Ukraine shows how nationalism creates and sustains wars

It took the rest of the world less than a year to look for sensational news outside Ukraine. When the war first thundered across the Russian border, not 12 months back, people trembled everywhere in fear and rage. A splurge of meat grinder battles shocked the world and we, in India, on top of everything else, were worried sick about our students landlocked in Ukraine and unable to leave. All that seems distant now. The war out there is still in Ukraine but not any longer as if at our doorstep; it’s far from home for most of us. People still die, bombs still rain down but all of that seems quite routine, sad as an afterthought, but that’s about it. Just as one, in routine, dies alone, so also, as a war drags on, one is also killed alone and becomes a number. Our threshold of tolerance for the death of others goes up with dazzling speed which allows merchants and brokers of war to go on as if it’s just business. Initially, Europe worried about how energy supplies to their homes and factories would be impacted, but not that much anymore. Ambassador Manjeev Singh Puri, of Ananta Centre, has recently brought to our notice how Germany and other neighbouring countries, after some throat clearing, found alternative sources to purchase oil, trimmed their sails and carry on, more or less, as usual. Before the war, EU depended on Russia for as much as 40% of its LNG supply, but today it’s below 10%. Further, he argues, EU countries, from Germany to Italy to Poland have, separately and deliberately, realigned their policies to present a more hostile front against Russia. medium98159323With that settled, now the war can go on forever. Zelensky has found his calling and edged out the wonder of the chrysalis-to-butterfly metamorphosis with his own from comedian to king. He is feted everywhere he goes in his just-came-from-a-streetfight outfit to heighten Ukraine’s knuckleduster scrappiness. It didn’t take long for armament producers in Nato countries to wake up and smell the cordite. It’s not just Germany and France that are bulking up their arms production but the Czech Republic and Poland too. Poland now says it will spend as much as 4% of its GDP on arms and defence. The road to war is paved with gold. This practically leaves nobody crying in the corner but the mothers of combatants and civilians who have died and are dying. From May to August of 2022, Russia hardly gained territory after its initial strides in March of the same year. From September to November, Ukrainian forces took back east of Kharkiv and Kherson. Kherson was won back by Ukrainian forces primarily by the ingenious use of US-provided Himars precision rocket system. The Americans too are happy in contributing to what is for them yet another proxy war. Zaporizhzhia has been cursed by a ding dong battle but Ukraine has, according to the New York Times, recaptured 54% of the land the Russians had occupied since the war began. Kyiv has remained outside Russian control and, by all accounts, territorial gains and losses, on both sides, are at a standstill. The war is still happening but its handbrakes are on. Notwithstanding all of that, there are still random bomb attacks and troop clashes which kill people for no apparent reason. It is as if the motions of war must be kept alive to save face. So, what if a few die in this meaningless charade? The show must go on even though the stars have left the stage and the stands are empty. Wars are always tragic but when they enter a steady state, as in Ukraine, human casualties become statistical. Still, nationalism refuses to die and wars are its natural consequence. Einstein believed that nationalism was an infantile disease, like measles, as it was so easy to catch. Unlike measles, however, nationalism refuses to go, and the Ukraine war is a good example of that (like many others in the near past). Unlike measles again, where there is a prophylactic that science has found against it, when it comes to nationalism, science gears up to keep it going with armament production, smarter missiles, deadlier tanks and bombs. It is not as if Ukraine is a unique event. We have had wars after wars and, time after time, attempts at peace have never worked out. The United Nations was set up with that specific purpose as one of its charters but selling this mandate in the General Assembly is the equivalent of hawking the Bible to a gathering of atheists. Nationalisms belittle the UN repeatedly which then responds with lengthy reports replete with high phrases and tergiversations to win back some credibility. The pen has never been weaker – for each country votes with its nationalist short-term interests, which allows arms dealers to fulfil their long-term ones. The idea of fighting wars over territory is so meaningless in today’s age when internet and laboratories dominate the financial scape. In such a setup, one is tempted to ask, what has land got to do with it? But as long as there is land and enough people to die, nationalism will create wars that will appear meaningless within no time. In the case of Ukraine, it took less than a year for the war to turn from beastly to banal.