Nothing rankles in the human heart as much as injustice. The epitome of this is war. Innocent valuable lives are lost because their leaders believe they have to wage this war.
It is only recently that I read Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, famous historian, where he says that wars are a thing of the past and will not happen again not after the two World Wars that almost wiped out Europe. But here it is happening. Russia has entered Ukraine and bombing it. Is it a territorial expansion? Why?
I went out to swim that day wondering, maybe somebody should teach Putin to meditate. My teacher would say that whenever one sees injustice---an oppressor and an oppressed, we automatically sympathize and send metta (loving kindness) to the oppressed, but actually we must be sending a lot of metta toward the oppressor as well. To create suffering for others one must be suffering too, and he is in need of much loving kindness himself. May he understand what he is doing, may he come out of his suffering, may the people on whom this crazy war has suddenly descended be free from suffering. These were my sentiments as I was swimming that day.
I know a person who is from Ukraine who lives in Singapore and when I read her posts on the conflict, war, whatever it is called, I was more concerned. She and many others from that country live here and have families and friends back there in Ukraine who must be suffering. Now it is not just a war happening in a distant place but with migration & interconnections in recent years, we all face the impact very close.
As I tried to make sense of it, I started reading more history of the strife. I remember the days when the USSR suddenly disappeared in 1991. Things rapidly changed after that. In the years before that two Russian words had become very popular: Prestroika and Glasnost.
Appeals to support Ukraine started in earnest on social media. Putin was and is being criticized a lot for attacking the sovereignty of a country. The President of Ukraine is hailed as an inspiring leader when he stay put and told the US : I need ammunition not a ride.
But what was still puzzling for me was why did Putin attack Ukraine. This was the information I gathered:
It wasn't as if he woke up one morning and decided to go to war. Obviously a lot has been brewing over the years. Roughly there are 3 major issues involved.
1. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline to transport energy from Russia to Germany directly. It started in 2011, but was fraught with controversies as the US was not for it. Understandably as that would make EU more dependent on Russia which was going to send almost 30% of energy requirements. Trump had shut down the project and then Biden opened it. Only to shut it down again when Russia attacked Ukraine. The timing seems quite significant
2. The NATO : This organization was set up after the World wars to protect the interests of European countries & US against USSR. After USSR collapsed, it ought to have disbanded but it wasn't. Instead it started to expand it operations bringing in more countries. For a country to become a member of the NATO, it should have a certain number of arms which of course has to be bought from the US so that they have a flourishing business in arms trade.
Putin had asked to become a member of NATO but was refused. Old enmity hadn't ended. Every attempt of his to engage in diplomacy and talks was spurned or not met with reciprocation.
(Ref: 1.The Jimmy Dore show : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mffCvWZujWA&t=1363s
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X7Ng75e5gQ Vladimir Pozner: How the West created Putin)
3. The more serious one is the Donbas in Eastern Ukraine which is more pro-Russia. In year 2014 a democratically elected pro-Russian government was taken over by a coup. The support to dislodge that government was said to be provided by the US. This led to frequent fighting between the pro- Western group which is now in power in Ukraine and the stronghold of the pro-Russian group in Donbas. So some people question why the killings in Donbas since past 8 years went unnoticed, while now the attack on Ukraine is getting center stage attention.
So obviously there is more to this war than what the pro-Western media would like us to believe.
It is good to know different perceptions. It is also important that we realize that these our perceptions and may not be the complete truth. What is sad is that common people suffer.
As the Buddha said: Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred (love) alone is hatred appeased. This is law Eternal.
It is probably too idealistic to wish for such sentiments to be shared by world leaders.
Greed seems to still drive people: greed for power, wealth, predatory conquest over other countries. China is looking for water and wants to capture the Indian Ocean. And it is endless. We have gained immeasurable knowledge and technologically advanced as a society. Wisdom is what we still need to develop in ourselves. Only that would make the world a better place.
