The Russo-Ukrainian war has given onlookers a glimpse of how conflicts are conducted in the 21st century. It’s no longer just about kinetic warfare but also features information warfare in order to win hearts and minds while also demoralizing rival nations.
When it comes to the information war, Russia has clearly been on the losing end. The West has been dominating the overall narrative of events taking place in Ukraine as Russia continues its widely condemned military operation.
However, the Russian government has countered with its own propaganda to point out the US’s perceived hypocrisy.
On the Twitter account of the Russian Embassy in France, it posted a picture of former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama with their respective wives.
10 guerres, 6 millions de morts, 0 sanctions. pic.twitter.com/gsVWMLrSyW
— Russie en France (@AmbRusFrance) March 22, 2022
In the tweet, the account posted “10 guerres, 6 millions de morts, 0 sanctions”, which translates into 10 wars, 6 million deaths, 0 sanctions. This account was referring to some of the military conflicts that these pre-Donald Trump presidential administrations presided over such as Iraq War 1, Iraq War 2, the Afghan War, the Libyan War, among others. These were all controversial military interventions that were met with little to no form of international pushback, especially on the sanctions front. Those are the benefits of being a unipolar power.
However, things are changing in the emerging multipolar order. Countries like Russia are willing to re-write those rules and challenge the Western dominated-order.
Indeed, It is amusing to see the moral outrage pouring out of Western countries that have launched or at least taken part in their fair share of interventions in the past. Now that other countries like Russia are exerting geopolitical power, western neoliberals and neocons are losing their minds.
Such scenes of outrage will become more common as the West loses power on the world stage and the geopolitical arena becomes more competitive. To be sure, things may become more violent in multipolar geopolitical contexts.
However, countries like the US will be very secure thanks to its vast oceans that function as moats and its massive nuclear arsenal. Anyone who talks about the US facing existential threats is flat out fearmongering at this point.
The world is a rough place but that doesn’t mean the US has a moral obligation to step into every conflict abroad. There comes a point where the US has to serve its own people and not be altruistic with its foreign policy. It’s the interests of the American people, not foreign interests nor abstract concepts about human rights, that should guide the US government’s foreign policy actions.
