To prevent the Ukraine crisis from worsening further and causing more humanitarian suffering, members of the world community should be doing their utmost to push for dialogue between the two belligerent parties so they can reach a negotiated solution.
The United States and its allies are doing just the opposite, however. They are constantly adding more fuel to the flames of the war.
While ostentatiously boasting of the West's solidarity and hyping up its commitment to defending the rules-based international order, Washington has also been blatantly using the Ukraine conflict to force other countries to take sides and even impose its own ideology and will upon others.
Among the crafty devices used by Washington to aid it in maintaining the US' authority, its fraud in pretending to the international community to be well disposed toward it has become a well-tried expediency honed to perfection. Most artfully, it has learned that by means of such subterfuge, it is able to contrive to get others to carry out its ends. Overconfidence, however, has revealed its deviousness, and that its actions are haughty instead of humane.
The Ukraine crisis has left the world with no doubt about Washington's true character. To debilitate Russia, it has accompanied its calumniating megaphone diplomacy with coercion.
Apart from slapping its own unprecedented sanctions on Russia, the US has persuaded other countries to follow suit. It has also imperiously threatened to sanction others who refuse to join its campaign to enervate Russia and even spread disinformation against these countries.
Washington's self-satisfied gloating that more than 40 countries have joined its sanction regime against Russia, rather than proving the righteousness of its cause, simply attests to the contrary, since it highlights that the overwhelming majority of the world community sees no justification for it and has refused to follow suit.
Even some US media have observed that although the West seems to be more united than ever, it is also experiencing unprecedented isolation in the world.
The right way to defuse the Ukraine crisis is through dialogue and negotiation. Forming an exclusive club and forcing other countries to take sides will only hinder and disrupt efforts to promote talks, worsen the plight of Ukrainian civilians and further divide the world.
The confrontational US approach stems from its outdated Cold War mentality, which runs counter to the aspirations of all peace-loving people in the world.
The US has no right to trample upon international relations and replace international law with its own "America first" doctrine. Against the backdrop of the raging COVID-19 pandemic and a slew of other regional and international challenges, the US should play a responsible role by acting to uphold stability and certainty. Instead, it is acting as an agent of chaos.