News Review 29/01/2022

Ukraine President Accuses America of Exaggerating Crisis

America continues to intensify tensions over Ukraine. The top American military official, General Mark Milley, who serves as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned in a press conference on Friday that Russia “has amassed upwards at this time of over 100,000 ground forces, air forces, naval forces, special forces, cyber, electronic warfare, command and control, logistics, engineers, and other capabilities along the Ukraine border.” General Milley asserted that, “there is a potential that they could launch on very very little warning.”

Using particularly alarmist language, Milley said, “Given the type of forces that are arrayed ... if that was unleashed on Ukraine, it would be significant, very significant, and it would result in a significant amount of casualties.” Further characterising the danger he said, “You can imagine what that might look like in dense urban areas, along roads, and so on and so forth. It would be horrific. It would be terrible. And it's not necessary. And we think a diplomatic outcome is the way to go here.” Hours later, US President Joe Biden further ramped up the pressure, telling reporters, “I will be moving US troops to Eastern Europe in NATO countries in the near term.”

Meanwhile, according to the BBC, ‘Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the West not to create panic amid the build-up of Russian troops on his country's borders.’ Addressing a press conference in Kyiv, Zelensky said, “There are signals even from respected leaders of states, they just say that tomorrow there will be war. This is panic - how much does it cost for our state?”

What is happening in Ukraine accords fully with the dominant approach in American foreign policy, which is to achieve a balance of power in the world through sustaining ongoing conflicts between the different countries of the world. Ukraine is becoming one more open wound in international affairs that America can return to again and again, repeatedly interfering with it so that it never heals but continues to fester. Through exacerbating the Ukrainian situation, America can maintain ongoing challenges not only for Russia but also for European countries that have tried to strengthen their relationships with Russia in recent years. More immediately, Biden is seeking summit-level diplomacy with Russian President Vladimir Putin that will be on American terms. Tensions over Ukraine will provide Biden with considerable leverage over Putin. And while former US President Donald Trump’s meetings with Putin were always widely criticised and even ridiculed, a Biden summit with Putin in the midst of the present crisis will be seen as a triumph of diplomatic initiative.

America is a Capitalist ideological state whose foreign policy basis thus necessarily remains imperialistic. The West abandoned their formal empires but they continue their imperialism by other styles and means. This is because of Capitalism’s recognition of material interest alone as the driver of human motivation, which is translated at the level of foreign policy into an overriding focus on national interest at the expense of all else. Imperialism is also inevitable as the Westphalian nation state model does not permit the natural expansion and contraction of state boundaries. Hence, leading states have no other option than to express their power in the form of domination of others. Meanwhile, weak states, unable to contract their borders in accordance with their limited governance capacity, end up as ‘failed states’ and the targets of others’ ambitions. The Capitalist ideology has not only resulted in exploitation within countries that have embraced it but, more than that, it has been a source for general instability and misery throughout the world. However, with the permission of Allah (swt), the Muslim Ummah shall soon overthrow its legacy colonial systems and regimes and re-establish in their place the Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet (saw) that shall unify Muslim lands, liberate her occupied territories, implement the Islamic sharia, restore the Islamic way of life and carry the call of Islam to the entire world.

The Khilafah State shall, almost from its inception, join the ranks of the great powers due to its immense size, its huge population, its vast resources, its exceptional geopolitics and its unique ideology of Islam. The Khilafah State shall confront, contain and calm the other powers of the world, returning the world to peace and prosperity as existed during the thousand years that Islam previously remained dominant in world affairs. Islam commands Muslims not only to rule over themselves by Islam but to safeguard the entire of humanity. Allah (swt) says in the Noble Qur’an:

[كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللّهِ وَلَوْ آمَنَ أَهْلُ الْكِتَابِ لَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَّهُم مِّنْهُمُ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَأَكْثَرُهُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ]

“You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah. If only the People of the Scripture had believed, it would have been better for them. Among them are believers, but most of them are defiantly disobedient.” [Aal-i-Imran: 110].

Coup in Burkina Faso

According to CNN, ‘Burkina Faso's army said it took control of the country on Monday, deposing President Roch Kabore, dissolving the government and parliament, suspending the constitution and shuttering its borders.’ Later in the week, the new military leader gave his first speech, as reported on by the BBC, ‘Wearing a red beret and army fatigues in his national address on Thursday evening, Lt-Col Damiba, 41, said: “When the conditions are right, according to the deadline that our people will define in all sovereignty, I commit to a return to a normal constitutional order.”’ Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reported on Friday, ‘The West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, has suspended Burkina Faso in the aftermath of a military coup, making it the third member nation to be punished for a military takeover in only 18 months.’

A further inevitably consequence of the Capitalist nation state model is the deep rivalry between competing Capitalist states each trying to outdo the others in acquisition of colonial assets. Their fierce and bloody competition was at its peak in the ‘race to Africa’ in the late nineteenth century. But Africa now suffers renewed competition between the Western powers as America seeks to sever the ties between Europe’s old imperial nations and their former African colonies. America’s purpose is not to liberate those countries but to open them up to exploitation by America itself. Unlike other regions of the world, most of Africa’s countries still remain connected to Europe. But it is only a matter of time before Europe loses control of these also.

For those who are aware, the deep animosity and divisions amongst the Western powers provides the opportunity for the Muslim Ummah to arise again, throwing off the chains of Western imperialism. Allah (swt) said about the disbelievers in the Noble Qur’an:

[لَا يُقَاتِلُونَكُمْ جَمِيعًا إِلَّا فِي قُرًى مُّحَصَّنَةٍ أَوْ مِن وَرَاء جُدُرٍ بَأْسُهُمْ بَيْنَهُمْ شَدِيدٌ تَحْسَبُهُمْ جَمِيعًا وَقُلُوبُهُمْ شَتَّى ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ لَّا يَعْقِلُونَ]

“They will not fight you all except within fortified cities or from behind walls. Their violence [i.e., enmity] among themselves is severe. You think they are together, but their hearts are diverse. That is because they are a people who do not reason.” [Al-Hashr: 14].