Bigger than Russia and Ukraine:
Nations realigning in what will become war to end all wars!
by Naba’a Muhammad, Brian E. Muhammad and William P. Muhammad
The Final Call @TheFinalCall
While the United States tried to engage and cajole China into not helping ease Russian pain felt as a result of sanctions and international condemnation for Vladimir Putin’s invasion and destruction of neighboring Ukraine, there is a bigger question: How will the U.S. fare in a world where her dominance is being challenged by shifting alliances and rebellion against U.S. desires?
The way forward portends more conflict and wider war as nations seek to create their own future and as forces move politically, economically and in line with scripture.
The most notable alignment is with Russia and China, but other nations, such as Iran, Brazil, India and even some African countries are seeking new relationships.
Some are tired of U.S. and the West’s dominance; others are fed up with sanctions America imposes at will.
In Ukraine, Russia declared her security was at stake given broken promises by Western nations not to expand the NATO alliance. Even those who condemn Mr. Putin’s horrific war concede the security questions are real.
While America marshalled much of the world to isolate Russia, some nations want to keep doing business and others want to stay neutral.
An Indian government official said March 17 that New Delhi committed to purchase three million barrels of oil from Russia at a discount.
Germany, an American ally, has continued to buy Russian oil, which is banned in the U.S.
China has declared she is neutral concerning the conflict and was one of 35 nations refraining from condemning Russia during a United Nations vote in March.
Of those abstaining from going along with the America-led vote were 17 African nations.
“This is really a moment when we can see some serious—if not massive—but noticeable shifts in some balances of power,” said Eugene Puryear, activist and host of the BreakThrough News Podcast. He sees possible blowback as nations seek to protect themselves from America’s coercive use of sanctions in the future. He believes countries will begin to separate their global trading from the U.S. dollar and opt for alternatives.
Two power blocs are emerging on the world stage—a Russia-China axis and a U.S.-Europe axis, Mr. Puryear said.
As the world’s top military and economic power, America has often been a global bully, using strongarm tactics to force countries to comply to her foreign policy wishes.
Many nations want to find a way to chart their own course and not be forced to choose sides. “I think the question becomes, how possible is that?” Mr. Puryear asked. “To what extent, especially would the United States punish people for being willing to work with Russia and China?”
Global conflict looms
“A war between an invading Russian force and Ukraine will be catastrophic, and will destabilize the international order,” argued columnist Bill Kaplan, in a piece headlined “Biden, Putin, Ukraine and Armageddon and published at WisOpinion.com.
“Moreover, the Russian threat is a calamitous provocation in the nuclear age. Russia has 6,257 nuclear warheads, and the U.S. has 5,500 (Arms Control Association),” he noted. And, Mr. Kaplan added, “the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis almost spiraled out of control, to the brink of Armageddon. And some U.S. politicians are acting like mad hatters.
Mississippi GOP Senator Roger Wicker said: ‘We don’t rule out first use (of) nuclear action.’ Wisconsin GOP Representative Mike Gallagher urged sending U.S. troops to Ukraine: ‘I think it puts Russia on the defensive. And, if nothing else Russia knows that it would be a massive escalation if they are going against U.S. forces on the ground.’ Gallagher’s tripwire could instigate a wider war,” warned the columnist.
Pat Robertson is among evangelical preachers who have tied Mr. Putin’s actions to the prophesized biblical war of Armageddon.
The televangelist has argued Russia’s president was “compelled by God” to invade Ukraine. “Robertson claimed that Putin was simply following God’s wishes when Russia invaded Ukraine—to fulfill a biblical prophecy,” the Washington Post noted. Mr. Roberson came out of retirement for the 700 Club broadcast where he made his statement.
Mr. Robertson told viewers, “I think you can say, well, Putin’s out of his mind. Yes, maybe so. … But at the same time, he’s being compelled by God. He went into the Ukraine, but that wasn’t his goal. His goal was to move against Israel, ultimately.”
Citing the book of Ezekiel, Mr. Robertson argued “nations will come together to rise up against Israel, suggesting that Ukraine is merely a ‘staging ground’ for an eventual Armageddon battle.”
“God is getting ready to do something amazing,” he said, according to the Post. “And that will be fulfilled.”
Ukrainian President Zelensky warned that if attempts to negotiate an agreement with Russia fail, a third world war looms.
Speaking March 20 with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, the Ukrainian political leader said, “Unfortunately, our dignity is not going to preserve the lives, so I think that we have to do any format, any chance, so in order to have … the possibility of talking to Putin. But if these attempts fail, that would mean … a third world war,” according to The Hill.
The fall of Mariupol, the scene of some of the war’s worst suffering, would mark a major battlefield advance for the Russians, who are largely bogged down outside major cities more than three weeks into the biggest land invasion in Europe since World War II.
Russia’s number of dead and wounded in Ukraine is nearing the 10 percent benchmark of diminished combat effectiveness, said Dmitry Gorenburg, a researcher on Russia’s security at the Virginia-based CNA think tank. The reported battlefield deaths of four Russian generals—out of an estimated 20 in the fight—signal impaired command, Mr. Gorenburg said.
Russia would need 800,000 troops—almost equal to its entire active-duty military—to control Ukraine long-term in the face of armed opposition, said Michael Clarke, former head of the British-based Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank.
“Unless the Russians intend to be completely genocidal—they could flatten all the major cities, and Ukrainians will rise up against Russian occupation—there will be just constant guerrilla war,” predicted Mr. Clarke.
Ukraine and Russia have held several rounds of negotiations aimed at ending the conflict but remain divided over several issues, with Moscow pressing for its neighbor’s demilitarization and Kyiv demanding security guarantees.
Wider suffering and war profits
Ajamu Baraka, national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace told The Final Call, Blacks should see Ukraine as part of the same U.S. economic agenda that has driven conflicts worldwide with devastating impacts in Africa.
There is a double standard in handling Ukraine and European places because they involved White folks, he stated. “It’s absurd for Africans to be caught up in that kind of drama,” Mr. Baraka added.
He pointed out that wars America started are raging in Ethiopia, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, notwithstanding African governments recently overthrown by U.S. Africa Command-trained military leaders.
We can’t get caught up in this singular focus on Ukraine that White folks are into, cautioned Mr. Baraka.
Neither should Blacks be “protecting democracy” by paying higher gas prices, higher food prices, higher rents and engaging in greater struggle, said activists. “We have a Black Caucus that has not championed the call for reparations. The demand for reparations has reenergized over the years and clearly because of systemic racism, our communities are still deprived. We still have housing and food insecurities, sub-par education, and so many other issues,” observed Kofi Ademola, an adult mentor and co-founder of the Chicago-based youth organization Good Kids, Bad City.
Looking at the devastation happening in Ukraine, it “puts the spotlight on the inequity of violence that Black people have experienced in this country,” he added.
The Ukraine invasion impacted Americans at the gas pump, causing gas to rise significantly. Across the United States, the cost of gas per gallon ranges from $4.69-$5.85, as listed on GasBuddy.com.
The cost of U.S. crude oil jumped to its highest level since 2008 in March, while the price of wheat, for which Ukraine and Russia account for 30 percent of global exports, reached a record high. Ukraine produces 16 percent of the world’s corn and 12 percent of its wheat, as well as being a significant exporter of barley and rye. That could mean even higher prices for bread and food.
“I’m thankful for publications like The Final Call, which highlight Black voices and highlight the constant contradictions of America. Our taxes fuel one of the biggest military budgets in the world,” Mr. Ademola said.
Before Russia’s invasion, America sent Ukraine $650 million in armaments and then another $350 million in military aid at the start of the war. Although President Joe Biden pledged no American boots on the ground, within a $1.5 trillion spending bill approved by Congress was $13.6 billion more in military and humanitarian aid. On March 16, Mr. Biden added another $800 million in weapons. Pro-peace advocates said the high price tag is wrong-headed spending.
“I think it certainly reflects the priorities of the U.S. government. That they can just turn on a dime and provide billions of dollars to war and militarism,” observed Mr. Puryear. “The $800 million; it’s the draining of resources from the community.”
While the critical needs for poor and working people like public housing, childcare, and higher education deteriorate, Congress is expected to pass America’s largest military budget of nearly $800 billion this year.
The war is a bonanza for weapons companies. Raytheon makes the Stinger missiles, and partnering with Lockheed Martin, makes the Javelin anti-tank missiles supplied to the Ukrainians by America and Estonia. Both Lockheed and Raytheon shares shot up nearly 16 percent and 3 percent respectively since the invasion.
“It’s really a real immoral circle of enrichment,” Mr. Puryear said.
With bipartisan support, President Biden signed into law a trillion-dollar spending bill with nearly $14 billion for Ukraine hours before its president delivered a March 16 virtual address to the U.S. Congress demanding that Russia end its war against the former Soviet republic.
Lindsay Koshgarian, director of the National Priorities Project at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies, said in a recent essay on CommonDreams.org, “The U.S. military budget is already larger than the next 11 countries combined—and more than 12 times larger than Russia’s.”
According to a March 10 NBC News report, investment banking giant, Goldman Sachs, is profiting off of Russian sanctions by acting as a broker between Moscow’s creditors and U.S. hedge funds. The report further stated that taking advantage of Russia’s war-crippled economy, through acquiring their debt securities at bargain-basement prices through an intentional loophole, makes selling them at higher prices later not only possible, but legal under the current sanctions’ regime.
“There is nothing illegal about brokering Russian debt trades,” the news report stated. “In fact, the Biden administration gave investment firms a green light to trade in Russian assets.”
The eternal leader of the Nation of Islam, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, said in his landmark book, “The Fall of America,” that the best way to instigate conflict is to issue threats while brandishing weapons. Calling for peace when your intentions show otherwise is a recipe for a war that will end all war, he warned.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered a near five-hour presentation Feb. 27 at Saviours’ Day 2022 in Chicago at Mosque Maryam and the National Center of the Nation of Islam. His address was titled “The Swan Song.”
He warned that the war in Ukraine would draw the United States in and the final result would be the breaking of U.S. and Russian power. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said U.S. soldiers would go away in the thousands and come back in the tens, added Min. Farrakhan.
“Have you been reading the news? Russia struck Ukraine. What does that mean? It means the war to end all wars has started,” the Minister warned. “Do you know how the War of Armageddon starts? It starts with a Messenger of God teaching people the truth. Then people fall on either side; if you disbelieve the truth then you will continue in your way.”
“The liars are so thick that you can tell the truth and the truth does not seem to move the lie. Do you know why? Because the forces that uphold the lie are upholding the lie with their power. So, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, my teacher, said that means that it has to be physically removed. It is about to happen,” the Minister continued.
“Everywhere on the earth people are crying out for justice. Everywhere on the earth it is getting rough for those in leadership,” said Min. Farrakhan. “This is not the real war. But it is showing you that Russia does not care about what America says. They are treating President Biden with all the power of America like a weakling.”
(Shawntell Muhammad and the Associated Press contributed to this report.)
