Ukraine, Lebanon and the farce of national sovereignty

When Russian troops entered Ukraine in February 2022, a chorus of righteous fury went up from politicians and pundits in the West. A united front of ‘democratic’ countries offered up their arsenals and opened their cheque books to punish ‘Russian war crimes’ and resist the invasion of a sovereign nation. Fast forward two years and our enlightened democratic rulers are again offering their arsenals and opening their cheque books… to assist Israel’s barbaric war crimes and invasion of a sovereign nation.

Even before Israel’s latest rampage, the hypocrisy of the ladies and gentlemen in Washington, London, Brussels, et al. was staggering. Consider the concluding remarks of US President Joe Biden’s first speech following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:

“Liberty, democracy, human dignity — these are the forces far more powerful than fear and oppression. They cannot be extinguished by tyrants like Putin and his armies… And in the contest between democracy and autocracy, between sovereignty and subjugation, make no mistake: Freedom will prevail.”

Fine words. But how do they square with history? From the end of the Second World War to the present day, there have been over 250 armed conflicts in 150 regions of the world. More than three-quarters of these were initiated by the United States. The utter hypocrisy of US policy was encapsulated by the Council of Foreign Relations, which wrote that Russia “shows little respect for the territorial integrity and political autonomy of states in its near abroad.” The people of Cuba would likely have some choice words for the CFR regarding Washington’s behaviour in its ‘near abroad’!

Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron and the rest all fell over themselves to pledge support for Ukraine’s ‘right to self-determination’ / Image: Number 10, Flickr

Facts are stubborn things. The fact is, between direct invasions; support for murderous military coups against democratically elected governments; and fomenting conflicts via proxies; US imperialism has been the single greatest threat to liberty, dignity and sovereignty on the world stage.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and the rest all fell over themselves to pledge support for Ukraine’s ‘right to self-determination’: never mind their own nations’ legacies of invading, robbing and subjugating weaker countries. Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg accused Putin of ordering “atrocious acts of aggression against a sovereign and independent country, and innocent people.” Where were these scruples when NATO forces were carpet bombing and invading Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq?

The West’s support for Ukraine has precisely nothing to do with defending national sovereignty. In 2014, Washington supported a coup that installed a clique of oligarchs favourable to its interests. It then pushed Ukraine into a conflict it could not win to strike blows against Russia, and reassert American dominance after humiliating retreats in Syria and Afghanistan. Concern for ‘poor little Ukraine’ was a figleaf to conceal this naked self-interest. The ruling classes of Europe trotted obediently behind their American masters into this bloody morass.

This is nothing new. As Lenin explained during the First World War, the imperialists will always seek some democratic cover for their predatory interests, and to rally their own workers behind their war effort. The British, French, German and Russian regimes in WWI all used the excuse of defending small nations: ‘poor little Serbia’ on one side, and ‘poor little Belgium’ on the other.

The British, French, German and Russian regimes in WWI all used the excuse of defending small nations / Image: public domain

“Neither group of belligerents is inferior to the other in spoliation, atrocities and the boundless brutality of war; however, to hoodwink the proletariat and distract its attention from the only genuine war of liberation, namely, a civil war against the bourgeoisie both of its ‘own’ and of ‘foreign’ countries… the bourgeoisie of each country is trying, with the help of false phrases about patriotism, to extol the significance of its ‘own’ national war, asserting that it is out to defeat the enemy, not for plunder and the seizure of territory, but for the ‘liberation’ of all other peoples except its own.”

Despite paying lip service to the ‘universal democratic right’ of national self-determination, the big imperialist powers have always treated small nations as disposable assets: to be exploited, traded and disposed of as needed. Slavery and colonialism in Africa, Asia and the Middle East were justified as ‘civilising missions’. The imperialist robber barons raced to carve up the world into markets and spheres of influence, plunging humanity into the chaos of war time and again as they strove for dominance.

The current nightmare in Palestine is a direct product of imperialist meddling. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 saw the British sign away Palestinian territory with the aim of “forming for England a little loyal Jewish Ulster in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism”, to quote Ronald Storrs, Military Governor of Jerusalem. Palestinian sovereignty was thus revoked at the stroke of a pen in Westminster. The UN partition plan of 1947 was the starting gun for the first Nakba: the mass violent expulsion of Palestinian Arabs to facilitate the state of Israel.

Today, Israel’s genocidal war that has killed and maimed at least 150,000 is justified in terms of the Jews’ right to national self-determination. But who is defending the Palestinians’ right to self-determination? As the Israeli war machine rolls over Gaza; as more and more of historic Palestine is annexed; as far-right cabinet ministers in the Israeli government like Ben-Gvir and Smotrich pledge a second Nakba; what do our ‘democratic’ western leaders have to say?

Only that Israel has a right to defend herself. It has this right, backed up with a functionally limitless supply of arms and aid, for no other reason than it is the West’s only reliable ally in the Middle East. Therefore, niceties like international law and respect for national sovereignty do not apply where Israel is concerned.

The current nightmare in Palestine is a direct product of imperialist meddling / Image: WAFA, Wikimedia Commons

With Israel’s invasion of Lebanon (against the wishes of its imperialist benefactors), western double standards have become embarrassingly stark. Since February 2022, Russia has been hit with more than 16,500 sanctions by the West, while Ukraine has received more than $380 billion in aid, including nearly $118 billion in direct military aid. Zelensky has been invited to address the UN and parliaments around the globe, receiving rapturous applause. Ukraine was even gifted a win at the Eurovision Song Contest.

By contrast, an international aid conference held in Paris promised to scrape together around €1 billion in humanitarian support for Lebanon. Not only is this sum orders of magnitude less than what has been sent to Ukraine, it is a mere fraction of what the imperialists have sent to support Israel in its war effort, which is the reason aid is needed to begin with!

Moreover, the US and Britain have both moved military assets in preparation to support Israel should war break out with Iran. This is precisely Netanyahu’s objective: to start a wider war and drag the West into the fray, thus keeping the fighting going and holding onto his political position.

Iran responded to Israel bombing embassies and assassinating Hamas’ main negotiator on its soil by launching a fleet of drones that were intercepted by the Iron Dome. It met the assassination of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and the invasion of Lebanon with a barrage of rockets. These actions have caused few casualties. Meanwhile, Israel has already killed more people in Lebanon than died in the entire 2006 war, on top of its butchery in Gaza. And how have the imperialists responded? By condemning Iran for ‘escalation’!

Doesn’t Iran have a right to self-defence and territorial integrity? Doesn’t Lebanon have this right? Don’t the Palestinians? It seems so-called universal democratic rights are in fact entirely contingent on the needs and interests of the great powers. The imperialists and their mouthpieces cannot even call things by their real name. The American comedian George Carlin once said that governments and the rich invent a special language to conceal their sins:

“The CIA doesn't kill anybody anymore, they neutralise people… The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation... Israeli murderers are called commandos, Arab commandos are called terrorists.”

When Putin described the invasion of Ukraine as merely a “special military operation”, his sophistry was condemned in the West. But the Israeli euphemism of a “limited ground offensive” was eagerly taken up by the majority of western politicians and press outlets, even as thousands of IDF troops entered Lebanon.

Unlike the imperialists and their murderous proxies, we communists have no problem telling the truth. Israel is conducting a genocidal war in Gaza; and now it has invaded a sovereign nation, in an attempt to provoke a disastrous war with Iran, which our own ruling classes in the West are facilitating.

Comparing the response of our ‘enlightened’, ‘democratic’ leaders to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s bloody campaign in the Middle East exposes what a farce is made of the principles of national sovereignty and self-determination under capitalism. These high-minded ideals are jettisoned the second they interfere with the capitalists’ pursuit of profits and political objectives. Far from defending the democratic rights of small nations, western imperialism is the single greatest obstacle to the liberty of poor and oppressed people worldwide. The capitalist system these gangsters enforce must be brought down if humanity is to live in peace, freedom and security.