It is essential that we not look away. The personal cost to us of bearing witness is nothing compared to the cost to the victims. I share here the link to a Euronews piece (https://www.euronews.com/2022/04/13/protest-held-outside-tallinn-s-russian-embassy-against-women-raped-in-war) on a recent protest in front of the Russian embassy in Tallinn. It is graphic, powerful and disturbing (trigger warning for victims of rape and sexual abuse!). It was posted last night by Rebecca Solnit on her FB page, and I have hesitated to share it, but your piece today has given me fortitude, and reminded me that my sickened outrage is not only a legitimate but necessary response to this horror. At the risk of really rocking the boat, I must link the rage I feel when confronted with evidence of the systemic use of sexualized violence as a weapon of war to the news in recent days of the several states that have now moved swiftly to ban abortion, thereby forcing women to bear children against their will -- even the children of their rapists. This too is a form of sexualized violence. These terrible examples exist on a spectrum of violence perpetrated on the bodies of women.
The world is full of rapists, unfortunately. In this example, the girlfriend was more rabid than the boyfriend who showed an unsureness. Another terrible lasting mental picture is of a Ukrainian mother weeping , looking down a water filled hole where Russians had killed and left the body of her son. When the leader of Russia is a man with no morals, no ethics, one can expect his people to be encouraged and follow suit.
It should also be noted that American soldiers have been guilty of the same in time of war. Just covered up. Never sure when telling a vet I am proud of his service, I really am. Who knows?
Many have been guilty of war crimes. Few have paid the price. Look at our past president. trump is accused by 14 women of rape. Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh also accused to mention only a few. No war, but crimes indeed. How many women have killed their husbands who have brutalized them, yet, they are the ones who go to jail. Parents, especially mothers, should do a better job when raising a son.
This is sickening. I disagree only on a minor definition: War is Hell. I am deep into MASH reruns as a research topic, and I just used this interaction between Hawkeye and Father Mulcahy in this post
Hawkeye: War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.
Father Mulcahy: How do you figure, Hawkeye?
Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?
Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.
Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them - little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.
Since the introduction of the "Trump Experience, you know, a new outrage to make people forget yesterday's outrage, we have been programmed to be distracted from these things.
Civilization long ago decided it was preferable to let the monsters run wild than to try and stop them, probably because we have met the enemy and he is us. I mean if we can’t even stop a two bit pipsqueak like Putin from terrorizing the entire world…not only can’t stop him really but refuse to even try. Sanctions only hurt regular people, the Imams and Oligarchs and Despots go merrily about their way. See Cuba, Iran, etc. A bullet to the ear is the only thing they understand.
Like everything else that is going on in the world today, especially America - who is going to do anything about this? More handwringing? More passing the buck or kicking the can, to use overused metaphors? How much longer will the huge majority of common everyday folk in the world, not just America, going to get tired of oligarchs everywhere, not just in Russia? I've lived my life and it has been good - most of it, anyway, but what is my 20 year old son facing? He's smart, skeptical of everything political, but what is he going to face? An evangelical theocracy run by old white men dreaming of their father's world of white privilege and Jim Crow, a cross wreathed in the American flag is what many want to place on us. A theocracy based on the top 2% (oligarchs?) running the world. Putin is a key player in this along with strange bedfellows in the Republican Party (which really doesn't exist any more) and others who are obviously sold on the proposition that autocracy is better than democracy, i.e., freedom, no man above the law, acceptance of the dynamics of a diversified population mix that is just trying to find its way through this maze of white supremacy fanatics when in reality they are a significant minority of our population. This has never lasted in any society, especially a modern society with the communications capabilities we have that has the power, in the right hands, to circumvent the atrocity that is being put on our free society. It's time to wake up and smell the coffee (sorry, another overused metaphor)!
It is essential that we not look away. The personal cost to us of bearing witness is nothing compared to the cost to the victims. I share here the link to a Euronews piece (https://www.euronews.com/2022/04/13/protest-held-outside-tallinn-s-russian-embassy-against-women-raped-in-war) on a recent protest in front of the Russian embassy in Tallinn. It is graphic, powerful and disturbing (trigger warning for victims of rape and sexual abuse!). It was posted last night by Rebecca Solnit on her FB page, and I have hesitated to share it, but your piece today has given me fortitude, and reminded me that my sickened outrage is not only a legitimate but necessary response to this horror. At the risk of really rocking the boat, I must link the rage I feel when confronted with evidence of the systemic use of sexualized violence as a weapon of war to the news in recent days of the several states that have now moved swiftly to ban abortion, thereby forcing women to bear children against their will -- even the children of their rapists. This too is a form of sexualized violence. These terrible examples exist on a spectrum of violence perpetrated on the bodies of women.
The world is full of rapists, unfortunately. In this example, the girlfriend was more rabid than the boyfriend who showed an unsureness. Another terrible lasting mental picture is of a Ukrainian mother weeping , looking down a water filled hole where Russians had killed and left the body of her son. When the leader of Russia is a man with no morals, no ethics, one can expect his people to be encouraged and follow suit.
It should also be noted that American soldiers have been guilty of the same in time of war. Just covered up. Never sure when telling a vet I am proud of his service, I really am. Who knows?
Many have been guilty of war crimes. Few have paid the price. Look at our past president. trump is accused by 14 women of rape. Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh also accused to mention only a few. No war, but crimes indeed. How many women have killed their husbands who have brutalized them, yet, they are the ones who go to jail. Parents, especially mothers, should do a better job when raising a son.
This is sickening. I disagree only on a minor definition: War is Hell. I am deep into MASH reruns as a research topic, and I just used this interaction between Hawkeye and Father Mulcahy in this post
https://riclexel.substack.com/p/open-letter-to-gen-x-6-controversial?s=w
Hawkeye: War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.
Father Mulcahy: How do you figure, Hawkeye?
Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?
Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.
Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them - little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.
Since the introduction of the "Trump Experience, you know, a new outrage to make people forget yesterday's outrage, we have been programmed to be distracted from these things.
Civilization long ago decided it was preferable to let the monsters run wild than to try and stop them, probably because we have met the enemy and he is us. I mean if we can’t even stop a two bit pipsqueak like Putin from terrorizing the entire world…not only can’t stop him really but refuse to even try. Sanctions only hurt regular people, the Imams and Oligarchs and Despots go merrily about their way. See Cuba, Iran, etc. A bullet to the ear is the only thing they understand.
Like everything else that is going on in the world today, especially America - who is going to do anything about this? More handwringing? More passing the buck or kicking the can, to use overused metaphors? How much longer will the huge majority of common everyday folk in the world, not just America, going to get tired of oligarchs everywhere, not just in Russia? I've lived my life and it has been good - most of it, anyway, but what is my 20 year old son facing? He's smart, skeptical of everything political, but what is he going to face? An evangelical theocracy run by old white men dreaming of their father's world of white privilege and Jim Crow, a cross wreathed in the American flag is what many want to place on us. A theocracy based on the top 2% (oligarchs?) running the world. Putin is a key player in this along with strange bedfellows in the Republican Party (which really doesn't exist any more) and others who are obviously sold on the proposition that autocracy is better than democracy, i.e., freedom, no man above the law, acceptance of the dynamics of a diversified population mix that is just trying to find its way through this maze of white supremacy fanatics when in reality they are a significant minority of our population. This has never lasted in any society, especially a modern society with the communications capabilities we have that has the power, in the right hands, to circumvent the atrocity that is being put on our free society. It's time to wake up and smell the coffee (sorry, another overused metaphor)!