Thoughts on the Ukraine Catastrophe Antecedents
History is the nightmare from which I am trying to awake. Stephen Daedalus in James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Papal Bulls of 1400s provided the theological justification for the racist genocides in the Americas, for slavery, and the US carrying the White Man’s Burden during the Spanish American War documented by Smedley Butler (War Is A Racket.
Douhet Theory of Strategic bombing: bomb civilians to destroy morale.
Saturation bombing of German cities (Hamburg, Dresden firestorms but 70 cities destroyed).
Firebombing of Tokyo
Hiroshima / Nagasaki.
Flattening of North Korea (1/3 population killed, then dams destroyed to eliminate crops
Vietnam: Napalming of Civilians.
Laos / Cambodia: computerized bombing to obviate boots on ground.
First Gulf war 22 Sept 1980 supported Iraq against Iran (actually both sides),,,Iran Contra
Second Gulf war (8-1990)….highway of death
1991 to 2003 Iraq embargo and constant bombing.
Iraq War (2003-2011+) Shock and Awe bombing before invasion. Massive destruction of infrastructure, power plants, sewage treatment plants.
Afghanistan: drone warfare with civilian collateral damage
Yemen: Obama started weapon’s sales to Saudi Arabia permitting the wealthiest nation to pulverize the poorest nation on earth. Bombing of Kunduz MSF hospital.
Libya
Syria. US and Russians bombed. Russia backed Assad to preserve access to Mediterranean ports, and we supported eliminating Assad. As such, we served as the airforce for ISIS, which at one time McCain said “ Thank God for Saudi Arabia, Thank god for ISIS.”
Russians: flattened Grozny.
Russians: attacking civilians in Ukraine.
All’s fair in love and war. 90% of casualties in modern war are civilians.
Whether it is so called democracies or dictators doing it, the end result is massive property
destruction and civilian deaths. MLK said my country is the greatest purveyor of death in the world. And rightfully so. But, others have learned from us. Putin is doing to the Ukrainians everything we have done to many around the world particularly Iraq where we bombed relentlessly reducing Falluja, a city the size of Cincinnati to rubble using cluster munitions and white phosphorus. Einstein said to the effect that the problem with weapons is that they ultimately get used.
Our MSM focus is habitually focused on how the war is going to be fought, not about antiwar movements and how to prevent war. Raytheon, Northrup Gruman, Boeing advise customers that Ukraine will be good for their bottom line…
CodePink, and other anti-war groups are the only ones talking about how to prevent and stop war.
Howard P. Charman, MD 3-8-2022