The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

RECENT weeks have seen calls by the French President for “European troops” to directly join the conflict in Ukraine, a declaration by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin that a Russian victory will lead to a direct Russia/NATO war and revelations that German generals have been complicit in planning terrorist attacks inside Russia.

What does this all tell us about the west’s involvement in the war in Ukraine?

Firstly, it confirms what the Russian government has been saying since the start of its Special Military Operation in Ukraine: that the events that began in February, 2022 were merely the culmination of a proxy war planned in western capitals.

Secondly, it tells us that western politicians are finally waking up (in a panic) to the reality that they will lose this war.

Of course, there will be no negative consequences from this loss for the populations of western countries. This project, like all the other recent military adventures of western politicians, has absolutely nothing to do with serving the interests of their populations in the first place.

First and foremost, it has to do with those multinational organisations (like NATO) which serve as promotional platforms for profit-seeking arms industries that churn out over-priced military hardware aimed not at national defence, but at shareholder profits.

It is no accident that warmongering politicians (like Lloyd Austin) are regularly supplied to key policy positions direct from the boardrooms of arms producers – in Austin’s case, Raytheon.

It is also no coincidence that, in an economy that long ago traded in manufacturing industry for financialised assets (with the resultant ballooning of inequality in favor of a minuscule elite) the vast majority of military “aid” to Ukraine actually ends up going to arms producers in the congressional districts of the most reliably warmongering legislators.

These arms producers, in turn, are motivated by shareholder profit rather than national defence or the rapid production of high quality products. Hence, another unintended consequence of the proxy-war in Ukraine has been to highlight the significant edge not just in quantity (affordability), but also quality (or at least fitness for purpose) of Russia’s arms – produced for results, not for lining pockets.

The irony of it all is that the same foolish policies of de-industrialisation and neoliberalism that have rendered western countries incapable of matching Russia’s armaments production (much less China’s) have also had the effect of making them more senselessly warlike and belligerent.

In other words, expect the west to keep picking wars and keep losing them - until their populations tire of an economic system that benefits only the profit-driven arms and extraction industries and the corrupt political and media elites that loyally serve them with endless wars and propaganda.

ANDREW ALLEN

Nassau,

March 6, 2024.