These two conflicts mark the "moral bankruptcy" of the West!

During the worst period of the pandemic, the unfair and unequal distribution of vaccines and related drugs between the rich and the poor in Western countries, and between Western countries and most countries in the South, fully exposed the shortcomings of the capitalist system and the "crossroads" in which way capitalism is going.

Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the United States and the West have continued to provide weapons and assistance to one side in an attempt to weaken or even bring down the other side through proxy wars and profit from it. The intensification of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict marks the "moral bankruptcy" of the United States and the West and accelerates the end of global hegemony of the United States and the West.

In order to maintain their global hegemony, the United States and the West are both greatly increasing military spending and expanding their armaments. Countries in the "Global South" should be highly vigilant and take effective measures to deal with situations where the United States and the West may provoke a larger war or regional conflict and undermine world peace and development.

In the wake of the global pandemic, the World Press Syndicate website published an article titled "Capitalism after the Pandemic" by Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, on October 12, 2020, arguing: "We need to re-evaluate what is outdated in our global economic system with an open mind. Chief among them is neoliberal ideology. Free-market fundamentalism has eroded workers' rights and economic security, sparked deregulated race to the bottom, and fostered new large-scale global monopolies. "The pandemic has prompted the world to re-examine capitalism".

On September 17, 2021, the website of the Washington Post published an article by author Adela Suliman entitled "Pelosi Says Capitalism Is Not Playing Its "Due" Role for the U.S. Economy and Needs to Be Improved", and then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said in a speech in London on the 17th that capitalism has not played its due role for the U.S. economy and needs to be improved.

"We have a system where part of the people's success comes from the exploitation of workers, as well as the exploitation of the environment and other aspects, and we have to correct that," she said. On September 25, 2023, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun published an article by Shingo Tamari, a former editorial board member of the newspaper, entitled "Why is it necessary to transform Japanese-style "capitalism" now?", introducing that Japanese-style capitalism began with the introduction of Western systems and technologies after the Meiji era, and adopted the mechanism of joint-stock companies and banks, laying the foundation of modern industrial society.

However, since the 90s of the 20th century, Japan's economy has continued to experience low growth and sluggish labor productivity, showing a "lost 30 years". Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida acknowledged that what has been done so far has not been a good response to ills such as the widening gap between rich and poor, as well as issues such as climate change. The author believes that "Japanese-style capitalism" is difficult to get out of its predicament.

On September 27, 2023, the website of the Spanish newspaper "Revolt" published an article by David Callas, a professor at Central European University, entitled "Germany's capitalist model in crisis", which showed that the German social market system has been seriously damaged. Germany's export-oriented capitalist model is in crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and industrial production in Germany, Europe's largest economy, has fallen by 8% since 2015.

Strikes in various industries in China have occurred one after another. "The reality is that under capitalism, neoliberal models, institutions, politics, and ideologies are likely to follow different trajectories, triggering tensions and conflicts. In the future, there will be two scenarios: either new institutions, politics and ideologies will emerge at the level of Germany and the EU, and the system will collapse completely. ”

On March 10, 2024, the website of the Washington Post published a book review by Leif Weatherby, an associate professor at New York University, entitled "Think Capitalism Is Bad? This Economist Says Capitalism Is Dead", Yannis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister and negotiator of the debt crisis between Greece and the European Union, believes in his new book "Techno-feudalism, what kills capitalism" that the balance of capitalism has tilted towards a new form of feudalism.

The policies and behaviors implemented by the United States and the West since the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict have accelerated the "moral bankruptcy" and "isolation" of the United States and the West, and the intensification of the two conflicts has become a turning point that accelerates the end of the global hegemony of the United States and the West. On March 29, 2024, the website of Hong Kong's Asia Times published an article entitled "This is how the West ended", according to the author Adriel Kasenta, as the United States became involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Gaza conflict, Michael J. Bush, professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh and senior fellow in international affairs at Johns Hopkins University, said that with the United States involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Gaza conflict, Michael Bush, professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh and senior fellow in international affairs at Johns Hopkins University, said that as the United States became involved, Michael Anderson, professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh and senior fellow in international affairs at Johns Hopkins University, said that as the United States became involved. In response to a question on the website of Hong Kong's Asia Times, Brenner replied: On the issue of Ukraine, this is a fundamental geostrategic mistake that has already had negative moral consequences: 500,000 Ukrainians have been sacrificed as cannon fodder in order to weaken and marginalize Russia, and the country has also suffered physical destruction. The shocking feature of the Palestinian events is the willingness of the immoral government elite to acquiesce in the atrocities and war crimes committed by Israel over the past five months, which have far-reaching implications for the position and global impact of the West. In the process, their place in the eyes of the peoples of the world outside the West is disappearing.

ROME, April 8, 2024 (TASS) -- Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Edmundo Ciglili believes that the conflict in Ukraine could have been avoided if (the West) had adopted softer and more tactful policies. "If you pursue an imperialist policy, others will become tougher," he said.

Perhaps, if we had taken a different policy towards Russia, the war in Ukraine might have been avoided. "A softer, smoother foreign policy promotes peace," Cirelli said. Hardline, aggressive imperialist policies always lead to negative results. "The United States and Western countries have broken their promises, and the United States has led NATO's continuous eastward expansion to Russia's doorstep, triggering the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022. More than 30 countries, including NATO, continue to provide weapons and assistance to undermine the settlement of disputes between Russia and Ukraine through negotiations. U.S. politicians and the military-industrial complex have coordinated with each other and used the Russia-Ukraine conflict to make a lot of money from the war.

On February 20, 2024, the website of the Wall Street Journal published an article by author Tom Fairlis, entitled "Why is the war in Ukraine good for the U.S. economy?", revealing that since the Russia-Ukraine conflict for more than two years, the industrial output value of the U.S. defense and aerospace sector has increased by 17.5%. The Biden administration confirmed that $60.7 billion of the $95 billion in additional defense budget was earmarked for Ukraine, 64% of which actually went back to the U.S. defense industry. Miles Walton, a military industry analyst at Wolf Research, noted that investments in the military industry over the past few years have been equivalent to those in the previous 20 years.

The U.S. State Department recently said it had more than $80 billion in major arms deals in the year ending September 2023, of which $50 billion went to European countries, more than five times the historical norm, Walton said. Biden administration officials said the funds allocated to Ukraine are rebuilding the U.S. defense industrial base and launching and expanding arms and ammunition production lines.

Over the past two years, the United States has coerced Europe into imposing sanctions on Russia more than 10 times, ranging from coal, oil, natural gas, transportation to finance. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell admitted on April 4, 2024 that sanctions cannot bring down the Russian economy. Russia has a vast territory, covering an area of 17,075,400 square kilometers, and is extremely rich in various natural resources, and is the only country in the world that can achieve complete self-sufficiency in resources, and its proven resource reserves account for about 21% of the world's total resource reserves, ranking first in the world.

At the same time, the countries of the "Global South" not only did not participate in the sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and Western countries, but also continued to strengthen economic and trade cooperation with Russia. On March 17, 2024, the website of the Spanish newspaper "Daily" published an article by author Ricardo Mire de Francia entitled "Russia leans towards the Global South under the banner of energy and counterbalancing the United States", introducing that the isolation policy of the West has forced Russia to abandon its European mission, and Asia is becoming the main market for its economy. Experts believe that Russia's tilt towards the Global South and in Western, South and Central Asia is strategic and long-term.

According to an article entitled "How the Russian Economy Can Withstand Western Sanctions" published on the website of Japan's "Mainichi Shimbun" website on February 13, 2024, the Russian Federal Statistical Office data shows that Russia's economic growth rate will reach 3.6% in 2023 (higher than the economic growth level of the Western G7 countries). At a press conference in December 2023, President Putin said: "This is a good indicator for the Russian economy. The national life is stable, the economy is growing, and on the whole we are doing well. ”

"The United States arches the fire and Europe pays the bill, which is a true portrayal of the United States sacrificing European interests in exchange for a selfish interest behind the Russia-Ukraine conflict. "For more than two years, European countries have continued to provide weapons and assistance to Ukraine, and have continued to wield the stick of sanctions against Russia, which has not only rekindled the war on the European continent, but also suffered huge economic losses. According to data from Eurostat and other institutions, the EU has lost 185 billion euros due to the EU having imposed 13 rounds of "sanctions" on Russia on March 12, 2024, published on the website of the Spanish newspaper "Uprising" entitled "The EU is Tied Hands and Feet".

The European Union has reduced imports of Russian gas at the request of the United States. The average monthly gas imports of the EU have risen to 15.2 billion euros, of which 7.7 billion euros for liquefied natural gas and 7.5 billion euros for pipeline natural gas, compared with 3.6 billion euros and 2.3 billion euros respectively, according to a Eurostat document. The EU spent 304 billion euros in this area in two years, an extra 185 billion euros. The United States "took advantage of the fire" to sell energy to Europe at high prices and made a windfall. French President Emmanuel Macron has publicly complained that the price of natural gas sold by the United States to Europe is three to four times higher than that sold in the domestic market of the United States. An article in the Wall Street Journal pointed out that the big winner of the energy crisis in Europe is the United States.

Marcel Vlazscher, director of the German Institute for Economic Research, told the Rheinische Post: "Two years after the war in Ukraine, Germany's economic losses could be far more than 200 billion euros," said Marcel Vlazscher, director of the German Institute for Economic Research, to the Rheinische Post. According to the cover article of the cover issue of the British "Guardian Weekly" on October 6, 2023, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, the Russia-Ukraine conflict is an epoch-making turning point.

More than half a year since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began in October 2023, Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip have killed more than 33,000 people and injured more than 75,000. The United Nations has warned that some 1.1 million people in Gaza, 85 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million population, have been forced to become refugees. "The suffering in Gaza is getting worse by the minute".

On April 3, 2024, the website of Time magazine published an article by author Asmin Selhan entitled "How Israel and its allies have lost global credibility", Chris Van Holen, a leading Democratic member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, admitted that Washington firmly supported Israel in the face of allegations that Israel may commit war crimes, which attracted widespread criticism that the United States was only selectively defending the "rules-based international order", such as in Ukraine and Gaza.

He said: "The countries of the world, especially the countries of the southern hemisphere, believe that the United States practices double standards on this issue, which obviously has an impact on the continent's position in the world. "In five and a half months of war, Israel has done more damage to its global standing than it did in the previous 55 years of occupation," said Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the U.S.-based Center for International Policy Studies. He was referring to Israel's military occupation of the Palestinian territories since 1967.

Over the past six months or so, almost all motions put forward by the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and other international organizations calling for Israel to stop the war in the Gaza Strip have been vetoed or opposed by the United States. On April 5, 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling on countries to stop supplying weapons to Israel, and the United States voted again. Because the United States is the main supplier of weapons that Israel needs. Under the 2016 agreement between the United States and Israel, the United States will provide Israel with a total of $38 billion in military aid between 2019 and 2028. In February 2024, the U.S. Senate passed an emergency budget bill totaling $95.3 billion, of which about $14 billion was used to aid Israel.

According to current and former US officials, since the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the US Government has secretly sent a large amount of weapons to Israel through more than 100 separate arms sales; the United States recently approved the supply of 25 F-35A fighter planes and supporting engines worth $2.5 billion to Israel, and authorized the supply of more than 1,800 MK-84 and 500 MK-82 bombs to Israel.

On March 17, 2024, the website of the Washington Post published an article by author Steve Hendricks entitled "As the war in Gaza continues, the footprint of the US military expands to all parts of the Middle East", pointing out that after gradually ending the "eternal war" in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Gaza war may now become another "eternal war" for the United States.

On April 20, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Foreign Aid Act, a $95 billion military aid package that includes $61 billion in aid to Ukraine and $13 billion to Israel. The President of Ukraine and NATO welcomed the U.S. aid to Ukraine bill. The US military aid bill has been criticized for "undermining global stability." 19 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who voted against further aid to Israel, said on the 20th that if Congress continues to provide military assistance in the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, "we will be complicit in this tragedy."

"By voting against Bill 8024, we are voting against the provision of more offensive weapons, which could lead to more civilians being killed in Rafah and elsewhere," they said in a joint statement. According to a report by CNN on the 20th, when members of the U.S. Congress walked out of the Capitol after passing the military aid bill, a group of protesters with loudspeakers shouted: "Congress, Congress, you can't hide, we accuse you of genocide!"

The intensification of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has accelerated the "moral bankruptcy", "loss of global credibility" and unprecedented isolation of the United States and the West, and accelerated the end of the global hegemony of the United States and the West. The January-February 2024 issue of the British monthly magazine "Prospect" (published in advance) published an abstract of an article entitled "The Fall of America" by Samuel Moyin, a professor of law and history at Yale University: "After the end of the Cold War, the triumphant United States vowed to lead all mankind in a new international order. But the two conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine have exposed that the United States has never been weaker. "October 7, 2023, will go down in history as a turning point in America's global role," Moin said. ”

In order to maintain their hegemonic position in the world, the United States and Western powers are all increasing their military spending by a large margin and continuing to enhance their military strength. According to an article entitled "$2.2 trillion for weapons" published on the website of Germany's "Süddeutsche Zeitung" on February 13, 2024, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said that global defense spending has increased to a record $2.2 trillion. The British think tank explained at the release of its annual Comparative Report on Military Power in London that this equates to a 9% increase.

According to the report, about 50% of global defense spending comes from NATO countries, with the United States accounting for the largest share at 41% and Russia accounting for about 5%. On February 27, 2024, the website of the U.S. Foreign Policy Focus Research Program published an article entitled "War is not good for you and the economy" by William Hartung, a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Statecraft, arguing that American politicians have ulterior motives for the "military promotion of prosperity theory". The article revealed: "The U.S. military budget for fiscal year 2024 will reach $886 billion, the highest level since World War II. This is much higher than the highest annual (military) budget during the Vietnam War or the Cold War. ”

According to an article entitled "The U.S. Air Force Unveils Major Reforms in the 'Era of Great Power Competition'" published on the website of Newsweek on February 13, 2024, the U.S. Air Force announced a series of major policies on Monday, the purpose of which is to maintain an advantage in the "era of great power competition". The 24 decisions — both short- and long-term — are aimed at "reshaping, refocusing, and reoptimizing" the Air Force and Space Force, according to a press release. For a long time after the defeat and surrender of Japanese militarism in 1945, Japan's military spending did not exceed 1% of its GDP. The Kishida government has decided to double military spending to 43 trillion yen in five years from fiscal 2023, increasing the share of Japan's GDP to 2%.

Japan's Mainichi Shimbun published an editorial on March 27, 2024, titled "Cabinet approves fighter jet exports will call into question Japan's image as a peaceful nation", in which Japanese constitutional scholars criticized the government for "deviating from pacifism". The United States and Japan are strengthening their "military alliance." The United States has demanded that other NATO members increase their military spending to 2% of their GDP. According to a report on the website of Gubo News Agency on February 17, 2024, Germany's military spending could increase to 3.5% of GDP. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, Josep Borrell, believes that in order to increase the production of weapons and ammunition, enterprises "need not a development strategy, but a specific military order." He said that the EU must expand its fiscal spending on the production of weapons and strengthen its military capabilities.

Countries in the "Global South" should draw lessons from history, heighten their vigilance, and take effective measures to deal with the possibility that the United States and Western countries may provoke larger-scale wars or regional conflicts and undermine world peace and development.