Dragon’s wish: An Emaciated Russia and a Fractured America

By Neera Kuckreja Sohoni

In male-led human evolution, war – hot or cold – has been a constant. The male proclivity to ceaselessly seek to conquer and annex another’s land and assets has brought us to a point where peace has become an interval between wars.

America has a substantial history of going to war, occasionally to save the world, but mostly to protect its economic and security interests and assets abroad, or to shore up failing presidencies along with the “Wag the Dog” syndrome. Both Republican and Democrat presidents have either willingly, or under duress from the military-industrial-congressional nexus, resorted to war.

Presidents endeavoring to stand up in favor of peace get trashed for being unmanly and cowardly, prompting some to fight back even with the certainty of failure. Slammed for being soft on Russia, Kennedy asserted there was nothing “soft” about averting nuclear war, and that America showed its true strength by refraining from using its military might until all other avenues were exhausted.

In the Russia-Ukraine war, Biden tried to tread that same path only to end in confusion. Beginning with one-on-one video-chats and backchannel diplomacy, he resorted soon to sanctions as a deterrent, thereafter denying their effectiveness as a deterrent, finally resorting to increased military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but choosing to stay out of the hot war while condemning it as Putin’s war and calling Putin a war criminal.

The moving pendulum between cold and hot war options is of little help to Ukraine or to America’s standing as democracy’s savior.

Since the break-up of the mighty Soviet Union, a truncated Russia had already slipped in the global ranking of superpowers. Only its nuclear weaponry makes it still a formidable enemy, forbidding enough to get Biden to back off from actual or hot war, instead of resorting to cold war tactics of sanctions, loss of trade privileges, appropriation of Russian leaders’ personal assets, etc. – all of which are aimed at collapsing Russia generally, and Putin and his oligarchs in particular. The punitive measures by way of sanctions unfortunately are also undermining the US and global economies with higher prices for energy, gas, and goods, and likely serious consequences for political stability.

Like the Corona pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war has exposed America and its allies’ astonishing dependency on rival nations China and Russia, proving the veracity of the old adage that you cannot bite the hand that feeds you.

With their insatiable appetite for cost-cutting and profit-making, American corporates have recklessly outsourced vital manufacturing and supply lifelines to China, consequently placing American capital and economy, eventually perhaps even its polity and democracy, at China’s mercy. European dependency on China likewise is bad enough. Far worse is its reliance on Russian energy weakening European resolve and ability to stand up to a Russia gone rogue

For some reason, America’s military-industrial-political nexus has failed to acknowledge China’s transition from ‘super’ to ‘supreme’ power, or be sufficiently prepared to offset Putin’s aggression. The staunchest among them continue to believe they can bring anyone and any power abroad to their knees, and turn every president at home to play their tune.

Upper echelons in the US armed forces traditionally wedded to defeating and destroying Russia and Communism believe that preemptive nuclear attack on Russia is the way to vanquish it. They have inevitably scuttled efforts to rely on conciliation and peace, instead of seeking to avert confrontation by gaining nuclear supremacy. Hence, when Kennedy chose to defuse and reconcile rather than attack Russia, he was dismissed as weak by the military brass. Likewise, when Trump praised Putin for his leadership and wished to cultivate him, he and his advisors were charged with conspiring with Russia and being Putin’s lackeys.

Although from opposing parties, both Kennedy and Eisenhower had tried to stem the politicization of the military and its interference in political decision making, with limited success. Trump similarly had to let go of General Flynn, his National Security Advisor, for daring to make friendly overtures to Russia and challenging the cold-war protagonists in de facto control of our foreign policy. The combined power of anti-Trumpers put Trump and his advisors through successive intelligence surveillance and impeachment initiatives to ensure their removal from office.

A paranoid President Kennedy, according to David Talbot, had “asked his staff to begin giving him monthly reports on far-right activities and ordered the director of the IRS to investigate organizations receiving the exemption.” Biden administration too is seemingly using law enforcement and judicial department to weed out ultra-right and white supremacist entities.

America’s dilemma today, therefore, is how to reconcile its championing of democracy abroad with its crushing of democratic practices at home, or of fighting for Ukraine’s territorial integrity while disregarding the sanctity of America’s own borders.

America’s moral failure is magnified when it is seen helplessly standing aside to watch a nation struggle to remain democratic while being incinerated by Russian firepower. In the face of such atrocity, American hesitation and inability to either join the fight or to speedily end the carnage and enforce peace are a direct blow to its long-standing reputation as a superpower.

American hesitancy to join a war has merit. To recall Kennedy’s words, “Wars are easier to talk about than they are to fight.” He alone, and not his critics, Kennedy had rightly asserted, was responsible for the lives of 180 million Americans. Biden has much larger numbers to protect and defend today, in addition to his own and his administration’s survival.

A more reflective and realist President Kennedy had also conceded that “the US could not play the role of global sentinel. We must face the fact that the US is neither omnipotent nor omniscient. That we are only six percent of the world’s population, that we cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent, that we cannot fight every wrong or reverse each adversity and that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem.”

Kennedy’s comments predictably were sacrilege to those who believed in America’s divine and unlimited powers. But with humanity’s very survival at stake, it is time we call off our attack dogs and lower our dog whistles. At this current smoldering juncture – with the world tottering on the edge of a heightened peril of nuclear war, and nations facing their moment of reckoning, it is wise to separate the grain from the chaff.

Even amidst the brutal savagery of the invader and the unmatched valor of the invaded, it is necessary for America to gather its wits, and remain cool.

Neera Kuckreja Sohoni

Images courtesy of (Image Courtesy: 99designs) and thesatimes |

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