To add a bit to the part of France and World War II. I have a dear friend from St. Mere Eglise whose father was the mayor when Americans parachuted into their town and were gunned down as they descended, as we've seen in a movie of that. To this day, the Renauds welcome grandly the American soldiers, so few now still alive, and honor them every year. My friend's mother continued to support and help Americans and is called Mother of Normandy. Their gratitude is as strong as it was then. And I agree, this is a powerful piece of yours and I am so grateful we have you and your experience and knowledge now about then.
Indeed, the French have never forgotten "Les Parachutistes American" to this day. In the South of France on August 14, they were hailed as saviors of many towns, and when my father went back in 1984 (with children in tow) he was feted as a hometown boy come back (it didn't hurt that his name was French...).
They are simply so grateful that someone gave a damn about their country. They didn't even care that there was damage to their property as long as it was claimed back from the Germans.
I know we've all heard over a lot of years, I'm already old, that the French are rude and don't like us. I have been to France many times and I never, ever had that experience. They were always wonderful to me. Once I landed on the sidewalk and there were three young men who came to help me up. Well, I was relatively young then also. But still...
All I know is this: Appeasing bullies never works. It only delays the inevitable. . . And allows the bullies an advantage in positioning. Not just in war, but also in politics…right down to the neighborhood gang.
Your grandfather, it should be recalled, led the forces that landed in the south of France in August 1944 and fought their way northward against the Nazis through the Dordgone.
Atrocities are not the exclusive purvey of evil dictators. In 2003 when the US shelled Iraqi cities this same way, thousands of innocent civilians died. Ditto the illegal bombings of Laos and Cambodia, the quasi-legal bombings of Hanoi and the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the three-year campaign of firebombing North Korea (by 1953 that not a single building stood in Pyongyang). From March to August 1945, 65% of Japanese urban area was destroyed by B-29s with M-29 cluster munitions that fluttered down onto rooftops and alleys, then spewed napalm beanbags to create inhuman firestorms. Then there were the fire bombings of Dresden and Hamburg.
American history is equally mute about the US invasion of the Philippines, where there was a standing order to shoot on sight any male over the age of ten, an illegal war in which upwards of half a million Filipinos died. And of course there was Wounded Knee, the last of the great native extermination events in which most of the casualties were women and children.
Stalin killed more than three million Ukrainians by starving them to death. Churchill did the same thing in India ten years later, but that is seldom mentioned by western politicians. Lord knows how many died under Mao's Cultural Revolution, or at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, or Ratko Mladic.
My point is that it's only considered genocide if your war is not victorious. The winners couch atrocities with rationalization.
When asked about U.S. actions in Japan during World War II, McNamara responded, “LeMay said if we’d lost the war, we’d all have been prosecuted as war criminals. And I think he’s right. . . . LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose, and not immoral if you win?”
I, too, could list war crimes all day, but as a writer, you have to pick and choose, and you must have a beginning of a story and an end. I could spend all day on a subject like this. As it is, I spent a half day.
I appreciate your hard work and incisive commentary on a horrific situation. I'm dreadfully aware, too, that if Putin begins to deploy tactical nuclear weapons, all our discussions will be rendered moot. Keep up the excellent efforts
Great story very moving.... Sad how these smaller places like Ukr are just sacrificial pawns in some bigger battle... Terrifying things were hearing about these are very troubling times
Nothing is more disgusting than intentionally targeting non combatants unable to defend themselves against artillery and bombs. Putin wins the award for atrocities thus far in this century. Well documented, if he is ever captured and put on trial.
Weird how with Iraq we parade around on boats declaring victory and expect applause... This time the west is trying to put the big squeeze on and everyone is pretty fine with that... Although any alternative for these actions are Always brushed away like dust
The picture published the other day of a mother and her two children, and another man killed by a mortar and commented about by LT4 says it all. It is heartbreaking.
We are already seeing shortages of food, water and medical supplies as well as refugees being exposed to cold weather without heat or shelter.
My fear is Putin’ has adopted a strategy not just of targeting civilians but of destroying infrastructure so as to place a burden on the Ukrainian government of supporting not just their military but millions of refugees thus by definition degrading the military’s ability to focus on defending territory and mounting any meaningful attacks on the invaders.
This has become not just a war but a campaign of terror against civilians. We can only hope Putin and his military first continues to bleed for as long as they occupy Ukraine and some of them be tried as war criminals.
I'd simply call it war crimes. I'd suggest that in addition to confiscation of their worldly goods, anyone who has been helping, aiding or encouraging Putin to wage this invasion and war to be put on a list of war criminals to be tried at the Hague.
Unfortunately the US is still not part of the ICC, so we'd have to join to have an effective voice-and I'm sure that the Russians aren't either, but that's where justice should be done.
But it's the perfect venue for a trial:
"The Rome Statute requires that several criteria exist in a particular case before an individual can be prosecuted by the Court. The Statute contains three jurisdictional requirements and three admissibility requirements. All criteria must be met for a case to proceed. The three jurisdictional requirements are (1) subject-matter jurisdiction (what acts constitute crimes), (2) territorial or personal jurisdiction (where the crimes were committed or who committed them), and (3) temporal jurisdiction (when the crimes were committed). "
The perpetrators are murders and should be treated as such as soon as possible 😡‼️
The Poles flew 28 MiG 28s to Ramstein today. They will be replaced with F-16s asap. The MiGs are for the Ukrainians. They thought the US was being slow on the deal, so they just did it.
Also, there are about 7,500 foreign fighters in the Ukraine.
Because of the inhumane conduct by the Russians, it is thought that you won’t see many more captured pilots and soldiers - alive. I’m totally ok with that. It’s become that kind of war.
Between Hitler and von Rundstedt, and Putin and Stalin, there is little to choose from. For the most part, the United States government and United States Army decided to look the other way and pretend that the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex was beyond the range of American bombers. In fact, heavy bombers launched from southern Italy as part of the 15th Air Force routinely overflew the main concentration camp and its satellites; it just wasn't part of American domestic politics to do anything about it. The United Nations General Assembly could take a stand if there was someone around to show leadership; but the General Assembly has long been a place for scoring talking points, and not getting anything substantive done. If anything, the Assembly is a swamp of 'whataboutism'. Every government represented there is so afraid of having their feet held of the fire that they'd rather stand around in an embarrassed silence rather than at some future date be accused of being hypocrites. In addition to rampant 'whataboutism', there is FOMA, fear of missing out on some future deal with some big shot or government far away who might object to the calls to conscience today. Understandably, the most common emotion expressed today in the UN can be summarized as, 'Thank God it isn't us they're doing this to'. If we want others to show courage, we need to 'show some leg' now. Rather than dancing to the tune of a madman, we might start by insisting on some necessary boundaries on Putin's behavior right now. Declaring his attack on Ukraine a 'crime against humanity' might be a good place to start. China won't vote for it, and neither will Belarus; but that's not the point. If we are not ready to do that, then we are wasting our time trying to look good before the cameras, and pretending that we care.
You nailed it. There's so many similarities between Putin's war and Hitler's war, that it astounds me that nobody (or very few) are paying attention to the historical record. Seriously. The shelling of residential neighborhoods seals Putin's fate in the world at large inasmuch as he will never be able to travel outside Russia, China, or N. Korea without being shot out of the sky (if they know he's in the air). He'll never be able to land in a western country and and be completely safe from arrest. This will probably apply eventually to his immediate family and the Oligarchs too. He's cornered. Here's the issue as I see it: A black-tipped tail weasel once got into my bedroom at Tahoe. I had a Maine Coon cat who cornered that mutha and the fight was to the death. Putin is cornered and his choices are surrender or unleash hell on the world. I just hope and pray that the fight to the death doesn't include the incineration of the world's cities, including Santa Monica.
Unfortunately the longer a war like this goes on the easier it will be for the attacking army to kill without remorse or hesitation which inevitably leads to systematic executions of villagers.
To add a bit to the part of France and World War II. I have a dear friend from St. Mere Eglise whose father was the mayor when Americans parachuted into their town and were gunned down as they descended, as we've seen in a movie of that. To this day, the Renauds welcome grandly the American soldiers, so few now still alive, and honor them every year. My friend's mother continued to support and help Americans and is called Mother of Normandy. Their gratitude is as strong as it was then. And I agree, this is a powerful piece of yours and I am so grateful we have you and your experience and knowledge now about then.
Indeed, the French have never forgotten "Les Parachutistes American" to this day. In the South of France on August 14, they were hailed as saviors of many towns, and when my father went back in 1984 (with children in tow) he was feted as a hometown boy come back (it didn't hurt that his name was French...).
They are simply so grateful that someone gave a damn about their country. They didn't even care that there was damage to their property as long as it was claimed back from the Germans.
My dad was one of those. Among his other awards (he is now deceased) was the French Foreign Legion Award.
I know we've all heard over a lot of years, I'm already old, that the French are rude and don't like us. I have been to France many times and I never, ever had that experience. They were always wonderful to me. Once I landed on the sidewalk and there were three young men who came to help me up. Well, I was relatively young then also. But still...
Jesus, what a powerful piece of writing, Lucian.
All I know is this: Appeasing bullies never works. It only delays the inevitable. . . And allows the bullies an advantage in positioning. Not just in war, but also in politics…right down to the neighborhood gang.
Your grandfather, it should be recalled, led the forces that landed in the south of France in August 1944 and fought their way northward against the Nazis through the Dordgone.
Atrocities are not the exclusive purvey of evil dictators. In 2003 when the US shelled Iraqi cities this same way, thousands of innocent civilians died. Ditto the illegal bombings of Laos and Cambodia, the quasi-legal bombings of Hanoi and the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the three-year campaign of firebombing North Korea (by 1953 that not a single building stood in Pyongyang). From March to August 1945, 65% of Japanese urban area was destroyed by B-29s with M-29 cluster munitions that fluttered down onto rooftops and alleys, then spewed napalm beanbags to create inhuman firestorms. Then there were the fire bombings of Dresden and Hamburg.
American history is equally mute about the US invasion of the Philippines, where there was a standing order to shoot on sight any male over the age of ten, an illegal war in which upwards of half a million Filipinos died. And of course there was Wounded Knee, the last of the great native extermination events in which most of the casualties were women and children.
Stalin killed more than three million Ukrainians by starving them to death. Churchill did the same thing in India ten years later, but that is seldom mentioned by western politicians. Lord knows how many died under Mao's Cultural Revolution, or at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, or Ratko Mladic.
My point is that it's only considered genocide if your war is not victorious. The winners couch atrocities with rationalization.
When asked about U.S. actions in Japan during World War II, McNamara responded, “LeMay said if we’d lost the war, we’d all have been prosecuted as war criminals. And I think he’s right. . . . LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose, and not immoral if you win?”
I, too, could list war crimes all day, but as a writer, you have to pick and choose, and you must have a beginning of a story and an end. I could spend all day on a subject like this. As it is, I spent a half day.
I appreciate your hard work and incisive commentary on a horrific situation. I'm dreadfully aware, too, that if Putin begins to deploy tactical nuclear weapons, all our discussions will be rendered moot. Keep up the excellent efforts
Also, that's a fantastic essay. You've really brought your best to this. It's up there with Michael Herr and Gellhorn's works.
Great story very moving.... Sad how these smaller places like Ukr are just sacrificial pawns in some bigger battle... Terrifying things were hearing about these are very troubling times
Nothing is more disgusting than intentionally targeting non combatants unable to defend themselves against artillery and bombs. Putin wins the award for atrocities thus far in this century. Well documented, if he is ever captured and put on trial.
Weird how with Iraq we parade around on boats declaring victory and expect applause... This time the west is trying to put the big squeeze on and everyone is pretty fine with that... Although any alternative for these actions are Always brushed away like dust
Nothing and everything.
The picture published the other day of a mother and her two children, and another man killed by a mortar and commented about by LT4 says it all. It is heartbreaking.
We are already seeing shortages of food, water and medical supplies as well as refugees being exposed to cold weather without heat or shelter.
My fear is Putin’ has adopted a strategy not just of targeting civilians but of destroying infrastructure so as to place a burden on the Ukrainian government of supporting not just their military but millions of refugees thus by definition degrading the military’s ability to focus on defending territory and mounting any meaningful attacks on the invaders.
This has become not just a war but a campaign of terror against civilians. We can only hope Putin and his military first continues to bleed for as long as they occupy Ukraine and some of them be tried as war criminals.
Why do we find ourselves at this point over and over in humanity.
I'd simply call it war crimes. I'd suggest that in addition to confiscation of their worldly goods, anyone who has been helping, aiding or encouraging Putin to wage this invasion and war to be put on a list of war criminals to be tried at the Hague.
Unfortunately the US is still not part of the ICC, so we'd have to join to have an effective voice-and I'm sure that the Russians aren't either, but that's where justice should be done.
But it's the perfect venue for a trial:
"The Rome Statute requires that several criteria exist in a particular case before an individual can be prosecuted by the Court. The Statute contains three jurisdictional requirements and three admissibility requirements. All criteria must be met for a case to proceed. The three jurisdictional requirements are (1) subject-matter jurisdiction (what acts constitute crimes), (2) territorial or personal jurisdiction (where the crimes were committed or who committed them), and (3) temporal jurisdiction (when the crimes were committed). "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court
The perpetrators are murders and should be treated as such as soon as possible 😡‼️
The Poles flew 28 MiG 28s to Ramstein today. They will be replaced with F-16s asap. The MiGs are for the Ukrainians. They thought the US was being slow on the deal, so they just did it.
Also, there are about 7,500 foreign fighters in the Ukraine.
Because of the inhumane conduct by the Russians, it is thought that you won’t see many more captured pilots and soldiers - alive. I’m totally ok with that. It’s become that kind of war.
Thank you for your essay reminding us of the savagery of war and how we should never forget
Between Hitler and von Rundstedt, and Putin and Stalin, there is little to choose from. For the most part, the United States government and United States Army decided to look the other way and pretend that the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex was beyond the range of American bombers. In fact, heavy bombers launched from southern Italy as part of the 15th Air Force routinely overflew the main concentration camp and its satellites; it just wasn't part of American domestic politics to do anything about it. The United Nations General Assembly could take a stand if there was someone around to show leadership; but the General Assembly has long been a place for scoring talking points, and not getting anything substantive done. If anything, the Assembly is a swamp of 'whataboutism'. Every government represented there is so afraid of having their feet held of the fire that they'd rather stand around in an embarrassed silence rather than at some future date be accused of being hypocrites. In addition to rampant 'whataboutism', there is FOMA, fear of missing out on some future deal with some big shot or government far away who might object to the calls to conscience today. Understandably, the most common emotion expressed today in the UN can be summarized as, 'Thank God it isn't us they're doing this to'. If we want others to show courage, we need to 'show some leg' now. Rather than dancing to the tune of a madman, we might start by insisting on some necessary boundaries on Putin's behavior right now. Declaring his attack on Ukraine a 'crime against humanity' might be a good place to start. China won't vote for it, and neither will Belarus; but that's not the point. If we are not ready to do that, then we are wasting our time trying to look good before the cameras, and pretending that we care.
Thank you for your astonishing output during this crisis - both its wisdom and its humanity.
You nailed it. There's so many similarities between Putin's war and Hitler's war, that it astounds me that nobody (or very few) are paying attention to the historical record. Seriously. The shelling of residential neighborhoods seals Putin's fate in the world at large inasmuch as he will never be able to travel outside Russia, China, or N. Korea without being shot out of the sky (if they know he's in the air). He'll never be able to land in a western country and and be completely safe from arrest. This will probably apply eventually to his immediate family and the Oligarchs too. He's cornered. Here's the issue as I see it: A black-tipped tail weasel once got into my bedroom at Tahoe. I had a Maine Coon cat who cornered that mutha and the fight was to the death. Putin is cornered and his choices are surrender or unleash hell on the world. I just hope and pray that the fight to the death doesn't include the incineration of the world's cities, including Santa Monica.
Well put, my brother in arms👍
Unfortunately the longer a war like this goes on the easier it will be for the attacking army to kill without remorse or hesitation which inevitably leads to systematic executions of villagers.