March 16, 2024 (EIRNS)—An op-ed in the March 15 RT by Dr. Tarik Cyril Amar headlined “Western Troops in Ukraine; How a Big Lie Could Lead to the Biggest War,” presents a cogent and useful argument:
“We are at a potential breaking-point, a crisis of that long-term trajectory. If the pragmatists in EU/NATO-Europe really want to contain the extremists, who play with triggering an open war between Russia and NATO that would devastate at least Europe, then they must now come clean and, finally, abandon the common, ideological, and entirely unrealistic narrative about an existential threat from Moscow.
“As long as the pragmatists dare not challenge the escalationists on how to principally understand the causes of the current catastrophe, the extremists will always have the advantage of consistency: Their policies are foolish, wastefully unnecessary, and extremely risky. And yet, they follow from what the West has made itself believe. It is high time to break that spell of self-hypnosis, and face facts.”
Amar has a PhD in history from Princeton, a Masters from the LSE, and a B.A. from Oxford University; he taught at Columbia University, and is now a professor at Koç University, Istanbul. He describes himself as anti-fascist and anti-Zionist, and promotes “free Palestine and Assange.”
Amar’s op-ed in RT discusses French President Emmanuel Macron’s latest provocative proposal to put NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine, commenting: “Regarding Macron himself, too-clever-by-half, counter-productive cunning is his style. We cannot know what exactly he is trying to do; and he may not know himself.… Whatever Macron thinks he is doing, it is extremely dangerous.”
“First, Russia now clearly has the upper hand on the battlefield,” Amar continued. “Second, notwithstanding the above, Ukraine is not yet ready to ask for negotiations to end the war on terms acceptable to Russia.… And last but not least, the Russian political system’s popular legitimacy and effective control has neither collapsed nor even frayed.… In other words, the West is facing not only Ukraine’s probable defeat, but also its own strategic failure… In fact, this looming Western failure is a historic debacle in the making…. Instead of isolating Russia, the West has isolated itself.”
Amar wrote that not everyone in the West shares the Macron flight-forward approach. “Western elites are split between `pragmatists’ and `extremists.’ The pragmatists are as Russophobic and strategically misguided as the extremists, but they do shy away from World War Three. Yet these pragmatists, who seek to resist hard-core escalationists and reign in at least high-risk gamblers, are brought up short against a crippling contradiction in their own position and messaging: As of now, they still share the same delusional narrative with the extremists.”
