Originally published at: Russian soldiers shoot Ukranians standing in line for bread, killing at least 10 | Boing Boing
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Fucking monsters.
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That’s some old-school Tsarist state criminality right there.
If Putin’s regime survives this situation, Russians should not be under the illusion that they’ll be spared the same treatment at home. Foucault’s Boomerang is going to have an especially high velocity here.
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“all available options” is direct military intervention an available option?
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If the Russian soldiers are doing this, imagine what they are doing that is not making the News cycles…
Yet.
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Not really, because the ICC won’t be very effective if The Hague, along with the rest of Europe, is a radioactive slag pile.
The key word is “available”. Certain options are off the table as long as Putin is in control of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
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just a reminder - your republican friends and family that for 4 trump years happily told you that Russia was not a bad guy, were and are fucking stupid for believing that, and for believing a liar like trump.
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Every military action by a Russian, intentional and unintentional, is a warcrime in Ukraine.
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I understand why there’s a distinction, but the idea that any component of war isn’t a crime on the part of the aggressor is absurd.
Edited for clarity.
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The rest of Europe won’t become a radioactive slag pile.
How can they do this first comes to mind. How can young men wantonly butcher fellow human beings who are posing no threat, who only want to get food for their family. None of it computes and I remember My Lai on March 16, 1968, 54 years ago to the day. The same human race that produces students in medicine, art, science also produces murderous creatures devoid of soul. These very same humans were once helpless babies trusting that others would insure that they survive and some of them end up going in such polar extremes. This gets right down to the nut cutting of what goes wrong. Nature and nurture, where are we failing. And as spectators to such mind numbing savagery what the hell is our roll. Hand wringing doesn’t help much. Maybe pen to paper asking politicians to find a solution but that doesn’t help much either. Margery Taylor Greene hasn’t offer her wisdom nor has Charles Shumer. They’re supposed to wiser than most of us in these matters. My lizard brain yearns to see putin in crosshairs, I want to return fire on that group of cowards at the breadline. Stupid! My soul wants to comfort and aid those injured, I want to try to offer comfort to people looking at the destroyed remains of their loved ones. From following this site I recognize some of you who have better insight and though than I do yet it seems unfair to foist such a burden on others. I should have some answers or insights but I’m at a loss. Thoughts and prayers are handy for some, clicking a button to send $X.00 dollars to some fund, maybe but? So how alone am I on this? I venture that most who bother to read this may feel the same. Small comfort there although I don’t doubt the worth of others, who like myself, feel helpless. Tell me what you are doing now. I could sleep a bit better if I thought I was doing any good. We need to talk before more people bleed out. Share your thoughts please.
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Perhaps a large oil/gas field could be discovered in Ukraine, thus giving western nations a moral reason to intervene when one nation invades/attacks another…
/s of course, the Geo-political quagmire of the situation is grotesque and the polonium-horse-man at the helm has a snowflake ego and an itchy button-finger.
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Young men* are always the ones wantonly butchering fellow humans. Because they are still children and they trust adults while adults are almost all wrapped up in their own narrative that has little to do with reality. We fucking lie to these young men constantly. We tell them that they are protecting myths such as freedom and national identity when they’re really defending wealth and the acquisition of more wealth, which is born from the fear of privation and scarcity, but turns into something sinister and aggressive because of the lies. They’re usually either dead by the time they mature enough to realize they’ve been had or traumatized into a full-time regressed panic state so that they see nothing but enemies everywhere they look, even in the mirror. We tell them these lies on the battlefield and with the propaganda of death like American Sniper and Saving Private Ryan.
We are, as a species, still deep in Plato’s cave. Some of us have learned to recognize some of the shadows, but for the most part they are terrifying specters of death and destruction, many of which are produced by the fearful flailing of arms of the others around us. Most are just our own shadow and we see monsters in it. And we are not wrong.
We all are. Putin is, too. I can’t forgive him for what he is or what he’s decided to do, but his worldview is based on his experience and the trauma that comes with it. As he draws near his own end, he desperately tries to clutch at the life that is slipping away and restore something like the stability he felt as an infant. Before he was lied to and before he began lying to himself. Before he lied to all those young boys that are dying. Those boys who are unsure of where they even are, but knowing their death will be meaningless. Just as all death in war is meaningless.
Mine too! Because of the lies we’ve been told that the world can be put right by violence and because trauma reverts us to that panicked, lizard brain state. In this case it may be true that his death would bring some relief to others, but perhaps it would only exacerbate the trauma state for another generation. And perpetuate the myth of nationalism that sends young people to die in a foreign land.
Simply put, we are not nearly as evolved as we think we are. We’ve learned to turn our grunts into words, but we rarely grok what is being said to us. Or what we’re really saying to each other. Or that we’re really always talking to ourselves. That we’re talking to that traumatized infant that suddenly finds an AK-47 in their hands and only comprehends “pull trigger”. Trying to explain to them why life must equal death. And because we don’t understand that ourselves, we lie to the infant. And the infant, needing to trust, begins lying to itself. And the cycle repeats…
Yes, because this is how we evolve the lizard brain. And we’re damn lucky to have this well-held space to be together and communicate about the shadows we see. And warn each other. And comfort each other. And learn so that we can teach young boys not to pull the trigger when the time comes. But that isn’t going to happen in time to save Ukraine.
“Weapons are the tools of violence;
all decent men detest them.
“Weapons are the tools of fear;
a decent man will avoid them
except in the direst necessity
and, if compelled, will use them
only with the utmost restraint.
“Peace is his highest value.
If the peace has been shattered,
how can he be content?
His enemies are not demons,
but human beings like himself.
He doesn’t wish them personal harm.
Nor does he rejoice in victory.
How could he rejoice in victory
and delight in the slaughter of men?
“He enters a battle gravely,
with sorrow and with great compassion,
as if he were attending a funeral.”
-Lao Tsu
Tao Te Ching ch 31 (translation by Stephen Mitchell; emphasis mine)
*Of course I recognize that women have historically played a role in times of war, often as some of the most skilled combatants and that modern warfare recognizes women as equal (at least equally able to fill a body bag). But I am not only intentionally reflecting the op’s language, but recognizing the reality that it is almost always young boys who are sent into battle and for reasons they can hardly understand. I do not mean to marginalize the contributions of women to the defense of their homes or the historical reality of their leadership and sacrifice in times of war or the other, many wars that women are compelled to fight both in times of peace and war.
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That was incredibly well-put. I doubt anyone could disagree with any of it.
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When I was in USAF basic (over 30 years ago), of course we had that message constantly, but one classroom example really stood out to me then and remains a summary of most of the basic training experience for me.
Room full of young boys(*), all shaven little, fatigued from the general experience, and several weeks into what amounts to conditioning. The shouty authority figure who was “teaching” us that lesson asked us “Why did you join the Air Force?” Even at that age, I was already more than cynical enough to see where this latest line of BS was going and knew better than to speak up with any of the perfectly reasonable answers that were coming from the kids around me.
- To get the GI Bill to pay for my college.
- A chance to get out and see the world.
- Lack of job opportunities in my home town
- … and unspoken ones of can’t afford to fix my teeth, get new glasses, or a dozen other related situations that should not be a part of the modern experience.
Finally one particularly obnoxious little shit goblin puckered right up and gave Sgt. Shouty the answer he’d been fishing for the whole time, “To serve my country.” Cue patriotic shouting, heaps of praise on this proven asskisser, and several minutes of jingositic national identity verbal masturbation exibitionism.
Even at the time, I felt if someone really wanted to serve their country they’d go be a teacher, a free clinic doctor, or a social worker. I’m actually glad I enlisted for many reasons, not the least of which is the medical care that I’m still receiving (again, something everyone should be getting without the chance of having to trade their life for it,) but that patriotic stack of lies has never been part of it, but I know so many people that do buy it.
(* - Note that this was also several decades before I had any inkling I was trans!)
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You jest, but this conflict is very much about recent discoveries of oil and gas making Ukraine the third-largest proven reserves of natural gas on the continent.
This video gets into the energy power play Why Russia is Invading Ukraine - YouTube
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Don’t forget: those same family and friends would happily turn a blind eye and try to justify it as being quite reasonable if a band of Trumpjugend were to stomp anybody–including you–on the street.
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As a fellow vet, I’m sure you’ve noticed that those are the really scary ones.
And that’s who makes up 90% of every volunteer* military; kids with few to no realistic options (like me!) who desperately need to get away from wherever they came from. That often comes with a lack of cultural exposure and a very narrow worldview. I was as ignorant as I was arrogant, but the base had a fantastic library full of Vonnegut and he lifted me out of my stupor. I can’t imagine the dark hole of ignorance these Russian kids must live in.
*Edited to note that this only really applies to volunteer armies while many are conscription-based.
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Oddly enough there was the same kind of shit goblin when I got drafted and I’m willing to bet he had a real itchy trigger finger. Cannibalpeas is right about the majority of other kids that did enlist. Sadly the military seemed like the lesser of two evils for too many of them. I still think about some of them and where they ended up.
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Calling for World War III on social media might make you feel good, but objectively speaking it’s either pointless or else terribly, terribly foolish
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