Russia-Ukraine tiff exposes hypocrisy of US, West

On the last Friday of last month, a delegation of US Embassy in Zimbabwe personnel and its European Union (EU) counterparts made a beeline for Munhumutapa Building in Harare to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade offices.

Their business? To mouth their support for Ukraine in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

After the deed, the coterie paraded itself outside the building holding a Ukrainian flag for a photoshoot.

The US Embassy then gleefully and childishly tweeted the event in a self-congratulatory tone that night.

"Today, the US Embassy to Zimbabwe joined our European colleagues to meet with the Zimbabwe Ministry of Foreign Affairs to express our unity against Russia's unprovoked and massive invasion of Ukraine," the embassy said on its Twitter handle.

It is interesting to note that the EU and US Embassies chose to knock on the door of Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador Frederick Shava, to express their support for Ukraine when the whole world knows that Zimbabwe's foreign policy is that the country is a friend to all and an enemy to none.

The world knows that Zimbabwe engages and relates with other countries on the basis of mutual respect.

There was no point expressing their partiality in the conflict to Zimbabwe which had never expressed any opinion.

Many people wondered why the two teams did not just fly to Pretoria to express their solidarity with the Ukrainian Ambassador, who is also accredited to Zimbabwe.

On the second of this month, Zimbabwe, together with more than 30 other countries that included China and South Africa abstained from the anti-Russia vote at an emergency session called by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

The West and its local proxies were obviously not happy with Zimbabwe's stance. They wanted the country to stand with them against Russia, with whom Zimbabwe nurses no grudges.

Zimbabwe is no war monger like the West.

She clearly explained that she supported dialogue.

In a display of their double standards, Western countries wanted a country, whose innocent people they have condemned to over 20 years of sanctions-induced poverty, to take sides with their tormentors.

Many times, the EU, UK and US Embassies meddle in Zimbabwe's internal affairs without respecting their host's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Suddenly, they remembered that there was a Ministry of Foreign Affairs to which they should go when they have issues.

But when it suits them, they take to social media, meddling in the country's affairs.

They shamelessly play the role of the opposition's political commissar in contravention of United Nations (UN) principle of non-interference.

When they think that they can make political mileage in pursuit of their home countries' narrow and selfish objectives, they play good envoys by visiting Minister Shava.

The event exposed the double standards exhibited by Western diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe.

While this article is not about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it is important to foreground some of the issues which are pertinent to the clash.

Today, the US is finding fault with Russia's position on Ukraine, yet back in 1962, it threatened the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) with a nuclear attack because the latter enjoyed military ties with Cuba.

What is good for the goose should also be good for the gander.

The USSR, then a socialist state which spanned Eurasia, was dissolved in December 1992 following Western security concerns due to its geographical extent, which constituted a sixth of the earth.

Part of the agreement was that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), a Western defence alliance, would not expand eastwards towards Russia.

Russian President, Vladmir Putin, is not asking for anything out of this world.

He is not re-writing the agreement.

All he is doing is demanding the implementation of the agreement by insisting that Ukraine remains a buffer between Russia and the West.

Ukraine and its Western backers have sought to wilfully and conveniently "forget" about the requirement that the West should not expand eastwards.

With the encouragement of the West led by the US, Ukraine has sought to join both the EU and NATO in flagrant contravention of the agreement.

The US masterminded and operationalised the disbanding of the USSR and is now shamelessly and actively encouraging Ukraine to leave the Eurasian Economic Community (EEC) so that it (US) can benefit from that country's rich natural resources and flex its (US') political muscle against Russia.

Talk of shameless double standards

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been receiving plaudits from some quarters for standing against Russia for over two weeks now.

The international news organisation, Reuters, saw that, although the West seems to be backing Ukraine, none of the Western countries were prepared to come out to publicly defend it on joining NATO as they know that the move is wrong.

On February 25, Reuters tweeted part of a speech by Zelenskyy in which he expressed dismay at the lack of spine among Western countries, the US included, to openly support its bid to join NATO despite them encouraging him to defy Russia and trash the USSR dissolution clause which barred the EU from expanding eastwards towards Russia.

Zelenskyy cut a lonely figure when he said, "I have asked 27 European leaders whether Ukraine will be in NATO . . . Everyone is afraid, no one answers."

This should be a valuable lesson for any politician or country that willingly allows itself to be used by the West against other countries.

The US and the rest of the West use and abandon. They care for their interests only.

All that Zelenskyy's Western backers such as the US have been doing is to sabre-rattle by moving some of their troops, attack aircraft and fighter jets into Eastern Europe to reassure NATO allies.

 Double standards

NATO members want Ukraine to join the defence bloc, but cannot help the hapless country because they know it is wrong to do so.

In view of this background, one is, therefore, not surprised that on February 27, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro decided against joining the Western in imposing sanctions against Russia opting to be neutral on the matter.

He had no kind words for the Zelenskyy-supporting Ukrainians whom he said "trusted a comedian with the fate of a nation."

True to expectation, the West is accusing Russia of imperialism, but the world knows which country in the world has been the foremost in trying to exert its political influence onto other countries by force or other means such as sanctions.

Even a distant Zimbabwe which poses no threat to the US has not been spared the former super power's machinations to unseat her ruling party, Zanu-PF and replace it with a puppet opposition administration.

This would enable the US to exact a pound of "justice" from the Southern African country for implementing the land reform in 2000 and to have unfettered access to Zimbabwe's rich natural resources.

As the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues, it is easy for the world to be swayed against Russia by the likes of the US' propaganda, but as the latter points an accusatory finger at Moscow, it should be remembered that three bloodied fingers are pointing back at it literally and metaphorically confirming its guilt.

This indicates that the US cannot claim a higher moral ground to lecture other countries when its own global track record is chequered.

For decades, the US has sought to position itself in the eyes of the world as a champion of the hallowed concept of democracy despite the fact that its hands are dripping with the blood of innocent citizens of various countries who it has arbitrarily slain ironically in the name of establishing and entrenching democracy in the same territories.

Between 1950 and 2015, the US bombed about 33 countries across the globe for various reasons — most of them made up to suit its evil designs.

It should be noted that the people of these countries make up about a third of the earth's population. So much for a country that touts itself as and wishes to be known as a champion of democracy.

It is sad that most of the countries that the US has invaded in the name of establishing or restoring democracy are always left worse off.

In March 2011, the US and the UK led the invasion of Libya to rid the country of its President Muammar Gaddafi for pushing for the United States of Africa and to enable them to access Libyan oil.

Eleven years later, Libyans have no peace and their living conditions have deteriorated.

When the former South African President, the late Nelson Mandela, was released from Prison in 1990, and went on to become that country's President in 1994, some people in his country and elsewhere in Africa accused him of having sold out to the West.

One thing is, however, very clear about him. Despite being feted by global leaders in Western capitals, he was not blinded to their evil nature.

In a video clip doing rounds on various social media platforms, Mandela is heard articulating the US' evil nature.

"If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States. They don't care about human beings. Fifty-seven years ago, when Japan was retreating on all fronts, they decided to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki — killed a lot of innocent people, (and some) are still suffering the effects of those bombs. Those bombs were not aimed against the Japanese. They were aimed against the Soviet Union to say "look, this is the power that we have," Mandela said.

As Mandela implied, the US does not care about the effects of its actions on any global citizen. It only cares about its own selfish objectives and narrow interests.

It is against this background that the world should digest the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict and NATO members' overtures.

Only the politically naive Zelenskyys of this world would expect sincere and genuine support from the US and other Western countries.

Back home, it is only the naïve local opposition figures such as CCC's Tendai Biti, who can publicly boast of their willingness to be used as the US and the rest of the West's "zvikwambo" (goblins).

As the 26 March 2022 by-elections draw near, the electorate should know that CCC is a Western project whose objective is to achieve their masters' aim to unseat Zanu-PF — nothing more, nothing less.

As the late Mandela pointed out, by extension, the party does not care about human beings.

And Harareans and other urbanites, who now live in squalor, thanks to the opposition's poor stewardship of their cities and towns, will readily attest to this.

The electorate can stand against the West and its double standards by dealing a body blow on its local running dogs through voting them emphatically out of Zimbabwe's urban spaces on the 26th of this month.