And
so the dogs of war are off and running again, this time unleashed by
Putin’s Russia against Ukraine. What is Putin up to? Is it a
punitive raid against Ukraine, or a general invasion followed by an
occupation, or something in between? Time will tell, but wars are
unpredictable. Just look at America’s wars. Vietnam was
supposed to be over with quickly after the U.S. committed large
numbers of troops there in 1965. Afghanistan started as a punitive
raid in 2001, then morphed into a wider invasion and occupation that
persisted for two decades. Iraq was supposed to be over and done with
in a few weeks in 2003, but that general invasion also morphed into
an occupation that persisted for nearly a decade.
At
their best, wars are controlled chaos, and that contradiction in
terms is intended. My best guess is that Putin sees this as an
extended punitive raid to send a message to Ukraine and to NATO that
Russia won’t tolerate NATO expansion into Ukraine. Put bluntly,
NATO, led by the USA, got into Putin’s grill on Ukraine, and
Putin calculated that drawing his saber was a better choice than
simply rattling it. Whether he who lives by the sword will die by it
remains to be seen.
In
the meantime, I took a quick look at how the mainstream media is
covering the Russian invasion. I noted that NBC spoke of Russia’s
“terrifying might,” while CBS spoke of “dozens
reported dead” in Ukraine. CNN simply said that “Russia
invades Ukraine” and that “Ukraine vows defiance.”
I have nothing against these headlines, but I wonder if the same
coverage would apply to the U.S. military. Would NBC speak of the
“terrifying might” of U.S. military attacks? Would our
mainstream media mouthpieces report on the deaths of foreigners from
those attacks? Did we see terse headlines that read, simply, “U.S.
invades Iraq” or “U.S. invades Afghanistan” or
“U.S. invades Vietnam”? I can’t remember seeing
them, since we like to think of the U.S. military as “liberating”
or “assisting” other countries, or, even better, bringing
democracy to them with our “freedom” bombs and “liberty”
missiles.
U.S.
leaders like Antony Blinken and Nancy Pelosi have shown their
toughness. Blinken said Putin will “pay for a long, long time”
for his actions, and Pelosi said the Russian invasion is an “attack
on democracy.” Did Ukraine truly have a functional democracy?
For that matter, does the United States have one?
I’m
with Ike: I hate war with a passion. Most often it’s the
innocent and the most vulnerable who end up dead. Whatever Putin is
up to, it’s wrong and he should be condemned. But while
condemning Putin for his invasion, we shouldn’t forget
America’s wars. Indeed, in condemning Putin for his invasion,
it offers us a fresh chance to condemn war in general — even,
or especially, America’s own versions.
