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The West’s final loss of principles and orientations

Author: Christopher Kenneth Section: Editorials

Issue: September 2013, Vol. 9

Tags: Snowden

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Key events of the recent past has disclosed disturbing evidences that the West, and more specifically, the EU states, once seen as the bastion of democratic values, are dangerously tilting into a collective spineless entity devoid of any values, and in some cases, including their even self-respect and sovereignties.

The current Edward Snowden drama is a case in point. Western leaders have not even fully understood what happened. A young man that put his neck on line to tell the whole the truth of unprecedented espionage by the US against not only own citizens, but also against lawful citizens of other sovereign countries cannot get asylum in Europe, once the haven for people seeking safety from antihuman regimes across the globe.

The recent unprecedented coordinated closure, against all conventions and civilized norms, of the EU airspace against Evo Morales’ presidential jet means the West has thrown international laws to the winds. The fact that the EU states involved in the “shameful act” have publicly displayed their limited sovereignty, a reality long perceived by the rest of the world seeing Europe consciously and repeatedly playing “a second fiddle” to its once colonial outpost, is an issue for their citizens to deliberate upon.

Equally disturbing is the unprecedented docile position of the ordinary US/EU citizens and indeed the rest world, whose collective rights are being single-handedly defended by Snowden. The conspicuous absence of multimillion protesters on US/EU streets and embassies in foreign countries sharply contrasts with past cases, when people had marched in millions to protest against their governments’ excessiveness against citizens and foreign countries.

The fact that EU has not been able to come up with a statement condemning the US’ illegal spying against its Europeans, embassies and businesses, even on its soil, is another telling point, an unambiguous confirmation of the EU’s status as a “toothless” bulldog. The US must have acted in such a brazen manner with this knowledge in mind, and hence, has not indicated willingness, nor is it in any hurry to express apologies for such brazen denigration of its allies’ sovereignties.

Let’s image, for a second, that such “dirty espionage” was carried out by, say, Russia, China or any of the so-called developing countries, such as Nigeria or Brazil; or by the so-called “axis-of-evil” states, such as Iran or North Korea? One could hardly gain rest from the uproars that would have come Washington, Ontario, Berlin, Paris, Brussels and London and the US’ other similar satellite states across the globe, such as Tokyo and Seoul. A raft of emergency sessions would have been held in Brussels and UN, calling for devastating sanctions against such perpetrators.

The Snowden case has unequivocally shown that the EU and other states, which have willingly delegated their sovereignties to Washington, can only act against small and powerless countries. But when the US is involved, these cronies are not only cold-footed, but are even ready to put whatever is left of their sovereignties and collective self-respect on the golden alter of allegiance to its master, the world’s only de-facto remaining superpower.

Even China and Russia, seen as forces equaled to the US on the geopolitical arena, as shown by their regular vetoes at UN against questionable Washington-backed resolutions, cannot fully stand up to the White House on this issue. Up till it is not clear why Beijing, instead of shielding Snowden on its soil, allowed him to leave for Russia. Also, the Kremlin’s shaky decision to grant Snowden an asylum on condition that he stops divulging the information at his disposal runs counter to all dissentism theories and even common logic. It is the readiness and willingness to divulge this information and remains free and safe that had forced Snowden to be seeking an asylum in the first place.

Over the years, Russia has had several of dissidents harbored by the West. However, I’ve yet to find a single case or a thread of evidence that any of those Soviet/Russian dissidents was placed under an official gag order as demanded by the Kremlin. Quite the contrary, most of the Soviet, and later Russian, dissidents were officially and openly provided with “all the necessary propaganda resources” by the West to directly attack the USSR/Russia in all ramifications and without any restrictions.

In the Snowden issue, only the leftist Latam states have the pride and self-esteem as sovereign entities to stand defiant of the US’s arm-twisting stance. Their recent collective decision to recall their ambassadors from the disgraced EU states that banned Morales’ jet on their airspaces are examples of “really toothy bulldog” in modern geopolitics. Having the willingness to act as deemed fit, not only against powerless Davids, but also against the bullying Goliaths, is a dying trait in Europe. But the Latam states have shown that this is a quality worth fighting for by all means possible. The Fidel Castro’s disciples have become the global custodian of moral, political and social orientations on key global issues relating to the US, where the EU has, expectedly and as usual, developed cold feet at the most critical moment.

Just as the Muslim Brotherhood has now become the custodian of democracy in Egypt, against the background of the West’s largely muted and/or even overt support of the coup d’etat in Cairo. The issue of President Morsy ouster by the Egyptian military, irrespective of the goals that motivated such armed intervention, is a blow to democracy by all traditional definitions of this term.

But against all known traditional conventions, the West, again shifting its moral and political compasses, has not even called this event a coup. With Washington ostentatiously inactive, the EU’s impassivity on the issue was a foregone conclusion. However, its support and even justification of the coup on humanitarian grounds and other questionable values, as had been done by Ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is a new phenomenon, indicating that the West is ready to tolerate military’s dabbling in politics of other states, if the set goals also serve its interests. Again, here, as was the Latam in the Snowden case, only the African Union has so far demonstrated the political audacity not only to call “a spade a spade,” but also the guts to ban Cairo’s membership in the union.

Now I’m always completely confused whenever I switch on CNN and hear/see the Muslim Brotherhood reciting the tenets of democracy, the importance of observation of the rule of law, legitimacy of Morsi’s regime, the need to respect elected offices and the overwhelming need to protect them by all possible means. This is because such laudable golden words used to come from Washington, London, Paris, but this now no longer seems to be the case.

All these and other similar issues point to the West as an entity lost in globalization of economies and politics and evolution of moral values. If it continues this behavior, its overall role in the world will continue to diminish at astronomical rates. Just as it is longer the pacesetter in global economy, thanks to China’s rising might, so will it lose its other positions on key issues of global importance, where fair leadership is needed.