As the Ukraine/Russian war drags on, I have been becoming more and more disturbed by the number of my friends who have previously been involved in anti-war actions with me (some for decades), who are currently supportive of the armed conflict.
One good friend has written a short article about why he has abandoned his pacifist position (“of sorts”- as he described it), and is now a very vocal supporter of waging war against the Russian invaders. His weekly emails contain many articles supporting the Ukrainian military, and denouncing any who would even mildly question the sending of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to wage this brutal war.
Needless to say, none of these friends came to the recent resistance of the Land Warfare Conference in Brisbane. That includes at least four good friends who were part of that resistance last year.
Of course, understanding how/why people think what they think, is not my forte. In fact, I find it baffling to try to understand how people can support this litany of mass murder, under the label of a “Just War”. The never-ending propaganda machine of western media surely goes a long way to explaining it, of course, but you would think people can rise above it. Maybe that is where we all fail? In the proud belief that we are above mass indoctrination. We surely are not.
But to get back to my friend’s article where he tried to explain his change.
One thing I did strongly agree with was his statement that, “But I think that those who resist a brutal murderous horde are doing good.”. I couldn’t agree more!
Sadly, the “But” at the beginning of his sentence was to reflect where he believed he differed from his “pacifist[JD1] friends”. Oh no, I thought, here we go again.
When I have had many, many discussions with people re. Just War vs Nonviolence, I have usually had to point out at least 4 or 5 times, that nonviolence is not doing nothing. It is active resistance. So, to shortcut that problem here, I will say them all at once:
Nonviolence is not the same as doing nothing. It is active resistance.
Nonviolence is not the same as doing nothing. It is active resistance.
Nonviolence is not the same as doing nothing. It is active resistance.
Nonviolence is not the same as doing nothing. It is active resistance.
Ok, I hope that is enough times. (Try meditating on each line separately)
My friend went on to say that his turning point came after hearing about the Bucha massacre:
“After the invaders withdrew at the end of March, the bodies of more than 450 civilians were uncovered. More than 400 of these had been killed.”
He then went on to detail the stories of rape and other atrocities. Many/most of these horror stories are probably true. But when you show him any articles claiming similar atrocities, torture, murders of civilians, etc by the Ukrainian side, he claims the author lacks credibility. Even if he is quoting the United Nations Office or Human Rights Watch. Of course, this is war. Our side good. Their side bad. This is the only definition of a Just War that most people need to hear. As in the excitement of any war, reason takes a back seat – a long way back.
I pointed out to my friend he lived through the illegal invasion and occupation of East Timor. The Indonesian military was famous for rape and torture for all it’s 25 years of occupation. Some folks spent years nonviolently resisting that genocidal occupation which saw the death of a third of the population. I personally did more than one jail sentence for that nonviolent resistance. I asked my friend why he did not advocate for either Australia waging a war with Indonesia, or at the very least sending weapons to the East Timorese resistance. No answer.
The truth is, the Indonesians eventually left East Timor after world-wide nonviolent resistance to their murderous occupation. Fretlin guerrillas waged their war throughout the occupation and saw thousands of Indonesians and East Timorese killed in the fighting. But the Turning point in the war came when students risked their lives nonviolently protesting at the Dili cemetery. 300 were murdered by the Indonesians. A film of this massacre reached nearly every TV station in the world. Nonviolent resistance groups grew around the world. In 1999 East Timor was free.
How about the atrocities of Vietnam?
“Our” side murdered an untold number of civilians (100,000? a million? maybe more), burning children alive with napalm, and poisoning the environment leading to birth deformities for generations. “Our” side massacred 500 old people and children in Mai Lai (and who knows how many more, elsewhere). But, I don’t think you advocated joining Ho Chi Minh, or sending him weapons, did you? Many socialists and others did, shouting “All the way with uncle Ho!” But, many Australians, to this day, believe “our” side was fighting a “Just war” in Vietnam.
Let’s move to the Middle East.
In my files I have a small cutting from the Sept 1991 Courier Mail. The article has US soldiers admitting they buried up to 5000 Iraqi soldiers alive in their trenches (trenches on the border of Iraq – not in Kuwait). Only minor news, of course, just light reading for the “Just warriors” at home. This happened after the “turkey shoot”, on the “Highway of Death” as it was called, when US jet fighters slaughtered thousands of fleeing, defeated, soldiers and many civilians, retreating from Kuwait to Iraq. The same war saw 300 civilians killed by a US bomb in just one fallout shelter, and numerous children shredded by US cluster bombs.
Before our next “Just War”, of 2003, the Australian Navy was put in charge of the sea blockade of Iraq in the 1990’s. The British Medical Journal Lancet claimed the blockade was responsible for the deaths of 600,000 children. Many human rights groups pleaded for an end to this collective punishment, to no avail.
Did you advocate taking up arms against our own government? Many of us were nonviolently resisting these horrors, though.
When the Brereton report came out admitting Australian SAS had murdered at least 39 unarmed Afghan civilians, did you suggest taking up arms against our own government? Even after seeing the photo of a group of brave Aussie soldiers drinking beer out of their great “trophy”? This was a prosthetic leg of a man they had just murdered. Surely a “Just War” could be waged against our soldiers? Well, the Taliban thought so, and they won their war. Of course, their “Just Warriors” have committed their own well publicised horrors.
One of my friends said recently that Ukraine was winning the war. Well, recently the Ukrainian military proudly announced they had killed 65,000 Russians. I think they were only boasting. Even “just warriors” can boast about their kill surely? Well, perhaps they have only killed as few as 30,000, mostly young men, and perhaps only 30,000 Ukrainians have died. Has your “Just War” been worth it?
I am absolutely certain nonviolent resistance would not have seen this many dead, and whole cities destroyed. But we would have to leave behind any ideas of patriotic glory and “victory”, that goes with fighting this war. We would have to learn from Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, and Gandhi, and their teacher, Jesus.
My fear is that if we don’t eventually learn this, the future can only hold nuclear annihilation, as Putin has already threatened us with.
Martin Luther king expressed this clearly when he said, “The choice today is between nonviolence or nonexistence”
Jim Dowling 25th October 2022
In the case of Bucha, internet sleuths quickly pointed out that the Russians vacated Bucha on the 30th of March; the Mayor of Bucha declared the city free on the 31st without one mention of slaughter; and the bodies on the street did not start showing up until the 2nd of April.