A war that changed the world

Source: RUSI.com

It just started like that. It probably always starts like that.

You thought it was never going to happen but found columns of tanks heading into the border zones. You thought it was just intimidation, but it broke into a full-fledged battle.

It may have started as the manifestation of the megalomania of an autocrat. Still, like every war, it has irreversibly changed lives for the worse and destroyed a country beyond recovery. The Russian dictator has pushed entire Europe, along with his nation, into a spiral of death, misery, and destruction. He is on a collision course with the West and has lost all sense of rationality. And perhaps, some of its global impact might even have been conscious on his part.

Apart from destroying the lives of thousands of Ukrainian families and even more individuals, the war has essentially shaken, if not altered, the liberal economic order. The biggest triumph of Western liberal democracies has been its financial and economic system at least, which had bound the rival authoritarian powers such as Russia and China, and to some degree, even Iran. Partially by shutting Russia out of the NIFT system, the West has contributed to that polarization itself.

Source: DW/Anatoli Stepanov/AFP

The war has also disrupted parts of the global supply chain and resulted in an imbalance of energy supply, with Europe barred from Russian gas, much to the chagrin of Germany. And as we exit 2022, while Russia has expressed its intention to enter negotiations to end the war for the first time, which is not a surprise considering how terribly it went for them, there is hardly an end in sight. It continues to impact our lives hundreds of miles away in the shape of economic ruin.

Here, it is important to acknowledge the sheer evil of the shameful foreign policies of India and Pakistan in this entire episode. Both countries refused to call out Russia for its disastrous war crimes and failed to stand with Ukraine. Apart from ignoring Ukraine altogether, the countries resorted to completely ignoring the plight of the Ukrainian people in their UN voting record. What is worse, Pakistan’s idiotic leader Imran Khan was standing right next to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin the day he was sending tanks into the Donbas region of Ukraine. Even today, Pakistan is prioritizing “Russian crude oil” that it will probably never get over Ukraine.

However, the war has truly given the Ukrainian people and the world a hero in Volodymyr Zelensky, whose leadership is still the embodiment of Ukrainians fighting hard for their existence and freedom even 9 months after the brutal Russian attack. As of this date, the United States has provided the Ukrainian forces with Patriot anti-missile defense system to stand some chance against the barrage of Russian missiles systematically targeting Ukrainian civilian and cultural centers.

It is shocking how Russia has practically gained nothing except destroying the lives and livelihood of millions of Ukrainian. Apart from gratifying the ego of yet another destructive and warmongering European dictator, the Russians are continuing with their stalemated fight against Ukraine. They are desperately looking for face-saving that is not going to be easy to come by.

The world must come together to stand up for the Ukrainian people and discourage Russia’s reckless warmongering. All people must urge their nations to take a stand but especially Pakistani conservatives and progressives should give up their cynical world-view and pressure their government to take a stand to discourage Russia from continuing with the war.

They are already losing the war anyway.

Imran Khan and PTI: Fascist and Proud of It

Source: Economic Times

Every time you think Imran Khan cannot get any worse to shock people with his worldview, he goes on to outdo himself. If his hilariously idiotic Medina State rhetoric were not enough, he further embarrassed himself on his recent visit to China.

In his own words, he paid a tribute to the authoritarian Communist regime in China by offering a fresh glimpse into what kind of Medina State he envisions for Pakistan.

Wish I could follow President Xi’s example and put 500 corrupt people in Pakistan in jail.

This is not fiction and it is the kind of statement that his liberal defenders would otherwise attribute his detractors to have come up with. However, many people obsessed with him often forget that it is precisely reckless rhetoric like this which has helped him mobilize the worst of the urban middle-class vote in the country. People who are fed on the false narratives of ARY News and DG ISPR are the ones who will actually cheer for this visionary comment made by their handsome Messiah. Presenting yet another ignorant address by the self-proclaimed statesman.

Imran Khan represents the fascist mindset of the authoritarianism that conservative Pakistanis represent who idealize the Iranian revolution and people hanging in public squares but only demand selective accountability for civilian leadership. These slave-minded people across the nation, but particularly concentrated in Punjab, Karachi, and urban Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been fed this narrative for decades by the military. They either believe that the military should be in power or their puppet leaders like Imran, who many of them also see as a divinely sanctioned Messiah.

I hope his Nawaz Sharif-hating liberal defenders in the urban centers of Pakistan would be thrilled with the “improvements” and “reforms” he has in mind for the judicial and political system in Pakistan. He is already acting on it. Perhaps, this fascism is what his farcical Medina State is all about.

Not only does he ignore the plight of the Uighur Muslims in China, he further proves his idiocy and authoritarian leaning by minimizing the democratic struggle of the people of Hong Kong while he sheds  crocodile tears for the people of Kashmir. Well, who’s not surprised.

I am puzzled as to how international media continues to give headline coverage to Hongkong protests but ignores the dire human rights crisis in IOJK – an internationally recognised disputed territory illegally annexed by India with 900k troops imposing a siege on 8mn Kashmiris

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) October 11, 2019

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Clearly, a leader who made such an outcry for years about the treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay by the US military must feel offended by this. Especially because it concerns the “Muslim Ummah” he claims to champion the rights of. Will he discuss the plight of the Uighurs in the new propaganda channel that is supposed to address Islamophobia that he plans to launch with fellow fascists Erdogan and Mahathir Muhammad? Or has he been conveniently skipping this part of the news just like his party followers live in a parallel universe?

Unfortunately, this shameless leader which many urban conservative nationalists sympathizing with the military establishment, which is corrupt and incompetent in its own right, proves to be a disgrace for the nation time and time again. But he truly represents the ugly worldview of his regressive nationalist conservative followers.

Imran Khan and PTI, along with their malicious voters, are fascists and they are proud of it.

We must call them out and ridicule them for it.