President Biden labeled Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” over atrocities committed by Russian soldiers in Bucha. That has serious implications for ending the war.
I can't help but think that the US Gov't leaders will also be facing war crimes for wars they have waged against Afghanistan and Iraq and for enablling the war crimes of their ally, Israel. which they have shielded by 52 vetoes in the Security Council since 1948. The ICC is investigating the bombing of Gaza in 2021 as a war crime.
We are all Bosnian. We are all Ukrainians. We are all human beings. We are all related. The military of every country trains its soldiers to deny this reality. The only way we can kill another is to first lose our empathy and be blind to the fact that our so-called enemies are us. No madman can succeed in his bloodlust, unless there are others willing to carry out his agenda.
This is a sad truth, J. That that dehumanization, it happens gradually, even if the violent consequences happen all at once. When you listen to the rhetoric on the right about the left, it's taking a very dehumanizing tone, and I fear what the consequences of that could be.
We wring our hands over how cruel people can be to one another using weapons designed to kill one another, and what seems to get overlooked is that we also accept the manufacture of these weapons as just how it should be. Human beings can be convinced by their leaders that it's okay to go to war and kill people who aren't of the same tribe. And Capitalism tips its hat to the weapons manufacturers and dealers, the US being one of them who make this possible. Some states' tax base are also dependent on the manufacture of those weapons. And many people benefit from the manufacture and sale of them. People who are actually making these weapons and selling them, go through some kind of mental gymnastics so as to not see how they are culpable as well for the suffering caused by these weapons. How is it that there so many of us who can deny their contributions to the horrors of war? There's something a little or a lot sociopathic in all of this. As long as we accept that this is just another part of free enterprise, going to war will be a viable option for leaders, especially autocrats.
It’s also extremely disturbing to me that Poland is welcoming Ukrainian refugees with open arms, yet closed their borders to Syrian and other (mostly Muslim) refugees.
None of this would've happened if the US government hadn't supported nazi groups during the cold war and after the fall of the Soviet Union. For examples the Gehlen Organization, Operation Gladio, and Operation Paperclip.
I can't help but think that the US Gov't leaders will also be facing war crimes for wars they have waged against Afghanistan and Iraq and for enablling the war crimes of their ally, Israel. which they have shielded by 52 vetoes in the Security Council since 1948. The ICC is investigating the bombing of Gaza in 2021 as a war crime.
We are all Bosnian. We are all Ukrainians. We are all human beings. We are all related. The military of every country trains its soldiers to deny this reality. The only way we can kill another is to first lose our empathy and be blind to the fact that our so-called enemies are us. No madman can succeed in his bloodlust, unless there are others willing to carry out his agenda.
This is a sad truth, J. That that dehumanization, it happens gradually, even if the violent consequences happen all at once. When you listen to the rhetoric on the right about the left, it's taking a very dehumanizing tone, and I fear what the consequences of that could be.
We wring our hands over how cruel people can be to one another using weapons designed to kill one another, and what seems to get overlooked is that we also accept the manufacture of these weapons as just how it should be. Human beings can be convinced by their leaders that it's okay to go to war and kill people who aren't of the same tribe. And Capitalism tips its hat to the weapons manufacturers and dealers, the US being one of them who make this possible. Some states' tax base are also dependent on the manufacture of those weapons. And many people benefit from the manufacture and sale of them. People who are actually making these weapons and selling them, go through some kind of mental gymnastics so as to not see how they are culpable as well for the suffering caused by these weapons. How is it that there so many of us who can deny their contributions to the horrors of war? There's something a little or a lot sociopathic in all of this. As long as we accept that this is just another part of free enterprise, going to war will be a viable option for leaders, especially autocrats.
It’s also extremely disturbing to me that Poland is welcoming Ukrainian refugees with open arms, yet closed their borders to Syrian and other (mostly Muslim) refugees.
Speaking of the war in Bosnia I recommend this movie:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savior_(film)
None of this would've happened if the US government hadn't supported nazi groups during the cold war and after the fall of the Soviet Union. For examples the Gehlen Organization, Operation Gladio, and Operation Paperclip.
I'm not intimately familiar with this history, Mauricio--but our government certainly has a terrible history of supporting horrible actors.
Paperclip was the program snagging those scientists. Both the US and USSR tried to snag "valuable" Germans after WW2 for our own scientific advances.
Gladio was anti-leftist and Gehlen did directly utilize Nazis.
But I have a hard time seeing the thread that those program (dasterdly as they were) are directly leading to a Putin invasion of Ukraine.