Have the US and NATO been sanctioned for starting wars in Europe and other regions of the world?

The reaction of the West to the Russian military operation in Ukraine has exposed its double standards and «high degree of hypocrisy», considering that the wars waged by the US abroad never received the punitive response they deserved, criticizes the American journalist Robert Bridge in an opinion article.

Events in Ukraine have shown that Washington and its allies are capable of destroying countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, among others, with «almost total impunity», while Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin are being lynched in almost all the media everywhere, writes the journalist.

Bridge recalls that Russia has been warning of NATO expansion for more than a decade, but not only were its concerns met with predictable «contempt», but the Atlantic Alliance continued to expand into Eastern Europe. «Imagine what Washington’s reaction would be if Moscow were building a continuously expanding military bloc in South America», he wrote.

«Arrogance and indifference»

Moscow’s patience ended when Washington and NATO «began to flood neighboring Ukraine with a dazzling array of sophisticated weaponry, amid calls for membership in the military bloc». For Russia, Ukraine «was beginning to represent an existential threat». In December 2021, in a last attempt to prevent escalation, Moscow «delivered draft treaties to the US and the Atlantic Alliance requesting that they stop military expansion», but «once again» those proposals were received «with arrogance and indifference by the Western leaders”, criticizes the author of the article.

Robert Bridge recalls that in the last two decades Washington and «its henchmen» have had a «belligerent behavior». The «most notorious example of this is the invasion of Iraq in 2003. That disastrous war that the Western media has described as an unfortunate ‘intelligence failure’ represents one of the most heinous acts of unprovoked aggression in recent memory», denounces Bridge.

Washington accused Saddam Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction, and «instead of working with UN weapons inspectors, who were in Iraq trying to verify those allegations, the US, along with the UK, Australia and Poland launched a massive bombardment […] In the blink of an eye, more than a million innocent Iraqis were killed, wounded or had to leave their country due to this flagrant violation of international law”, he recalls.

More than 900 lies from the US Government

It was later revealed that the then-US President George W. Bush and other top officials in his administration made more than 900 false statements between 2001 and 2003 in their «effort to bolster public support for the carnage» in Iraq. But, somehow, the Western media, which have become the most energetic proliferators of military aggression, did not doubt the arguments presented for the war”, said the journalist.

For all that, “it could be expected that the US and its allies would be subject to severe sanctions. In fact, there were sanctions, but not against Washington. Ironically, the only sanctions that resulted from this crazy military adventure were against France, which, along with Germany, refused to participate in the Iraqi bloodbath. The global hyperpower (the US) is not used to such rejection, especially from its so-called friends», he asserts.

“Regardless of what one person may think about the conflict now raging between Russia and Ukraine, there is no denying that the hypocrisy and double standards leveled against Moscow by his perennial critics is as shocking as it is predictable”. Bridge laments that in addition to the sanctions imposed against Russia, there has been a «deeply disturbing effort to silence» the Russian press, which could give the Western public the option to see the other side of the conflict.

Bridge considers that what the US and its allies are doing is «so reckless, that it leaves no room for debate, for discussion, nor room to see Russia’s position in this extremely complex situation». «Unless the West is looking for the outbreak of World War III, it would be advisable to stop the horrible hypocrisy and double standards against Moscow and patiently listen to its opinions and versions of the facts», he concluded.