Beautifully written. Now here's another old idea for you: why aren't women in charge of everything? It seems to me that could alleviate so many of these testosterone-driven problems.
Which just demonstrates that she is the exception that proves the rule. Imagine Jacinda Ardern starting a war. Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren as POTUS getting into a war. Ridiculous. Those are non-starters.
Honestly, Lucian, your vivid description of the ruins, well, I felt I was standing alongside of you. It is always the innocent who pay the price of wars. Man against humanity.
Last night, I watched Ali Velshi interview a photographer who has captured some of those agonizing photos of ruins, of people leaving their pets behind, of dead bodies. The photographer answered Ali’s question about how he is taking care of himself. The gentleman said “I understand that this is my job.”
Thank you for giving us your perspective of covering the atrocities of war. It breaks my heart.
Sadly, it is a job. It shocks me that I am not confused about my attitude. I know what I want to say, and after all these years in the writing game, I know how to say it.
This should be required reading. I’m sobbing. This, the impact of war on the poor, the women, the children, is rarely highlighted. Whether it is because it is not flashy enough with images of physical destruction or just too horrible to think about doesn’t matter. We are indeed inured to the banality of war.
Thank you. War is hell, but Hell described with such virtuosity is fulfilling, as provides a pathway for our emotions and helps us cope. Few could even attempt to describe in the detail that you do. The guide is more than the torch carrier, he tells you what you are seeing, why it’s important, in the magnification of their experience.
This reporting about war is exactly the sort of thing that I have to partake of in moderation. It is horrific. Thank you, Lucian, for being honest and transparent about the reality of war. 😫
We, all of us, have to screen and filter how much we absorb and how often we expose ourselves to the horrors. Keeping the mind and heart clear and strong requires limiting how much of this you take in. Stay happy in mind and heart ❤️ ✨🌍🌺
My modest local-paper-level writing has focused for years on climate change. It strikes me as the all encompassing accelerant to the proliferation of famine, genocide, forced migration and ultimately war. I expect it to get much worse.
Thank you for this. I wish it could be read world-wide by every decision-maker, although I wonder what the effect would actually be? Nonetheless, it needs to be said again and again. Keep punching and stay off the ropes, as my friend the ex-boxer Billy Abel told me yesterday.
There can never be enough words. Yours come closest to the sheer horror man is capable of doing to fellow men/women. If there is a God, he must be in despair over his creation.
You’re writing with such power, Lucian. So much granular detail. I don’t see this elsewhere.
Thanks, Steve. I've been doing this for quite awhile now. Writing is like doing push ups. The more you do, the better you get at doing them.
Thank you for your wisdom. I hope policy decisions are informed by your awareness of history.
Beautifully written. Now here's another old idea for you: why aren't women in charge of everything? It seems to me that could alleviate so many of these testosterone-driven problems.
Jefferson, I love you!! I have said it over and over again that MAN creates wars, nary a woman would send her child to fight senseless battles.
Unless she was maybe Margaret Thatcher!
Or one of Putin's idols, Catherine the Great.
Ugh
Judith I thought of Thatcher too. The exception to the rule, one would hope!
Precisely!
Well….she was coerced by none other than Ronnie!
Could be-- but she was a woman who wanted desperately to be a man, and tried her best to behave like one.
Which just demonstrates that she is the exception that proves the rule. Imagine Jacinda Ardern starting a war. Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren as POTUS getting into a war. Ridiculous. Those are non-starters.
Thatcher was indeed the exception to the rule. No argument there!
I agree completely. Women need to be in charge of everything.
Hi, Roland!! Good morning!
Hi Marlene! Right back atcha! 🥰
Absolutely brilliant, Lucian. One of the best essays on war I have ever read.
The most brilliant thing Truscott has ever written.
Honestly, Lucian, your vivid description of the ruins, well, I felt I was standing alongside of you. It is always the innocent who pay the price of wars. Man against humanity.
Last night, I watched Ali Velshi interview a photographer who has captured some of those agonizing photos of ruins, of people leaving their pets behind, of dead bodies. The photographer answered Ali’s question about how he is taking care of himself. The gentleman said “I understand that this is my job.”
Thank you for giving us your perspective of covering the atrocities of war. It breaks my heart.
Sadly, it is a job. It shocks me that I am not confused about my attitude. I know what I want to say, and after all these years in the writing game, I know how to say it.
Yes, you most certainly do.
This should be required reading. I’m sobbing. This, the impact of war on the poor, the women, the children, is rarely highlighted. Whether it is because it is not flashy enough with images of physical destruction or just too horrible to think about doesn’t matter. We are indeed inured to the banality of war.
Thank you. War is hell, but Hell described with such virtuosity is fulfilling, as provides a pathway for our emotions and helps us cope. Few could even attempt to describe in the detail that you do. The guide is more than the torch carrier, he tells you what you are seeing, why it’s important, in the magnification of their experience.
Many thanks!
Elegant, eloquent and deeply moving.
One of the best pieces I've read in my life.
Powerful, deeply evocative and haunting. Thank you, as always, for bearing honorable and eloquent witness.
This reporting about war is exactly the sort of thing that I have to partake of in moderation. It is horrific. Thank you, Lucian, for being honest and transparent about the reality of war. 😫
We, all of us, have to screen and filter how much we absorb and how often we expose ourselves to the horrors. Keeping the mind and heart clear and strong requires limiting how much of this you take in. Stay happy in mind and heart ❤️ ✨🌍🌺
Agony...
My modest local-paper-level writing has focused for years on climate change. It strikes me as the all encompassing accelerant to the proliferation of famine, genocide, forced migration and ultimately war. I expect it to get much worse.
Thank you for this. I wish it could be read world-wide by every decision-maker, although I wonder what the effect would actually be? Nonetheless, it needs to be said again and again. Keep punching and stay off the ropes, as my friend the ex-boxer Billy Abel told me yesterday.
There can never be enough words. Yours come closest to the sheer horror man is capable of doing to fellow men/women. If there is a God, he must be in despair over his creation.
Not easy to Give Peace a Chance when powerful men laugh at the idea of pursuing non violent ways to resolve disputes. Oh well....