Wars are only evil when Westerners are victims: Nikkei Asia

TOKYO, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Reactions to Ukraine crisis have revealed a deep-rooted Western superiority, particularly with regards to the lesser value of non-Western lives and the right to intervene in other countries, Nikkei Asia has reported.

In centuries of Western propaganda, white Westerners are portrayed as "superior, righteous, civilizing and the natural leaders of the world," and white lives are more precious, Chandran Nair, founder and CEO of Global Institute for Tomorrow, said in an opinion piece.

Noting that interventions have spanned the tragedies of the 21st century, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Yemen, he said "yet these did not elicit the pious posturing of Europeans and Americans as Russia-Ukraine has."

"The mindset remains the same: Wars are justified and tolerated if led by the West because it supposedly has a noble mission," Nair said.

Global news agencies, which are mainly Western, have great power with relation to how conflicts are understood, he said, noting during the illegal invasion of Iraq, the American soldiers were depicted as being lionized for "spreading freedom," while minimal coverage was provided on the death and destruction inflicted on hundreds of thousands of Iraqis by Western armies.

"In Ukraine, they have sought to galvanize a unified emotional response from the Western public rather than painting a complete picture of this extremely complicated issue," he said.

Western media, politicians and businesses have completely blanketed attempts to understand the events leading up to the war, especially the expansion and provocation of NATO, he said.