David and Goliath

 Short of being in the middle of the Ukraine and Russian war crimes war I can only accept what those I trust who have been there are saying. We are still a democracy and free speech is our best shot at truth telling. I was skeptical of Secretary of State Blinken's statement yesterday after the Kyiv visit that Russia is failing in its war aims, and Ukraine is succeeding.  I trust our advocates of free speech to tell the truth and know for sure Putin is a consummate liar just like Trump. The visit yesterday of our two highest secretaries -- Secretary of State Blinken and our military expert and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin -- were shining examples of American commitment to Ukraine's winning this war for the protection of democracy and to crush the authoritarian war criminal Putin and his authoritarian state. In view of the powerful support of the US, other democracies and the Ukrainian superb resistance I am believing Blinken's statement that Ukraine will be there long after Putin's demise. [applause applause]

I hope as the days pass and Ukraine wins it will be the world's win and Ukraine will go down in history as the greatest victory since David fought Goliath. This time a Ukrainian win will be a phenomenal victory for democracy and those who study war will marvel at the Ukrainian success and superb perseverance against the bloviating mammoth Russia for a very long time. And, oh by the way, in France the rightwing extremist fascist Marine LePen [yes, that is how she spells her name] lost by a very large margin. We breathe a sigh of relief!  Onward, to defeat in this country our own fascist threat, the Trumpians and their Republican allies who want power so much they are willing to take democracy down to get it.  Do not let them.  Vote Democrat up and down the ticket!

The crime of war

War is so bestial and so horrific, and so damaging it is a wonder to me that nations would consider war as an option to solve differences between nation states.  I also thought WWII taught mankind a war crimes lesson.  Humanity has been taught that the horrific war crimes committed by nations when they are at war will be prosecuted as they were at Nuremberg and in modern times by the ICC (The International Criminal Court -- The Hague.) 

We know crimes committed by the German state in WWII rose to the level of war crimes much like Justice Stewart defined pornography as "I know it when I see it" to determine what is profanity.  War crimes, similarly, committed by nations at war are so horrific, so serious, so obvious and so beyond the definition of civilized humanity that, indeed, it too falls under the conclusion like pornography--I know a war crime when I see it.  Still, those nations prosecuted by the Hague give civilized man a yardstick to measure atrocities when they are committed by persons engaged in war and give humanity a place to prosecute those crimes in the International Criminal Court. "The International Criminal Court the (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community those of: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression."  Do we know a war crime when we see it?  Yes, but to extract from that the ability to try, convict and punish those who have committed war crimes is, especially in the instant case of Russia's reprehensible crimes against humanity against the sovereign nation Ukraine we need a definitional format of just what the war crime(s) is (are).  We are helped by the media with their voluminous reporting and photographing the many atrocities committed by Russia commanded by and at the direction of Vladimir Putin against the innocent civilian population of Ukraine.

The media and photography give the mind's eye truth to asking the court to press charges against Russia for war crimes.  "Western and Ukrainian leaders have accused Russia of war crimes before, and the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor has opened a probe to investigate the conflict." "But the latest reports ratcheted up the condemnation even further, with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some Western leaders going so far as to accuse Russia of genocide." I concur with this request.  Yes, I know war crimes when I see them.  The Maripol bombing in general but in particular of a hospital by Russians and a pregnant woman succumbing to the attacks is yet another example of a war crime.  Hundreds maybe thousands of civilians have been raped.  "Russian soldiers have raped girls as young as ten and branded women’s bodies with swastikas," a Ukrainian MP has claimed.  Lesia Vasylenko said children had been left with wounds from serious sexual assault, adding: “Russian men did this.”  It comes as Russian troops are accused of massacring, torturing and raping hundreds of civilians on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv in Bucha and in Irpin. 

To my mind war is so lethal, so barbaric, and so inhuman that war itself should be labeled a war crime.  Man's inhumanity to man I was always told is a permanent condition of mankind.  If one looks at the concentration camps of WWII, and looks at Ukraine now there can be no doubt that war itself is a war crime.  50 million people died in WWII.  Yes, I said 50 million.  What kind of mental contortions have to be constructed to allow man the ability to do that to the innocent of other men.  As I see it, those NATO nations should act to defend Ukraine and give them all the weapons they need to defend against the Russian beast despite Ukraine not being a member of NATO.  The crime of war should bring with it a potential for the redress of grievances.   Justice, justice, justice I cry so that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice the oft quoted line speaks.  I wake up, take a shower, then think on the crime of war and ask where can the Ukrainian go to find justice and how long will it take?  It will take as the song said to the twelfth of never and that is a long long time. 

In the meantime give those Ukrainians what they need to fight Putin's plague and watch as this time justice may bend toward justice even within the crime of war!