The West has been preaching ex-cathedra as the “leader of the free world,” and how superior their values have been as long as the history can recall. It’s arguable whether the values of the occident is superior to the Orient or Global South. Nevertheless, the achievements make a compelling argument.
With the conclusion of World War II, the world tried to create a new era of peace and prosperity. Even with a few hiccups we made it through the Cold War and broke out to a new world order under the aegis of the United States.
As admirable as this peaceful endeavor may be, the saccharine illusion of peace made us forget the immutable law of nature: The survival of the fittest. That the strong conquers the weak - vae victis! It’s not like that law was suspended, not for a second. It was merely shrouded and sugarcoated by terms like democracy and “values.” The international law only applies to the weak but not to the strong. Invading Iraq, violating the sovereignty of Afghanistan and Pakistan, annexing Crimea and waging war against Ukraine only prove this point. For there’s always a pretext and there always has been an excuse since the old times.
The interesting part is that cultures that claim moral superiority are either revealed to be hypocrites or are shackled by the same values which hinder a favorable outcome in the sense of material gains. The defeat in Vietnam resulted mostly due to the dwindling support of the population at home and most certainly not due to the lack of firepower. It’s not hard to nuke a country, poison wells, or raze cities. Of course, it could turn into an arduous guerilla war with “insurgents” hiding in tunnels. We’ve seen this in Vietnam, in the Middle East (Turkey’s fight against the PKK, the war in Afghanistan and now, eventually, Israel vs. HAMAS) or even in Latin America with the FARC rebels. But in each case, none of the parties opted for a scorched earth approach.
It’s inevitable that the lost territory in Ukraine won’t come back under Ukraine’s control again. Just like the oil fields are under the tight grip of the United States. But Russia’s approach is slightly different than the U.S. modus operandi. Instead of trying to control territories with a puppet government, Russia wants to seize the lands. While this scratches Russia’s reputation on the stage of politics it comes with the benefit of actually controlling the territories. Furthermore, it’s also very likely that China is going to invade Taiwan at some point. Because we’ve seen that the West is only ready to defend its values with words and financial and material support but not with human lives. The outcry of the public would be deafening when the first U.S. soldiers come back in body bags trying to defend Ukraine - a country that’s not a NATO member. The (rightful) selfishness of our moral construct will be the reason why the peace created by the Occident is fragile and the house of cards is going to crumble when China invades Taiwan.
That being said, I don’t condone fighting for Ukraine, or any non-ally (i.e. member of NATO or EU), because there’s no merit for us. It’s still bothering me a lot that we keep babbling about morals when it’s obvious that we cannot enforce them worldwide.