Whataboutism?

2022-03-04 Aus Von christiankohl

Looking at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, lots of people have written (are writing/will be writing) clever stuff about it. I’m asking myself the question: How is this different from the 2003 invasion of Iraq? That was also a sovereign country which was attacked and invaded by foreign powers. Why were none of the countries that were part of „MNF-I“ (or „the Coalition“) sanctioned? Is it because these countries were led by the US and UK? And because the country that was invaded was inhabitated by brown, non-Christian folks instead of white Christian folks? Just sayin‘. Because it is strikingly similar: A fabricated reason to justify the invasion: „weapons of mass destruction“ (that did not exist, an entirely fabricated thing) vs „fighting Ukrainian Neo-Nazis“.

And that’s the problem – the so-called „Western countries“ do not own the moral high ground. You cannot really argue with „international rights“, „sovereignity“ etc. if you have violated these principles yourselves (and Iraq 2003 is just the clearest example, there’s others which are maybe a bit more debatable). Unfortunately (for the Ukrainian people), Russia is now using the same playbook that the „West“ has been using in the past – overwhelming artillery, air power, reduce it to a rubble heap, install a puppet government, provide aid (juicy contracts for your countries‘ corporations!) to rebuild it. That’s bad, don’t get me wrong, and Russia should be stopped (but can’t and won’t), but please spare me your fake moral indignation. Really hard to stomach especially US and British news reporting at the moment.

Btw, the same applies to the refugee situation. Again, don’t get me wrong, I’m super glad that the Ukrainian refugees are being accepted with open arms and that most of Europe is doing their best to help them. Fantastic. But many of the same people that are now meeting Ukrainians at the border are the ones who were building fences, camps, and pointing guns at non-white refugees, for example from Africa, Syria, Afghanistan. Again, the hypocrisy is blatant and hard to stomach. We’re still killing people in the Mediterranean. We’re still letting them live in squalor, in camps in Greece and elsewhere. Etc. And I’m afraid that the mood will turn in the not-so-far future, once significant price increases on things like food and energy really hit us, the welcome party might be over rather quickly. I hope I’m wrong, but never underestimate the power of the tabloids and their governments.