I have been a bit under the weather this weekend, so I will be briefer than usual. But I felt it was important to not delay in noting the massacre in Bucha, Ukraine, provide some background on the International Criminal Court, and underline the need for action in response to these abhorrent war crimes. The issue of accountability continues to be front and center, not only in confronting criminality among the powerful in America, but in addressing the crimes being perpetrated by Vladimir Putin’s troops in Ukraine.
Sorry to hear you've been under the weather, Steven. I share your pessimism regarding holding to account those who commit war crimes. It is clear that the World Court must investigate Russia's atrocities in Ukraine. But I have no confidence that such an investigation will in fact produce charges or trials. It seems that this venerable and necessary international institution becomes so bogged down in its painfully slow process that its momentum completely disappears and years later, nothing has happened, no one has been charged much less tried. I respect the World Court in principle and see its role as necessary, but have no faith its process will amount to accountability. Besides, those horrible human beings who are capable of committing the kinds of atrocities we are seeing in Ukraine and elsewhere are not dissuaded by the threat of consequences. It is a sad commentary on humankind's capacity for sadism and destruction. The thin veneer of civilization is all-too easily shredded.
Tony Blanken, Mr. Gov't Speak, refused to call it genocide, responding only, and with the allusion of sincerity, "look, the United States is going to evaluate everything that happens." "Going to?" He couldn't say "Has and concluded that . . . " Whose feathers does he not want to ruffle?
Barbarian-a noun commonly used to define primitive people who invaded and pillaged the Romans, namely Vandals, Franks, Goths, Saxons, primarily Germanic people. The foremost ancient one was Attila the Hun, the modern one, Adolf Schickelgruber Hitler. Other familiar names apply: Lenin, Stalin, Ceausescu, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. The United States has had its barbaric acts beginning with the Indian tribes and including the My Lai massacre. All of the murders happening here in the 21st Century are barbaric, esp. school shootings. What else would you call finding a 1st grader with 6 bullet holes in her body?
Will the world continue to yield barbarians? Yes. There are evil people who step on the world stage every era. (trump!) The latest: Vladimir Putin, even more cruel and brutal than a barbarian. A savage. Dracula. Killer extraordinaire. Even if he had one human cell that contained all of its components that embraced a speck of compassion for his fellow man, he has gone to far to back up and stop.He has no interest in negotiations, sanctions. He still has China, India, even Israel that gets Russian oil, depends on Russian tourism and where Russian is the third most spoken language. Let the Russians go without McDonald's, let the oligarchs lose their zillion dollar yachts. He wouldn't give decapitated Ukranians a second thought. Putin cares only for Putin.So the question becomes, how to get rid of him? Not with American boys! Not by risking a wipe out of an American city by a nuclear bomb. It will have to be done from within. The problem with that is that he has an 80% approval rating among Russians who have been fed lies. That leaves a few also with some power who are near him, generals for instance. Perhaps there is a Claus von Stauffenberg among them who could be successful. There have been after all, a couple of lesser tyrants-Khrushchev who was less violent and repressive than Stalin, and of course , Gorbachev under whose rule, the Soviet Union ended. Yeltsin didn't work. Whoever takes over will still probably have KGB traits and leanings, and down the road might also cause turmoil, but for now, Ukraine would be saved , and the world could continue down its precarious path.
We have turned into a really wimpy, self-centered, failing society. Some of us practice 'cancel culture' while accusing everyone else of canceling them. Because they have nothing to offer society, they can only point at and work to cause the failure of others, real or imagined.
We need people to be reminded of the pictures of Europe during the latr 30's and early 40's. We have now seen them coming out of Ukraine.
Never again?
We are afraid that our life-style may be compromized if we have to fight in a war? During World War II, we were issued sramps for just about every commodity one can think of. Everything was rationed. Gasoline stamps were especially important to us. Rubber. Coffee. Sugar. Alcohol.
But we survived. We had victory gardens. We had determination. We cared for neighbors, friends, and family. We had empathy. We fought back. As Churchill quiped, the US did the right thing after exhausting the list of wrong things.
Never again?
Pacificism works only if the object of your effort is pacified. Who knows that such a highly commendable effort has ever worked? When madmen reach this level of behavior, they are insatiable. I doubt that anything is going on in Ukrain that Putin does not know about. He is not mis-informed, since he controls the media. He has not shut down his own sources. He counts his military and everyone around him as disposable.
Never again?
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Our fear of another world war or the use of nuclear weapons is enabling Putin. It is time to call out these people who call themselves 'patriots' while they support Putin. It is time to call out Putin and his threat to use nuclear weapons. He has already had his thugs go to Chernoble and play in those nuclear ashes, while nobody is provoking him. He gives his army carte blanche while they are in Ukraine, to rob, rape, steal, and destroy. How high does the body count have to go before we face reality?
"Never Again." A good slogan. A good sound byte. However it is useless to repeat it while we wave the white flag of surrender.
Oh yeah. We had those who supported Hitler and Fascism. They are still here.
What a statement this is--to be so pessimistic that justice will be done. You're so not alone with that thought. But if there will be no accountability for these atrocities, how the hell do we teach our children right from wrong or that there are consequences for these such actions. Just who are the moral and justice role models if not us? It's a frustrating and beyond words heartbreaking situation. Peace and power to the people of Ukraine. They keep going. They must.
I, for one, am optimistic on the outcome of Russia being severely punished for what they are doing. Bear in mind that the Russian army is made up of mercenaries, not soldiers. The generals themselves are being killed in action. It's chaotic no matter how you look at it. Chaos breeds mistakes. This conflict is going to make the world leaders rethink how we envision our future.
Sorry to hear you've been under the weather, Steven. I share your pessimism regarding holding to account those who commit war crimes. It is clear that the World Court must investigate Russia's atrocities in Ukraine. But I have no confidence that such an investigation will in fact produce charges or trials. It seems that this venerable and necessary international institution becomes so bogged down in its painfully slow process that its momentum completely disappears and years later, nothing has happened, no one has been charged much less tried. I respect the World Court in principle and see its role as necessary, but have no faith its process will amount to accountability. Besides, those horrible human beings who are capable of committing the kinds of atrocities we are seeing in Ukraine and elsewhere are not dissuaded by the threat of consequences. It is a sad commentary on humankind's capacity for sadism and destruction. The thin veneer of civilization is all-too easily shredded.
Tony Blanken, Mr. Gov't Speak, refused to call it genocide, responding only, and with the allusion of sincerity, "look, the United States is going to evaluate everything that happens." "Going to?" He couldn't say "Has and concluded that . . . " Whose feathers does he not want to ruffle?
Barbarian-a noun commonly used to define primitive people who invaded and pillaged the Romans, namely Vandals, Franks, Goths, Saxons, primarily Germanic people. The foremost ancient one was Attila the Hun, the modern one, Adolf Schickelgruber Hitler. Other familiar names apply: Lenin, Stalin, Ceausescu, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. The United States has had its barbaric acts beginning with the Indian tribes and including the My Lai massacre. All of the murders happening here in the 21st Century are barbaric, esp. school shootings. What else would you call finding a 1st grader with 6 bullet holes in her body?
Will the world continue to yield barbarians? Yes. There are evil people who step on the world stage every era. (trump!) The latest: Vladimir Putin, even more cruel and brutal than a barbarian. A savage. Dracula. Killer extraordinaire. Even if he had one human cell that contained all of its components that embraced a speck of compassion for his fellow man, he has gone to far to back up and stop.He has no interest in negotiations, sanctions. He still has China, India, even Israel that gets Russian oil, depends on Russian tourism and where Russian is the third most spoken language. Let the Russians go without McDonald's, let the oligarchs lose their zillion dollar yachts. He wouldn't give decapitated Ukranians a second thought. Putin cares only for Putin.So the question becomes, how to get rid of him? Not with American boys! Not by risking a wipe out of an American city by a nuclear bomb. It will have to be done from within. The problem with that is that he has an 80% approval rating among Russians who have been fed lies. That leaves a few also with some power who are near him, generals for instance. Perhaps there is a Claus von Stauffenberg among them who could be successful. There have been after all, a couple of lesser tyrants-Khrushchev who was less violent and repressive than Stalin, and of course , Gorbachev under whose rule, the Soviet Union ended. Yeltsin didn't work. Whoever takes over will still probably have KGB traits and leanings, and down the road might also cause turmoil, but for now, Ukraine would be saved , and the world could continue down its precarious path.
Never again?
We have turned into a really wimpy, self-centered, failing society. Some of us practice 'cancel culture' while accusing everyone else of canceling them. Because they have nothing to offer society, they can only point at and work to cause the failure of others, real or imagined.
We need people to be reminded of the pictures of Europe during the latr 30's and early 40's. We have now seen them coming out of Ukraine.
Never again?
We are afraid that our life-style may be compromized if we have to fight in a war? During World War II, we were issued sramps for just about every commodity one can think of. Everything was rationed. Gasoline stamps were especially important to us. Rubber. Coffee. Sugar. Alcohol.
But we survived. We had victory gardens. We had determination. We cared for neighbors, friends, and family. We had empathy. We fought back. As Churchill quiped, the US did the right thing after exhausting the list of wrong things.
Never again?
Pacificism works only if the object of your effort is pacified. Who knows that such a highly commendable effort has ever worked? When madmen reach this level of behavior, they are insatiable. I doubt that anything is going on in Ukrain that Putin does not know about. He is not mis-informed, since he controls the media. He has not shut down his own sources. He counts his military and everyone around him as disposable.
Never again?
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Our fear of another world war or the use of nuclear weapons is enabling Putin. It is time to call out these people who call themselves 'patriots' while they support Putin. It is time to call out Putin and his threat to use nuclear weapons. He has already had his thugs go to Chernoble and play in those nuclear ashes, while nobody is provoking him. He gives his army carte blanche while they are in Ukraine, to rob, rape, steal, and destroy. How high does the body count have to go before we face reality?
"Never Again." A good slogan. A good sound byte. However it is useless to repeat it while we wave the white flag of surrender.
Oh yeah. We had those who supported Hitler and Fascism. They are still here.
What a statement this is--to be so pessimistic that justice will be done. You're so not alone with that thought. But if there will be no accountability for these atrocities, how the hell do we teach our children right from wrong or that there are consequences for these such actions. Just who are the moral and justice role models if not us? It's a frustrating and beyond words heartbreaking situation. Peace and power to the people of Ukraine. They keep going. They must.
I, for one, am optimistic on the outcome of Russia being severely punished for what they are doing. Bear in mind that the Russian army is made up of mercenaries, not soldiers. The generals themselves are being killed in action. It's chaotic no matter how you look at it. Chaos breeds mistakes. This conflict is going to make the world leaders rethink how we envision our future.
And, Steven, get well soon!