When Russia announced the discovery of 26 bio-laboratories in Ukraine and said these were aided and operated by the US Department of Defense, many astute observers globally would naturally have realized that the United States was back at its old game.
Instead of answering questions about those laboratories, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was quick to dismiss the allegation by the Russian defense ministry’s spokesperson, Major General Igor Konashenkov, and claimed that Russia was preparing a false flag operation to intensify its propaganda war against the US.
It has to be emphasized that the US military’s bioresearch in Ukraine, or any other country, violates the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention or BTWC.
It is notable that the Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, commented that the US is using its usual “playbook” — similar to its invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria — when Washington was caught flat-footed while peddling lies to justify its hegemonistic ambitions.
Historically, the US has consistently violated the agreements under the Geneva Convention against the use of chemical and biological weapons.
During the 1950s war in the Korean Peninsula, the US extensively used these weapons. Robert Leckie, the author of the book, History of the Korean War, 1950-1953, has revealed how the US airdropped cannisters of biological pathogens to infect thousands of Korean and Chinese soldiers and civilians.
During the Vietnam War — which ended with the fall of Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City) on April 30, 1975 — the US used a mixture of herbicides to defoliate large parts of the Southeast Asian nation.
These chemicals which were sprayed by low-flying aircraft, to destroy forests and food crops, caused huge suffering, including miscarriages, skin diseases and cancers.
Hundreds of thousands continue to suffer the painful trauma and disfigurements brought on by the indiscriminate use of these chemicals. The US Department of Defense settled out of court an amount of $180 million to compensate the victims of these chemical attacks.
In March 2003, US forces invaded Iraq on the pretext that the country’s then president Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Saddam, a one-time ally of the US, was sacrificed at the altar of US unilateralism. It was the biggest lie of the US to justify the slaughter of more than a million Iraqis.
The same can be said during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. NATO erased the country from the map during nearly 80 days of continuous bombings, the heaviest in decades, which was done without any UN authorization. To date, the US refuses to admit these actions for fear it could be held responsible for war crimes.
It was during the Iraq War that the US first introduced the use of depleted uranium. Although it was used to make bullets, depleted uranium is a dense metal that is a by-product of enriched natural uranium, used as fuel in nuclear reactors.
Depleted uranium, which is used to make armor-piercing shells and bombs, is banned by most countries. Yet, the US uses these projectiles indiscriminately, similar to its use of napalm during the Vietnam War. The use of napalm against civilians was prohibited by the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in 1980.
Colin Powell, the late US secretary of state, will be forever remembered for showing a “tube” before the UN general assembly session and claiming that it contained so-called WMD. His aim was to convince the UN to authorize the bombing and invasion of Iraq by the US and its allies. As the US later proceeded to bomb the country without UN approval, the general remained silent about his WMD claim.
Some say the Iraq War set a precedent for NATO to violate international law and invade a sovereign nation without UN approval. During that war, the US also arbitrarily detained suspects in relation to the alleged plot to fly aircraft into the Twin Towers in New York.
Some people have claimed that the buildings were brought down in a controlled demolition, but the claims were never properly investigated by US officials and mainstream media.
Meanwhile, most suspects allegedly involved in the demolition of the Twin Towers were detained and tortured at the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, only to be later released as their involvement in the plot could not be proven.
For long the entire US officialdom and media seem to have treated the rest of the world as lacking in intelligence, blatantly trumpeting Pentagon’s allegations and denials as the only truth. These days the world sees through these claims more clearly.
Instead of accusing Russia of preparing for a false flag operation, the US government should not only prove its claims, but also account for its involvement in pathogen research efforts at biological labs in Ukraine and other countries.
US officials have blatantly evaded punishment for the wrongs that they have committed and often denied their use of otherwise prohibited weaponry. And in 2001, the US unilaterally withdrew from negotiations on a BTWC protocol, according to which an independent body, the “Technical Secretariat”, would be set up to monitor microbiological research activities of all countries.
However, people around the world cannot be fooled forever. The US would serve itself as well as the international community better if it stops its military bioresearch activities inside and outside its borders, repents its wrongs if not convicted crimes, and observes international law in earnest.
The author is a Manila-based political analyst and columnist with the Manila Standard.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.