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Walk in His Moccasins

T. SHER SINGH

 

 

 

I look at what’s going on in Ukraine today and I realize: it’s true what they say - the world isn’t the same any more, not since 9/11.

I know it hasn’t been for me, for sure.

Things don’t mean the same thing no more. All the old arguments are gone, having lost their validity. And there are no good ones left to replace them.

There was a time when the world was neatly divided into black and white. The Nazis were bad. The Jews were good. The Allies were good. The Axis was evil. Capitalism was God-given and God-fearing. Communism was against God and the creed of the Devil.

Then came 9/11.

Not just what happened on that tragic day when a handful of evil men brought havoc to a city going about its business as usual, and murdered thousands of innocents.

It wasn’t just that which changed it all.

It is what followed. That is, what we, the good guys, then did in return.

We then waged war on, well, mostly innocents, and killed hundreds of thousands. Especially children. In distant lands. In countries and amongst peoples that had nothing to do with 9/11. Our leaders knew this but they told us lies and carried on nevertheless. Our media, and our institutions and corporations, became willing accessories.

Why? Because it was a good cover to steal oil and divert billions of dollars into private coffers. It made a few of them wealthy beyond all decency. But, at the same time, our nation’s economies were dealt a body blow, because our leaders were too busy amassing personal fortunes. What they stole from the others in our name, they put into their own, personal pockets.    

And then came news of the atrocities WE committed in Abu Ghraib, to take but one example. And in Guantanamo. New words were introduced into our vocabulary to hide the ugliness of what was being done in our name: Rendition. Water-boarding. WMD ...

We were told that bad though those things were, the things we were doing to ‘them’, they were necessary … to keep us safe and secure.

Strange. But suddenly, things took on a new meaning.

So, all the stories we were told about the Nazis and the Commies, the torture chambers and the madness and the gulags, now we could see them from THEIR perspective. Rightly or wrongly, the Nazis had decided it was in their best interest to do so, I suppose. So had the Communists.

The rule was to be: if it was based on genuinely held beliefs to further your personal interest, it was okay.

The next time I saw The Great Escape -- Hollywood’s great saga of American and British prisoners-of-war trying to escape from a Nazi camp -- it fell flat. I could now read between the lines and understand why the Nazis were behaving exactly the way our soldiers did in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

In the same way, all the zip was gone from Stalag XVII and from The Bridge On The River Kwai.

I now understood American ire when Khrushchev’s Russian ships were heading for Cuba with their deadly missiles. How could the US allow a threat to build up in its neighbourhood, or allow distant hostile powers to gain influence next door?

Suddenly, Putin’s reaction to Ukraine makes sense. I don’t support it or condone it. I’m with world opinion. I think it is wrong in every which way, and should be resisted. All I‘m saying is that I understand the Russians. They are no more evil than the Americans were in Cuba; all they are doing is looking after their self-interest.

Sure, it collides with OUR interests, but that’s always the case, isn’t it -- a juxtaposition between THEIR self-interest and OURS.

I remember how easily and readily and unabashedly our battalions crossed the seas and the continents and razed and plundered distant lands: Afghanistan and Iraq and Kuwait and Vietnam … It was okay, we were told, even though the world said no, you can’t do it because it breaks international law. No, we said, it is okay because we have to defend our life-style and secure ourselves.

We, the people, bit our tongues and somewhat reluctantly accepted the rationale.

So, now that Russia is invading the Crimea and maybe even Ukraine -- again, I do not condone it or forgive it -- we should step back and understand their side of the story.

Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins. That’s what an old American proverb says.

Walking in their moccasins, I can see what the Russians are thinking.

Why do the Brits and the Americans and the Canadians get to say what is good for Russia’s next door neighbour, at the other end of the planet? If anything, doesn’t it have to be sorted out between the two neighbours themselves?

The argument against the wolf pouncing on the lamb was shot out of the water ages ago … by the Americans, wasn’t it.

They simply went wherever they could … because they could, by the sheer right of their might.

I have a feeling that Russia may be applying American foreign policy in Ukraine now. And I fear it’s all going to boil down to the pattern of behaviour we have enunciated so well in recent decades, to the point that it is now The American Doctrine.

It’s been backed all the way by the Brits and the Canadians and all the others in NATO, and everyone else who stands hat-in-hand in the colossal American presence.

Might is Right.

That, it appears, is the new doctrine of international law in the 21st century.

I’m not saying it is good or that I like it or that I agree with it. All I’m saying is that if we were the ones who spelled out the law as it stands today, then we might end up eating it.

If The American Doctrine is to be applied, then all we need to do is sit back and calmly wait and see who emerges the mightier.

Remember: one doesn’t get to change the rules of the game when one is on the losing side. 


March 5, 2014

Conversation about this article

1: Aryeh Leib (Israel), March 05, 2014, 9:51 AM.

"Remember: one doesn't get to change the rules of the game when one is on the losing side." Unless you're an Arab, and the subject is Israel ;)

2: Dr Birinder Singh Ahluwalia (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), March 05, 2014, 2:45 PM.

From the comment above, am I now to deduce that Israel is now, irrevocably, the winning side, and Arabs are on the losing end?

3: Jiwan Dutt (Nagpur, India), March 05, 2014, 3:04 PM.

All of these nations are swimming in hypocrisy. But amongst the worst of them all is Israel. Just as the US has, stroke by stroke, cut itself down to size, Israel's time too will come. What it doles out to its cousins, it will inevitably receive one of these days. That's the way of the world.

4: Hardev Singh (Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada), March 05, 2014, 5:26 PM.

The article and its conclusions are wisely non-judgmental. As alluded, the real bone of contention is the 'sphere of influence'. The ethnic question would probably be the arbiter, with the might on home ground. History is witness to pluralistic and secular forces, getting challenged by the intensity of ethnic, religious forces. It is never an easy balance.

5: Parmjit Singh (Canada), March 06, 2014, 2:30 AM.

Great article by a Right is Might warrior. The Russians, Americans, Canadians, etc. are each one of us. The rules of the game are each one of us. Right is Might is part of Sikhi living. Let the chips fall where they may, we have a path and it involves being involved in social justice in your home, on your street, and globally.

6: R.S. Minhas (Millburn, New Jersey, USA), March 06, 2014, 9:51 AM.

Self-serving bias or viewing the world through one's own lens of self interest is programmed in the species since reptilian times. This bias needs to be worked on after birth, if we are to be better humans. Human emotions like kindness, compassion and devotion are more difficult to develop. The Guru points out the trappings of the self-centered ego. So, instead of avoiding conflicts of interest, our politicians are actively taking interest in conflicts - with a profit motive. Colonists who went around the world looking for advantage is another example. It is like a version of Johnny Appleseed sowing apple-seeds and then questioning why apples are growing under his feet. Sadly, our leaders are planting hate and discontent, instead of higher human virtues.

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