“One intriguing question about the application of proxy war is it seeks to legitimize the supply of arms and equipment to countries without directly committing its own troops to the theater of operation.”
The US is the only country that today refuses to openly fight a country perceived to be its enemy.
Instead, it resorts to attacking countries in what is understood today as “proxy war.”
The theory about this type of war has become most familiar, especially among great powers whose ambition goes beyond protecting their interest and expanding their control and influence in areas traditionally known as imperialism.
A proxy war, as we all know, is the ramification of another type of war.
In a sense, the protagonists do not really engage themselves in combat over a contested area. Rather, they allow other countries to fight their cause in the guise of protecting or securing their interest.
What justifies the possibility of a proxy war is the defense of territorial sovereignty preceded by an alliance based on the commonality of ideology, historical roots, religion, geographical necessity as the case of landlocked states.
Notably, countries that seek to promote proxy war are:
First, countries that will be strategically affected by geographic change of boundaries.
Second, that the alliance could endanger the security of one like Ukraine possible joining NATO.
Third, to make that country a dumping ground for the sale of US weapons, and as added outlet to its sale of its products like LNG (Liquefied natural gas)
Hence, urging Ukraine to join NATO could cut short the Russian-China eastward expansion through Trans-Asia and addressing the fear of the US that it will be overwhelmed by expansion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the diversification of Russia’s pipeline towards the east.
Unconsciously, this follows the theory formulated by Halford Mackinder which states that “whoever controls the Heartland, controls the world.”
Ambition to control heartland is deeply imbedded in the mind of US policy makers, particularly the neoliberal ambition to expand the North Atlantic goaded by that longing to destroy Russia.
Western strategic plan is to cut Russia in the Black Sea, it being its only outlet to the Mediterranean.
Such plan would require most of Eastern Europe to join the Western Alliance.
The US then orchestrated a relentless campaign for the two former Soviet Republics, Ukraine and Georgia, to join NATO despite the stern warning from Russia not to proceed.
In 2008, Georgia, through its New York-educated lawyer, began to annex two of its separatist provinces that wanted to remain apart from Georgia.
Russia was compelled to come to the rescue of the two separatist provinces.
The same separatist agitation was done such that it resulted in the massacre of native Ukrainians by known neo-Nazi agitated by US neoliberals.
Initially, this led to the ouster of that country’s democratically elected president Viktor Yanukovych.
Several indigenous Russians living in Ukraine were assassinated, murdered, and openly discriminated against.
Even the Russia language which stands as that country’s second language was banned.
Russian broadcast and publication were prohibited until after Russia decided to put an end to the spate of killings in February 2021.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the latter annexed the native Russians living in “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.”
Although NATO has deferred membership of Ukraine for fear of provoking Russia into war with the West, it sought to redefine US and allied involvement by becoming out with the concept of waging a proxy war with Russia.
This means that NATO led by the US can continue to supply Ukraine with arms to sustain the conflict. As US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said, “the purpose of the proxy war is to weaken Russia.”
One intriguing question about the application of proxy war is it seeks to legitimize the supply of arms and equipment to countries without directly committing its own troops to the theater operation.
Second, proxy war legitimizes the destruction and the lives and property in that state.
Third, the state that supports the proxy war is able to entrench its own resources to allow it to exercise some kind of hegemonistic guardian/guarantor without incurring obligation of contributing its own troops to the combat zone.
The Western alliance and Russia too suffer for allowing the situation to turn ugly.
The US and NATO both are restrained from sending arms and weapons that could inflict and/or reach area like Russia or Belarus.
NATO troops and combatants are not supposed to participate in any military operations.
This means both Russia and NATO tremble in igniting Third World War.
Captured soldiers in the combat zone cannot avail themselves of the rights as POW under the Geneva Convention.
Rather, all persons captured and falling under this category can be outrightly called “mercenaries” and do not enjoy the rights of being called prisoners of war (POW).
Any future exchange of prisoners is purely at the mercy of the contracting parties.
It is under this concept that parties not actually involved in the conflict are free to define the terms of the conflict.
The US and most NATO members are free to send in any weapon of their choice without feeling any liability.
They even feel free to train soldiers of the combatant state as Ukraine, feeling that it remains off-limits to retaliation.
The blasting of Nord Stream pipelines was terrorism because the destruction caused destruction to people that consume imported liquefied natural gas from Russia. Besides, the pipeline was in no danger to the lives of people.
The US always emphasize its imposition of economic sanctions against Russia.
Several sanctions have been slapped against Russia including its expulsion from the Swift system currency exchange system or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, legally S.W.I.F.T.
Swift is a Belgian cooperative society providing services related to the execution of financial transactions and payments between banks worldwide.
The US and its allies virtually violated the Swift system because the US refuse to give virtually no reason why Russia has to suspended.
No state can move to suspend a member country like Russia like what the West did to suspend Russia on the basis of political and ideological differences.
Yet for the all the economic prescription recommended by the US-dominated World Bank, many of its recommendations have lately been faltering that they have contributed much to weaken the US dollar as the world’s universal medium of exchange.
Many countries are now contemplating to shift to other forms of currency like the convertibility of the Chinese yuan and Russian Ruble as part of other countries’ currency exchange.
These are indicators that the US dollar has been weakened.
To this day, nobody has pointed the blame on Russia although US reconnaissance aircraft were seen flying around the area of the explosion.
Feeling the US would be able to get away with the sabotage, Russia accused Ukraine’s SBU of waging terrorism after it blasted the Kerch Bridge linking Russia to Crimea last October 10, 2022.
It believed three persons were responsible who destroyed half of the span to make the lane unserviceable to traffic.
President Putin considered the targeting of bridge used to supply energy, power plants, hospitals and depot as blatant act of terrorism.
Russia sees the two acts of sabotage carried out by Ukraine and some of its Western allies as an attempt to qualitatively change the dimension of warfare.
The decision by the Russian special military operations was in response to this change in the tempo warfare.
In less than two days after the bridge was blown off, the whole of Ukraine, including its capital city of Kiev, was pounded by thousands of precision-guided missiles.
As usual, the US and its western allies joined in accusing Russia of “barbaric brutality” for indiscriminately raining explosives on that country.
US narratives always begin why the US must involve itself in proxy war; accordingly, Ukraine’s territorial integrity was violated and needed to be redressed.
They always begin by accusing Russia of aggression but never mentions anything like the massacre of Russian inhabitants living in the eastern region of Ukraine, and always talks of US democracy without explaining to the world it has virtually imposed a total clampdown on world news by its control of the social media.