Christopher Black: Ominous War Escalation Because US-Led NATO Hell-Bent Against Diplomatic Solution

The United States and its NATO allies are calling for war crimes prosecutions against Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders over the conflict in Ukraine.

Respected international defense lawyer Christopher Black says this criminalization of Russia is aimed at preventing any diplomatic or political solution to the crisis. That means the war is set to escalate further.

The relentless supply of weapons to Ukraine by the United States and its NATO partners in conjunction with calls to prosecute Russia for war crimes is a sure sign that the Western powers are not willing or capable of finding a peaceful settlement.

The war in Ukraine erupted last February after months of diplomatic efforts by Russia seeking a long-term security treaty with NATO were rejected out of hand by Washington and its European allies. Moscow had warned that it would not tolerate an expansion of NATO into Ukraine and the weaponizing of an anti-Russian regime in Kiev since 2014. The regime was brought to power by a CIA-backed illegal coup against an elected president who was friendly towards Moscow.

Those appeals by Moscow for a long-term security treaty were dismissed by NATO, and the conflict was made inevitable.

After a year of war and hundreds of thousands dead, plus global repercussions of economic poverty as well as increasing danger of a nuclear conflagration, the NATO powers have shown absolutely no inclination to find a diplomatic solution.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is the latest Western politician calling for the setting up of a war crimes tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders.

Christopher Black says this is rank hypocrisy from NATO powers who have waged illegal wars for decades with impunity. He also says that the calls serve a propaganda function of confusing the Western public into thinking that the war in Ukraine is a “good one” to “defend democracy” against “Russian aggression” when the reality is that the war is only part of a bigger geopolitical struggle for US global dominance against Russia and China.

The United States and its European NATO allies want the war to continue as long as possible because it is providing super profits for the military-industrial complex that lies at the heart of Western capitalism. Arms exports by the US are up by 50 per cent year-on-year due to the war in Ukraine. Lockheed Martin is itching to sell its F-16s fighter jets in addition to HIMARS missiles and Javelin anti-tank rockets on the back of news that the United States, Germany and other NATO powers have broken the taboo about supplying battlefield tanks.

The politicization of international law to augment Washington’s imperial objectives is a well-worn tactic. We have seen the same process used in former Yugoslavia, Iraq and elsewhere where prosecution of enemies is a cynical attempt to obliterate genuine diplomacy and peace. If Western powers can’t win on the battlefield, they try to win in the courts, with special thanks to the assistance of their propaganda news media.

If Western powers were genuinely motivated by principles of justice then their leaders should be first to be put on trial for their countless crimes against humanity.