If you ask me if I care about Putin, my answer will be no. If you ask me if I care about Obama, my answer will still be no. If you ask me ‘Do you care about Cameron?’ – I guess you know what the answer to that question is.

The reason for my blatant disregard for most political leaders nowadays is because having witnessed the numerous crises that have unfolded before me over the last two years and the overall response to them by the international community, I question the integrity, and more importantly the motives, of our leaders on both sides of the political spectrum, on both sides of the ocean and on both sides of the hemisphere – the West and the East. As the song goes- ‘Now I see your true colours shining through…’ – well depicting the current frustration at the way the political leaders of today have forgotten about the value of human life in the states in which they are desperate to intervene for whatever motive (land claim on historical basis, imposition of democracy, the ‘war on terror’, amid many others). After all, why bother? You are not elected by them and you are not required to safeguard them, as they are not technically subjects under your jurisdiction.

The problem that I find when assessing the recent crises in Ukraine and Syria is that we tend to extensively analyse and try to grasp things such as Putin’s strategy in Syria or Obama’s stance on Ukraine or Britain’s willingness to intervene militarily in Syria but we forget about the consequences these have on the people living in Ukraine and Syria. I don’t believe that our leaders are held accountable enough for the damage that they cause to the societies and civilians that they target when they decide to intervene in the affairs of a foreign country. Are the sanctions imposed by the international community on Putin’s regime really having an effect in changing his stance on Ukraine or are these measures hurting the average Russian household significantly more? Are Obama’s apologies for the accidental bombing of a hospital in Afghanistan by the US military enough to compensate for the distraught this has caused? I think that both of these questions can be answered with a resounding no.

A pretext is used to claim that interventions or invasions are designed to uphold certain established values within the international community, or as a means of halting an expansion of an entity that poses a threat to national security. But we must focus on the people that live in these countries. It is their state. It is for them to rightfully and lawfully decide how they want their country run. It is for them we must create a sense of security if our leaders decide to intervene rather than create a mess and completely destroy the concept of safety for them for generations. So I ask Putin, Obama, Cameron and all world leaders, when you devise your foreign policy and strategy, how much do you take into consideration the needs and wants of the civilian populations of your target countries? Or is it merely a question of what is of interest to you?

Author: Nikita Ganin