Rethinking the fall of Aleppo
It should be obvious to us that human life is more important than geo-political and ‘national interests’
As Aleppo falls, autocrats rejoice, and the bodies and the rubble burns; it reminds us that cruelty that we inflict on another is without bounds. As countless children and civilian cower for shelter and precious lives are slaughtered at the altar of geopolitics, it reminds us that the world can be a ruthless place.
The Putin administration and pro-Assad supporters rejoicing in their triumph over the rebels is surreally reminiscent of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s Firdos Square Statue and the joy that it brought to the Bush administration. Fox News showing Iraqis in ‘jubilation’ back in 2003 bears a stark similitude to the images on Russian state television yesterday with Pro-Assad supporters celebrating on the streets of Aleppo. The conspicuous suffering and violence in the backdrop as well as the noticeable delight in the limelight are indistinguishable.
Whether a brutal regime with aid of a foreign power can be ‘victorious’ — as in the case of Aleppo — or the fall of a brutal regime manufactured at the hands of rebels and with aid of foreign powers can be — as was the case of Saddam and Iraq War — we invariably forget the common denominator: the hundreds and thousands of innocent lives lost in the most inhumane and brutal manner with millions displaced and deprived of the most basic of human needs.
It should be obvious to us that human life is more important than geo-political and ‘national interests’ as if they are static and immutable forces of nature. However, the doctrine of realpolitik is more pervasive than we think it to be i.e., the ‘practical’ politics continue to define state ambitions to be more meaningful than life and security of humanity. The defining characteristic in this world of ‘practical’ politics is built around the chasm of identities: identity of “us” juxtaposed along with the identity of the “other” — dictated and manipulated by the nation states, their propaganda machinery and their respective statecraft ambitions. While Russia and Iran embody all that is uncivil and evil for America and European governments, the opposite is true for what Russians and Iranian governments believe. But the actual inhabitants, the Russian people, the American people, the Syrian people and their lives are just the collateral.
We often talk about the response of the Putin administration. An isolationist approach where all dissent and critical thinking is labelled a foreign conspiracy, where world led by the US is out to get you, where Putin is a vanguard to prevent mother Russia to become a US colony.
But does this paranoia and ‘strong man’ approach of Putin fill the bellies of the thousands of jobless that roam the streets of Petersburg, Moscow and the Russian countryside? Will their national duty and devotion improve the lives of their compatriots? Does not the average Russian need to look at the world with an open mind and an open heart?
Perhaps. But what is the knee-jerk response of the ‘West’?: Ever harsher sanctions?
In all this, who loses is the poor Russian farmer, who is bound to his land through an internal ‘passport’, the fresh Russian graduate who frantically looks for a job to find none. The single Russian mother, who is working three jobs to feed her children.
Will these punitive approach of sanctions not further sow the seeds of hate and distrust in the bystander Russian citizen who toils hard to make ends meet? How much choice does an average Russian have when he/she is told not to swallow the state propaganda? That the world is out to get them seems like the only viable narrative.
The European’s blanket and austere sanctions on Russia has solidified Russians’ belief that Putin ‘stands up to the West’ and is the only one who is going to fight for them. Contrary to demonising the Putin’s regime or imposing even harsher sanctions that will disproportionately hit the poorest of the poor, the world needs to engage the Russian people; not by employing greater economic sanctions but by lifting them.
“God and the devil are fighting and the battlefield is the heart of man.” So, wrote the great Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky more than a hundred years ago. This is where the real battle rages, in the hearts of the Russian people. A choice must be made whether Russians want Putin’s isolationist and angry Russia or a Russia founded on dignity, empathy and love as envisioned by the great Dostoevsky?
Ultimately, the final check on Putin cannot be, should not be, Europe or the United States, but the Russian people.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 1st, 2017.
The Putin administration and pro-Assad supporters rejoicing in their triumph over the rebels is surreally reminiscent of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s Firdos Square Statue and the joy that it brought to the Bush administration. Fox News showing Iraqis in ‘jubilation’ back in 2003 bears a stark similitude to the images on Russian state television yesterday with Pro-Assad supporters celebrating on the streets of Aleppo. The conspicuous suffering and violence in the backdrop as well as the noticeable delight in the limelight are indistinguishable.
Whether a brutal regime with aid of a foreign power can be ‘victorious’ — as in the case of Aleppo — or the fall of a brutal regime manufactured at the hands of rebels and with aid of foreign powers can be — as was the case of Saddam and Iraq War — we invariably forget the common denominator: the hundreds and thousands of innocent lives lost in the most inhumane and brutal manner with millions displaced and deprived of the most basic of human needs.
It should be obvious to us that human life is more important than geo-political and ‘national interests’ as if they are static and immutable forces of nature. However, the doctrine of realpolitik is more pervasive than we think it to be i.e., the ‘practical’ politics continue to define state ambitions to be more meaningful than life and security of humanity. The defining characteristic in this world of ‘practical’ politics is built around the chasm of identities: identity of “us” juxtaposed along with the identity of the “other” — dictated and manipulated by the nation states, their propaganda machinery and their respective statecraft ambitions. While Russia and Iran embody all that is uncivil and evil for America and European governments, the opposite is true for what Russians and Iranian governments believe. But the actual inhabitants, the Russian people, the American people, the Syrian people and their lives are just the collateral.
We often talk about the response of the Putin administration. An isolationist approach where all dissent and critical thinking is labelled a foreign conspiracy, where world led by the US is out to get you, where Putin is a vanguard to prevent mother Russia to become a US colony.
But does this paranoia and ‘strong man’ approach of Putin fill the bellies of the thousands of jobless that roam the streets of Petersburg, Moscow and the Russian countryside? Will their national duty and devotion improve the lives of their compatriots? Does not the average Russian need to look at the world with an open mind and an open heart?
Perhaps. But what is the knee-jerk response of the ‘West’?: Ever harsher sanctions?
In all this, who loses is the poor Russian farmer, who is bound to his land through an internal ‘passport’, the fresh Russian graduate who frantically looks for a job to find none. The single Russian mother, who is working three jobs to feed her children.
Will these punitive approach of sanctions not further sow the seeds of hate and distrust in the bystander Russian citizen who toils hard to make ends meet? How much choice does an average Russian have when he/she is told not to swallow the state propaganda? That the world is out to get them seems like the only viable narrative.
The European’s blanket and austere sanctions on Russia has solidified Russians’ belief that Putin ‘stands up to the West’ and is the only one who is going to fight for them. Contrary to demonising the Putin’s regime or imposing even harsher sanctions that will disproportionately hit the poorest of the poor, the world needs to engage the Russian people; not by employing greater economic sanctions but by lifting them.
“God and the devil are fighting and the battlefield is the heart of man.” So, wrote the great Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky more than a hundred years ago. This is where the real battle rages, in the hearts of the Russian people. A choice must be made whether Russians want Putin’s isolationist and angry Russia or a Russia founded on dignity, empathy and love as envisioned by the great Dostoevsky?
Ultimately, the final check on Putin cannot be, should not be, Europe or the United States, but the Russian people.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 1st, 2017.