From Iraq to Ukraine: Reflections on imperial hubris

Twenty years ago, as the United States was preparing for war against Iraq, then-Democrat Senator Joe Biden voted for President George Bush’s reckless adventure. On the other side of the world, in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin opposed it, calling it a mistake and a major escalation that would destabilize the international system.

Today, it is the shrewd and seasoned Putin who is waging an imperial war in Ukraine – a blunder that President Biden has now pounced on, warning of its destabilizing consequences for the world.

Over these two decades, I have written extensively about the savage, arrogant, and reckless wars waged by the Kremlin and White House in a relentless show of imperial hubris, whether in Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere.

I exposed the pretexts for the war in Iraq and repeatedly warned of the dangers of Washington’s adventures in the Middle East well before and after the invasion, as I later did for Moscow’s attack on Ukraine.

As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, rather than writing retrospectively or introspectively, as many have done over the past few days, I want to revisit some basic ideas, just as I have them years ago and over the past year. written. They reveal how these imperial wars of choice are doomed to failure and why they bring destruction instead of democracy, chaos instead of stability, and humiliation instead of victory.

Here are excerpts from three articles I wrote for the International New York Times (formerly known as the International Herald Tribune) about the invasion of Iraq and three I wrote for Al Jazeera English about the invasion of Ukraine.

Focused on Iraq: war rarely leads to lasting peace
September 18, 2002

Anyone who advocates an attack on Iraq has a short memory. Since World War II, the United States’ use of force has consistently failed to neutralize its adversaries in the short term. And in the Middle East, wars and covert operations have only led to more conflict.

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Washington’s logic of violence has failed in the Middle East and elsewhere. All three of the major American wars of the past half century—in Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf—have ended in stalemate or defeat.

A global response to 9/11 could herald a new era of multilateral cooperation and revise international law to meet new transnational threats. An attack on Iraq would do just the opposite. The immediate threat to world stability comes not from the Iraqi dictator, but from the democratically elected government of the world’s superpower. Americans, the ball is in your court.

War and the Arab World: Not in the Name of Democracy
February 27, 2003

The Bush administration needs to be careful when it talks about democracy in the Middle East. The idea is too valuable and vital to be used as cynical camouflage for other agendas, whether those based on oil interests, or Israel’s, or the desire to have a solid military beachhead in an unstable region.

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It is time for democrats – Westerners, Arabs and others – to confront belligerent politicians with a geo-ethic, to oppose war with the same staunch opposition with which they oppose dictators. Democrats around the world, especially American Democrats, must put their values ​​above their interests, their humanity above their fears, to help create coalitions across continents and religions to make peace and democracy possible for all.

Fighting Fire with Fire: The Israelization of US Policy
June 27, 2003

For the past few months I have watched in bewilderment as America adopted Israel’s mistaken strategy in the Middle East. Will it take America as long as Israel to realize that starting a war is not ending it, and that military occupation does not bring peace or security?

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Achieving national security in a transnational world means accepting and respecting interdependence. Once security is seen as a universal right, interdependence becomes a sign of wisdom, not weakness.

If America needs to draw on a different tradition, why not look to the long history of Jewish tolerance and survival—or to America’s own constitutional tradition? It’s time to dust off those great documents that sit on the shelves of the White House.

Ukraine: to go to war or not to go to war?
January 27, 2022

The long-awaited war in Ukraine may not have started yet, but most of its objectives have already been achieved. Which begs the question: why persist on the path to war, a bloody destructive war with guaranteed backlashes, when diplomacy could get the job done?

The protagonists, Russia and the United States, are cynically using the good old Cold War script to advance their national interests at the expense of Ukrainian, even European, and international security.

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The Biden administration could certainly accommodate the Russian red line as Ukraine is not even moving towards NATO membership. In return, Russia can provide the necessary security and commitment to an independent and free Ukraine.

Presidents Putin and Biden have shown cleverness; they must not let it get out of hand because of personal and national pride. It is high time to reject warmongering and embrace reconciliation; yes atonement; mutual strategic reconciliation to avoid another devastating European war and a terrible world crisis.

Putin’s five fatal mistakes in Ukraine
October 6, 2022

Russia’s justifications for its invasion of Ukraine, like the United States’ excuses for its invasion of Iraq two decades earlier, prove that world powers have failed to learn lessons from imperial hubris—theirs and others. From the ancient Greeks and Romans to the more recent French, German and British powers, geopolitical arrogance is notorious for producing fatal political stupidity.

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So why do world powers continue to make the same costly mistakes while expecting different results? Does arrogance also lead to madness?

Remember that the smart learn from their own mistakes, the wise learn from the mistakes of others, but only the foolish learn from neither, as we see today in Ukraine.

The world after the war in Ukraine
February 20, 2023

Ukraine’s large-scale invasion of Russia has been catastrophic. It has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of precious lives, the displacement of millions of people and the destruction of countless homes, civilian buildings and infrastructure.

It has also unraveled Russia’s moral and strategic position in the world, as it has become clear how ill-prepared the Russian military really is and how exaggerated Russian economic power has been.

The war has also been disastrous for the rest of the world. Not only has it destabilized energy markets, fueled inflation and disrupted the supply of food and raw materials, but it has exposed and exacerbated the world’s ill state, accelerated nuclear proliferation, fueled an arms race, paralyzed the United Nations and international law, multilateral cooperation and humanitarian aid.

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While we have made great strides as a human civilization, culminating in healthier, wealthier, and better-educated generations, we seem drawn, if not addicted, to destructive conflicts that can take us generations back.

History teaches us that great powers fail or perish through reckless wars, but to no avail. For decades, Russia and America have followed in each other’s footsteps, fighting wars they could not end except in humiliation and mass destruction.

And then came Ukraine, unfortunately. Stupid, indeed.