The recent remark made by Mahathir Mohammed, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, that the US is pushing the world towards Word War III is a serious political statement and needs to be examined threadbare. He said it in February this year followed by his current statement.
Word War II was the result of many factors but the foremost among them was the humiliating treaty of Versailles imposed upon Germany. The second most important factor was the fear of expansion of communism which forced the Allied Powers to appease Hitler in the hope that he would take on communism. Communism could not be contained by the US led West as Soviet Union became a power centre and the cold war began. The Soviet Union disintegrated because of the inherent weakness in the theory of communism and constant political machinations of the West.
Thus the cold war ended emasculating Soviet Union. The emergence of an unipolar world did not last long and China started to compete with America. The situation compounded further with the arrival of Vladimir Putin on the scene who started reasserting the power of Russia as a logical heir of the USSR. America was continuously trying to further strengthen its hegemony by several means including the expansion of NATO upto the extent of encircling Russia. This was uncalled for. Naturally, Russia started acting with a vengeance The West was alarmed after Russia took over Crimea.
Russia was made to sit up and reassert itself when Ukraine was enticed into joining NATO. The moment this process was initiated, Russia became determined not to allow it happen. Jelensky might be novice but what about the seasoned diplomatic and military experts operating in the American establishment. They must be knowing and expecting such a response from Russia led by Putin, who is no Gorbachev. Moreover, the Russian military build up went on for weeks and everyone knew what was in store for Ukraine. America let the conflict happen and fuelled it further by providing arms, ammunition and moral support to Jelensky and portrayed him as the champion of Ukrainian nationalism. The American allies fell in line with the American decision and started supplying arms and ammunitions to Ukraine. America had no intention of bringing the conflict to an early end and it continuously stoked the fire of conflict.
The American policy of invoking sanctions against nations which do not abide by its diktats or which show the courage to stand up against America has been a recurring irritant to the global peace. The current economic sanctions against Russia put her in trouble and could have paralyzed her economy, but the whole gameplan went haywire because of the entry of India which stood its ground firmly and refused to side with America. On the contrary, India refused to honour the American sanctions against Russia and continued to buy crude oil from Russia. It increased its purchase of crude oil from Russia to an unprecdented level. S. Jaishankar snubbed all western crticism in a language which dented the impregnability of the western hegemony.
The Russia Ukraine conflict has facilitated the arrival of India on the global stage as a big league player. It is India which has kept the western arrogance in check and has thereby prevented the conflict into blowing into a global war. The Indian neutrality has kept the balance evenly poised between the US led West and Russia supported by China.
The American sanctions have done incalculable harm to the economy of the world. It is pushing the world to a major war which the world does not want. The days of American sanctions and bullying are over, but Uncle Sam is not ready to realize. Coming to terms with falling from the high pedestal is very difficult. America is suffering from this malady and may resort to doing anything. Hence, evaluation of Mahathir Mohammed is genuine.
The writer is a noted academician and political commentator. Views expressed in the article are his own.
