The Third World War!

FILE - In this March 10, 2011, file photo, then Vice President Joe Biden, left, shakes hands with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia. President Joe Biden will hold a summit with Vladimir Putin next month in Geneva, a face-to-face meeting between the two leaders that comes amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Russia in the first months of the Biden administration. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Make no mistake about it: the third world war is here with us! The difference between the previous global-wide military conflicts and the current one being staged grotesquely in Ukraine is perhaps found in its proxy nature. Ever since the dictator of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, decided to invade Ukraine ten months ago in late February the world has inched closer to a global conflict which could include nuclear arsenal. The third world war is getting ever closer as international relations deteriorate with power-drunk leaders hell-bent on fostering their inordinate political ambition.

And testing their massive military armoury including nuclear war-heads. With the Ukraine/Russian open catastrophic conflict the world is now a more dangerous place to live in. The Russian narcissistic dictator has been compared to Adolf Hitler of the second world war fame but there is a striking difference between the two.

While the suicided Hitler was a strongman from powerful rich Germany Putin is leading a relatively poor country in Europe with arms acquisition as the ‘trophy’ of development. Hitler was more circumspect of history and his role in shaping the global order according to his dictatorial whims and caprices. Though he was more murderous in his military misadventure Putin is inching closer to surpassing Hitler’s heartlessness and satanic inclination.

Yet comparing Putin with Hitler could be seen as ridiculous if not ludicrous. For one, the late Hitler was a popular leader of a rich powerful European country. Putin does not possess the resources to prosecute a world war and come out victorious or alive. Russia cannot be said to be as rich and sophisticated militarily as Germany during the second Reich.

For another Putin is manipulative and divisive at home and abroad. Hitler was a veteran politician who knew what he wanted and played a populist politics to meet those challenges.

Hitler was as arrogant as Putin but the former’s dictatorship was backed by nationalism. Putin stiffles opposing views; today no opposition activities are allowed in Russia! Alexei Navalny is still in detention. And high-profile opposition figures had been taken out, even abroad, by poisoning!

Putin has acted with impunity in Ukraine and elsewhere before. Emboldened by his nuclear stockpile, Satan I and II, the Kremlin demented tyrant is as dangerous as ever. Since coming to power in the year 2000 Putin has never hidden his inordinate ambitions. Before his emergence in Russia as imperial President Russia had had moderate effective leaders like the late Boris Yeltsin. And Mikhail Gorbachev before him.

We have had wars on a global scope and scale before. History has it that World War I, also known as the Great War, involving over 30 nations, began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria during a royal visit to Sarajevo in June of that year. The victory of the Allied Forces led to the dismemberment of the German Empire.

By the early part of 1939 the late German dictator, Adolf Hitler, had become determined to invade and occupy Poland. So he sent in German troops to invade the country triggering the second World War. Following the invasion Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3. Among the estimated 45-60 million people killed were 6 million Jews murdered in Nazi concentration camps as part of Hitler’s diabolical ‘Final Solution’ now known as the Holocaust.

World Wars I and II brought about death and destruction on a global scale. It even led to the US dropping two atomic bombs on two Japanese cities! Compared with today the two previous global conflicts were fought with less sophisticated weapons of mass destruction. Besides, then there was no Internet, Android phones and coloured television. Cyber warfare or terrorism was never in the minds of the late leaders that fought the wars.

Early August last year at a U.N. conference on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in New York City the U.N. Secretary-General, António Guterres, had lamented the existential nuclear threat to humanity. According to the world’s top diplomat: “Today, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation”. Just one foolish mistake and the world may be exterminated.

With Putin acting irresponsibly and tyrannically, boasting of hundreds of nuclear warheads in his rich arsenal, the world is hanging precariously on a precipice. But the truth of the matter is that in the event of a full-drawn nuclear conflict between Russia and NATO Putin would be finally demystified. He stands no chance in hell of defeating the omnipotent trans-atlantic military superpower.

We are all living dangerously! The proliferation of nuclear weapons across the world has made the world a much worse place to live in. Rogue terrorist states like Iran and North Korea are supplying deadly drones to Putin and the Kremlin dictator is using them to destroy vital infrastructures in Ukraine.

World War III is here! And Ukraine is representing the majority of the free world against Russia and its allies like North Korea and Iran. And China to some extent.

When the so-called ‘Special Military Operation’ began early last year little did we know that the war would snowball into a catastrophic long-drawn conflict involving nations and mercenaries. Today, close to a year down the perilous line, casualties are still being counted in thousands and material damages in billions of Dollars.

A battery of sanctions have been imposed on Russia but those sanctions (however effective) have not deterred Putin from pursuing his murderous terrorist cause. Almost every nation (including Nigeria, of course) is affected by the consequences of the Russia/Ukraine war. Due to the war there are shortages of food and gas. And prices of the same have skyrocketed forcing leaders to plan ahead.

President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, even at the best of times, had laid the blame for his failure on something or somebody — past PDP leaders, COVID-19 etc. And now the Putin exported war to Ukraine provides another ground for him to justify his administrative shortcomings.

The war in Ukraine has since gone global on account of the huge military and financial aid being generously extended across the borders to Kiev. Since Russia happened to be the aggressor than international solidarity is pouring in in terms of fiscal and armament donations. Led by the US, the modern sophisticated weapons emanating from many countries have become the game changer.

Recently during the new year festivities the Ukrainian armed forces scored a big hit. A deadly missile strike using the American supplied HIMARS weapon hit a Russian camp in Makiivka. As the smoke cleared hundreds of Russian soldiers lay dead and hundreds more wounded! Buildings and military hardware were destroyed!

In the end, no matter the months or years it takes, Putin must be defeated militarily in Ukraine. And losing the war would ensure that his military capacity is degraded and his ability to threaten his neighbours in the future curtailed. If he wins then the world must come to terms with the spectre of a more dangerous Hitler looking out for more opportunities to inflict pain and suffering on nations or peoples against his dictatorship.

Vladimir Putin may be gunning for a heroic military exploit in Ukraine but he will surely meet his comeuppance. If he wants to make name for himself like Hitler or Mussolini then he must be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice and pay the suicidal price.

 

SOC Okenwa
soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr

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