The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Since 70 years ago the arms race between the USA and Soviet Russia began to spread like wildfire. The Cold War’s battlefield was forged by smaller proxy wars funded by either Washington DC or Moscow; but this has resulted in massive genocides that has killed over a hundred million lives, and destroyed dozens of nations.

The goals of Cold War-era leaders was simple: They want more power, wealth, industrial and ideological supremacy and nuclear weapons.

We’ve seen this when the Korean people had their civil war; but when the US and Soviet forces began to fund opposing factions, things went from bad to worse, and the Korean War ended on a stalemate that resulted in the creation of South Korea and North Korea. The Koreans were split in half senselessly and this was completely avoidable if the Americans and Russians had kept themselves from joining the conflict.

Instead of remaining neutral, East Germany and the rest of Eastern Europe chose to join the Warsaw Pact, and since the pact was controlled by the Soviet Union, millions of lives were lost through brutal military campaigns and political witch hunts.

The Vietnam War was simply the worst of the Cold War in a variety of ways. Mainly because, not because they nearly destroyed Vietnam while dividing it, but the long lasting effects on how foreign policy was made and how propaganda was greatly encouraged in the 1960s to today. The propaganda piece is parroting the world “Communism” from Karl Marx. In reality, Marx never wanted this and “Communism” was only a book from fiction. However, the US and Russia pushed this word while tearing apart nations during this time period.

Worst of all. The Cold War never ended after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the USSR, but has continued to kill and destroy more lives and homelands. Iran and North Korea continue this legacy while the US thinks that “Communism” remains a threat.

Today, Washington, DC, and Beijing are now trying to see who will become the number one dominant superpower.

As for The Bahamas, we must come to realise that neither superpower has any of our interests at heart.

Our Prime Ministers should have realised this reality because in The Bahamas, both Chinese and Americans are playing a tug of war with us and it’s unsustainable for the long term development of the nation.

The best way to combat this geopolitical turmoil is to become purely neutral to the US, Russia and China.

They must understand that this political tug-of-war is putting stress on this small country, and they must work for us to help Bahamians.

We can accept normal trade as long as it doesn’t involve undercutting sovereignty or pulling us into further turmoil or wars and it is about doing proper business on a national scale.

We must be completely serious with this and set ground rules with real consequences. It’s more like the Equinox Doctrine for The Bahamas to work with.

We must also develop ourselves further and establish more trade relations with normal developed nations that aren’t striving to be global superpowers.

The UK, Australia, NZ, South Korea and Japan should be our strongest allies to offset any economic downturns while we grow out of the tourism bubble that we’ve been sitting in since the Stafford Sands days.

Many Bahamians believe in a true sovereign Bahamas. Achieving Equinox with the three big superpowers is the only way to ensure that The Bahamas gains more and more sovereignty. For the bigger picture, we must also move away the dark past of the Cold War for the betterment of humanity.

AMMAKA RUSSELL

Nassau,

December 21, 2020.