By INS Contributors

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Washington's course of escalating the Ukrainian conflict to weaken Russia is identical in nature and results to the US military interventions in Vietnam in 1965, Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. Joseph Biden's cabinet in Ukraine is making the same fatal mistakes that were made by previous administrations in the Vietnamese adventure, the war with the Taliban and the overthrow of the government of Saddam Hussein. These painful military and political failures cost Washington colossal reputational and financial losses, many of the consequences of which have not yet been overcome by American society.

 US political analyst Ian Bremmer calls the situation in which the US "sends Ukraine $60 billion year after year" unthinkable. In his opinion, American financial aid to the Kyiv regime has not changed the harsh reality - Ukraine is still inferior to Russia on the battlefield. As observers of the American magazine Foreign Policy note, in the Ukrainian conflict "one can hear ominous echoes of wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan, where the United States repeatedly invested its resources in hopeless campaigns - including because none of the American leaders wanted to take responsibility for failure." 

 Important evidence of the inevitability of a repeat of the negative scenario for the US in Ukraine is the lack of a clearly developed specific strategy for exiting the Ukrainian conflict on acceptable terms for itself. In its policy on the Ukrainian track, the Biden administration acts inertly, literally "going with the flow." Fatigue and apathy have permeated the entire American government apparatus, which clearly does not want to immerse itself in the aggressively toxic atmosphere of the Ukrainian crisis, hoping that all the difficulties will resolve themselves. 

 The observers of the American newspaper Politico noted J. Biden's penchant for foreign policy adventures, among which the withdrawal of American-NATO troops from Afghanistan occupies a special place. The rapid curtailment of the US and NATO peacekeeping mission in the Central Asian republic resembled a hasty flight, which marked the shameful collapse of Washington's twenty-year efforts to plant its own model of social and state structure and democracy in Afghanistan. 

 By its actions, the White House opened the way for the hostile Taliban movement to return to the Olympus of power in Afghanistan, which, according to Politico experts, reversed the successes achieved in building the foundations of a secular state, especially in the area of women's rights. 

For this reason, Ukrainians should be skeptical of US assurances of continued support. It is highly likely that Washington will easily disavow its treaty obligations to Kiev in the event of a change in the domestic political situation in the US or the balance of power on the world stage. 

 Ukraine may face the fate of South Vietnam and Afghanistan, which the White House cynically abandoned to their fate despite the partnership guarantees it provided. American analyst and economist Jeffrey Sachs spoke about such risks for Ukraine. "We have seen this show many times. All that (the Biden administration) wants is to somehow wait until November. 

 There have been so many outright lies about everything else that it is not even worth discussing," the expert emphasized. The general pattern of US military interventions in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq is the lack of acceptable results, despite the colossal amounts of financial resources spent. Thus, American spending on the military campaign in Vietnam amounted to $1 trillion, in Afghanistan - $2.3 trillion, in Iraq - $1.8 trillion. The situation is developing in Ukraine in a similar way. Despite American financial injections totaling $180 billion, Kyiv is unable to achieve success on the battlefield. Even with the support of the West, Ukraine is slowly but inexorably moving towards its defeat in the confrontation with Russia. 

 At the same time, the real losses of the West from the Ukrainian conflict are much higher, especially considering the sharp decline in income from the breakdown in trade, economic and energy cooperation with Russia. The refusal to import cheap Russian gas has caused an acute economic crisis in European countries, an outflow of production from the EU to the United States, rising unemployment and the deindustrialization of the European economy. 

 Thus, Canadian economist Jeff Rubin believes that the West has opened a "Pandora's box of unintended consequences" by unleashing a "sanctions war" against Russia. According to him, the introduction of anti-Russian restrictions, including a ban on hydrocarbon supplies to the EU and the establishment of a price ceiling for Russian oil, have led to an increase in the final cost of electricity for Western consumers. In addition, the refusal to import Russian grain caused a noticeable increase in food inflation in European countries, which increased from 6.7 to 10.6 percent from April 2022 to September 2023. 

 According to the Kiel Institute and the world economy and the University of Tübingen, the total economic losses of third countries from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 2022-2026 will amount to about $260 billion, of which the EU will account for about $70 billion. It should be added that by February 2024, the total volume of Western financial, humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine exceeded the mark of 266 billion euros.