It has been for some Ukrainians. Especially for the ones that died and their grieving loved ones.
Is it a contest? It seems that the criminal dictator in Russia has happily meddled about in the Middle East as well. Then again, the Middle East has its own very long, tangled, and very complicated history of ethnic, sectarian, cultural, and political factions, rivalries, and clashes which are separate and distinct from Ukraine.
So, how do you score or assign points in this contest of who does the most damage in the world? Or are you scoring this regionally? I can't really tell. It would seem logical to me that every situation needs to be evaluated within the entirety of its historical background, current situation, and likely trajectory going forward.
I'm not certain that comparing bad acts provides very much value or leads to a clearer understanding of any situation, much less a resolution. That seems more akin to how children try to rationalize and justify their bad behavior on the playground than it does to a useful framework for how complex geopolitical events should be assessed.
No, it's not a contest, but the western world's reaction to the war in Ukraine compared to reactions to the wars in the Middle East are extremely different. There were no sanctions against NATO countries, there was no "Bush must be stopped" or "Obama must be stopped". And no, the western wars in the Middle East are not complicated. It's USA with or without NATO support going unprovoked to war against sovereign countries in the Middle East, but only against countries with leaders who won't cooperate with The West. Yes, they are mostly authoritarian leaders, but most leaders in that part of the world are, also those whose arses you lick.
Western countries have been sanctioning Syria for more than 10 years, and USA is occupying roughly a third of the country, the part where they grow their wheat, the part where the oil is. They have established something they call The Syrian Democratic Forces there. Who elected them? The government of USA elected them. Guess who is suffering from all this. No, not Assad. The people of Syria is suffering, from not having enough food, from not having access to fuel, from not having access to medication. And while the theory behind these actions are that they will help people raise against Assad, they are doing the opposite. Assad, once a disliked and controversial figure in Syria has more support than ever, and would easily have won a democratic election there. But he's an enemy of the United States of America, so that can't be allowed.
And it doesn't stop there. The sanctions against Russia are causing enormous damage all over the world, without doing much to stop the war. Western countries are expecting countries around the globe, countries that have been colonised and mistreated by the west for centuries, to participate in sanctions against Russia because the Russians started a war in Europe.
I know people who have lost their jobs, or parts of their businesses, because of western sanctions against Russia or Iran or Myanmar. People around the globe are tired of western leaders telling them what to do and how to run their countries. People mostly want to live in peace. We are seeing it again now with Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Here in Asia, maintaining status quo is what people mostly strive for, and maintaining a friendly relationship with big nations like China and India. China is the largest trade partner of all countries in East and Southeast Asia. 49% of Taiwan's export goes to China. A serious conflict between Taiwan and China will ruin the whole region, Taiwan in particular.
But western countries don't care about that. They want to dominate like they did in the past. And if they don't, they'll ruin things. Yes, China is not democratic, yes, they discriminate against their minorities, yes, they are guilty of environmental crimes. But compare China today with China before the revolution, or even China 30 years ago, and you'll see that the current version is heaven for most people compared to then, and that includes most of their minorities. And then I'm not even considering the fact that parts of China was colonised by Japan and western countries back before WWII.
And now you want these people to help The West with the war in Ukraine, a war that was 100% avoidable? Keep on dreaming. People outside Europe and North America are not as stupid and uninformed as you think.
