The war in Ukraine has fallen from corporate press headlines. When the Gazan slaughter ends, and if the conflict does not spread beyond its current breadth, the war in Ukraine will likely again occupy center stage within the journalistic realm. For this reason we need to be clear headed about the war in Ukraine.
This is a battle between two centers of power, the stronger West–which has been pushing its weight around for the last three decades, and Russia–whose has lost more power than it is willing to bear due to the West’s aforementioned behavior. Both powers are apparently willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands, and more, of working class lives in order to expand or protect their business and ideological interests. How the average person takes sides in this nonsense is mind-blowing at best.
Let’s also be clear what this war is not about. This war is not about democracy, free speech, protecting civilian lives, and all the other catch phrases the West typically rolls-out with yet another military adventure. One need look no further than Gaza to understand the hollowness of these claims.
One might note a contradiction between the above two paragraphs. On the one hand, ideological promotion is a basis to support war, but on the other hand, ideology, i.e., democracy, free speech . . . , is shown to not actually be the authentic basis for war. Ideology is a tool the powerful use largely to promote their varied interests. It garners support among the masses, who have been taught to believe in such things, and who also bear the burdens of war through the loss of life and money. Vietnam during the 1960s and 70s and Central America during the 1980s are great examples of this.
“Democracy” promotion, of course, was the U.S. burden to bear in these two regions, and undoubtedly there were, and are today, genuine actors in the State Department and elsewhere in the Federal bureaucracy for whom this was, and is, the motivating factor of their actions. But reality conveys that democracy is only tolerated when it doesn’t disturb the status quo, and is promoted only when it serves the status quo.
While there was little direct U.S. military involvement in the day-to-day slaughters, massive rapes, mutilation, torture, disappearances, and extra-judicial executions of hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, the U.S. trained and funded the right wing governments and paramilitary groups who engaged in the proxy slaughter in order to prevent left wing governments from rising to power. It is a period of time which devastated the region and is likely responsible for much of the migration from the region to the U.S. border today.
The corporate press has convinced the broader Western public the war in Ukraine is about an evil master and his cohorts bent on recovering its lost imperial empire. This, despite a strong majority of opinion among those who think and have thought about Russia on a regular basis for years–academics, think-tank people, and even some military personnel–who simply do not agree with this assessment. Russia’s reactionary invasion of Ukraine is tied directly to its national identity, economic and security interests.
Now, however, that Russia has spotted armament and munitions supply chain problems in the West, the calculus may have changed. It is conceivable, now, the Russians might entertain ambitions which exceed those it held during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
No matter, this is not a reason to ramp-up militarization, it is a reason to negotiate the conflict downward. A spiraling determination on both sides to gain an advantage in this war will lead to more death and destruction among those who will gain little from this conflict. This, despite the nonsensical narrative promoted in the embedded corporate press about the need for war to protect our interests.
At the end of the day, the average working class person will still struggle to pay the rent, buy groceries, and keep the utilities turned on, whether they do so under one colorful flag or another.
Please note: There is no effort here to be an apologists for the Russian ruling establishment. The effort here is a condemnation of all ruling elites, West or East, who resort to war and violence, rather than open minded negotiations determined to resolve differences in a peaceful manner
Comments welcomed, civility requested: peace begins with us.