End the War
My own comment to the recent posts in this Newsletter
What I think is lost in any discussions of the war in Ukraine is the fact that it IS a war, and that war destroys the lives of men, women and children in both intentional and unintentional brutality. This is not about individual acts of savagery or courage. The weapons of war themselves are unspeakably brutal, and death and dismemberment inherent. When we fail to recognize this, or put it second, we are far less than what at our best we can be—animals that strive to be “human.”
Principles, boundaries, self-determination, all combinations of nationalist bravado and good intentions, cannot justify the idea of total victory. In fact, the single most terrible reality we must somehow face is that there is no victory of any kind for those that have died in this war, and little for their widows and orphans.
A settlement, some form of armistice, must be the goal. Let us use principles, if we can, as justifications, as long as they support an end to the killing. Let us work with, again and again, legal structures, if they can help end the fighting.
As for war propaganda, closed minds and vengeful hearts? We can and should be better than this. I resist the idea, often advanced by neural science and psychology, that we are creature-doomed to such manipulations.
If we are to salvage some good at all from this carnage, it will be because it shows us how far we are from what many of us believe is possible. A global civilization that uses reason to achieve, above all else, peace and justice across all the boundaries that we draw, in the dust of the world.
I read this post and prior. Great to see civil, intellectual discussion on a hot topic, especially with a lot of fellow Heidelberg graduates and our professors. I could ramble on forever about my internal debates about war.
However, a couple weeks ago I went to Cleveland VA to participate in Million Veteran study as a Persian Gulf veteran. Naturally, I reverted to a lost butterbar and saw what war really is, to Americans. I am mature enough now to truly wish more than just the dead had seen the end of war.
Thanks, John. We’ll said!