By Siggy Raible
It is the morning of the first day of spring in 2022. The sun is pouring through the windows of my cozy Greenwich Village apartment. It is also spring in Ukraine, where the sun may be shining, but what descends from the skies are not glorious rays, but missiles of various designs raining death and destruction upon the earth and its inhabitants. The low-level destruction that has been ongoing in eastern Ukraine for the past eight years exploded on February 24th into a nightmare of unimaginable proportions and continues with no end in sight.
Uncounted thousands are dying and, where possible, are being buried in rushed mass graves; many thousands more are wounded with few medical resources available to treat the injured; women with their children are fleeing the violence in their country and in the process are separated from their beloved family members. The physical, mental, and emotional trauma being visited on a sovereign nation grows hour by hour and day by day. What is the West’s response?
While the leaders of Western countries have sent military aid, they are united in agreeing that they will not send troops into ground combat. Nor are they willing to send air support even for humanitarian/evacuation purposes. The reasons given fall into two main categories. First, to commit ground troops or air support might step on the toes of the madman who has his thumb on the nuclear button, thereby threatening the start of World War III. The second reason is technical; the West has agreed that it is not bound to defend any non-NATO member (Ukraine is a non-member.) So, the lives of 44 million people are being held hostage to the whims of one madman!
The West has also instituted a financial program of shock and awe aimed at Russia. One problem is that it will take weeks before the effects will be felt. And these financial “bombs” will not kill, maim or destroy cities like the actual munitions being dropped on Ukraine each day.
While watching the events unfold in early/mid-March, the world became aware of a 40-mile-long line of vehicles—Russian tanks and other armed vehicles—waiting in line for days, like ducks in a row, to rain death and destruction on the capital, Kiev. I wondered why the roads were not bombed to prevent the forward march of annihilation.
This reminded me of another tragedy that unfolded at another time in another war. I had often wondered (and still wonder) how Hitler got away with systematically murdering millions of people. He was able to move cattle cars crammed with men, women, and children to concentration camps where the people were either worked to death or slaughtered outright. Why didn’t the Allies bomb the railroad tracks upon which the human cattle were carried to certain untold misery or death? At the end of that conflict arose the phrase “Never Again.” Well, it seems that never again is once again.
With the world facing threats from a deadly virus and the disasters created by a fast-changing climate, we are faced with this war and its potential for total human annihilation, I must ask:
Where is our humanity?
What is a life worth?
What are the lives of 44 million worth?
How long can we afford to carry on as usual?
