In the video below, Wen Zhao shares a couple more examples of gaslighting. Feel free to share.
Of course, one of the main reasons for all this support for the Russian invasion in mainland China is really to frighten Taiwanese people into submission. If Russia can do this to Ukraine, we can do the same to you. The reasoning of the brainwashed is simple. The West is evil, Ukraine stands with the West, so it must be evil. If not for the West, would Taiwan be such a civilised Chinese territory?
How will this war end? I have no idea. Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has survived three assassination attempts in a week. How did he manage to do it? According to The Times, plots to “eliminate” Zelenskyy, 44, have come from two sets of mercenaries – the Kremlin-backed Wagner group and Chechen special forces. The newspaper reported the Wagner group have been alarmed by how accurately Ukrainian forces have been able to anticipate their moves. Plans from both groups have been thwarted after anti-war Russians gave intelligence to Ukrainian authorities. My guess is, the only way to end it is with Russian mutiny and coup d’etat. The failed attempts on Zelensky’s life shows that there is hope for mutiny/coup. Let’s hope for the best.
New Book!
