Every war is a rehearsal for the next one.
For my post this month I was going to write about La Malinche and me. Maybe in March. Hopefully.
But with what's going on in Ukraine I feel that I have to share my thoughts. At least to relieve the pressure building in my head. What upset me most were those photos and videos of ordinary people caught in the middle of this catastrophe. I don't understand the sense of this ruin and conquest. Who will be better off? The defense contractors are cheering, perhaps.
For the last few months I've been following a YouTube channel about World War Two. Lately they've been discussing February 1943, the surrender of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad and the Soviet offensive into Ukraine. What a tragic coincidence to the present moment. We're familiar with the black & white images of civilian refugees trudging along, fleeing with what little they could carry. Now we're seeing the latest incarnation, moms and children, dressed like they've shopped at Kohl's, dragging roller carry-ons stuffed with the last of their possessions. People lined up at ATMs withdrawing cash to grease the escape route. SUVs on fire. Uploading TikToks of the carnage. Vignettes of industrialized murder. It's truly disturbing to see so much mayhem and terror amid the trappings of modern life. The war-ravaged locations seem as if they're on the outskirts of the Denver metroplex.
This brings a sense of déjà vu from my military service in Desert Storm. When we drove through Kuwait City, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the contradiction of so much destruction against the backdrop of a contemporary suburban landscape.
Then again, such devastation has been raging for years in the Middle East, Africa, Myanmar, Afghanistan. Not too long ago, Sarajevo, the site of the Winter Olympics, was under siege and artillery bombardment.
In response to the Ukraine invasion, there's been a lot of the expected political bloviating, meant more to placate constituents on this side of the battle line than to intimidate Putin. Recent promotional videos of NATO aren't very reassuring, stressing diversity and inclusion over combat prowess. Meanwhile in Kyiv, the government is handing out guns, not equity pamphlets.
If you're at most a casual student of history, you know things can spin out of control very fast and in a very bad way. Every war begins with a grand miscalculation of events and a disregard for unintended consequences. For now, let's stay upbeat and expect that next month, my post will be about La Malinche.
Mario--I so agree with your post. I'm just sick about this whole situation and always appreciate of your comments from someone who has served in the military. The more I know about history the more shocked I am by the destruction leaders inflict on their own countries. One of the most dangerous kind is a dictator or leader who takes it upon himself to oversee military decisions. World War II would likely have had a different ending if Hitler hadn't overruled his generals so often. I'm hoping Putin will be his own downfall.
ReplyDeleteWhen Hitler and Stalin saw the reluctance of France and England to stand up to their land grabs and saber-rattling, they assumed they could act with impunity. First, the Saar, then the Rhineland, followed by the Sudetenland, then all of Czechoslovakia, and Austrian reunification (Anschluss), each in the name of bringing German-speaking lands back into the Greater Reich. Ditto Danzig. All of which gave Hitler and Stalin the incentive to carve up Poland, which each saw as ancestral lands that rightfully belonged under their control.
ReplyDeleteSound familiar?
And we all know what that led to.
“Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.”
-- Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, a/k/a George Santayana