The Perpetrating of One Travesty of Justice

After Another
Until war continues to be thought of as
something bad, it will always exercise
some fascination.
When it will be considered something vulgar,
it will cease to be popular.

Oscar Wilde
John-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) once put forward the notion that a person
who commits suicide commits a tragedy that touches all of us, and that was
because he or she, had been let go by humanity. We all did not succor the
victim, and that is humankind’s tragedy, in addition. That individual had
been left on the outside by humankind, and had not found a solution to her
or his dilemma that then became, in addition to their own, our quandary.
Sartre must have been a kind, generous, and sensitive fellow to have
thought that we should sympathize with someone who had lost interest in
his or her own life. As if he had turned his cheek. Sartre sought what was
the “good.” With his existentialism he became “better,” and many others of
us did so, too. He possessed compassion for the human race. (Sartre would
tip his waiter/waitress the same amount as cost the bill.) He was a biophilic
personality. (An in-between biophilic personality, Frank Sinatra, often
tipped his server with a $1000 bill realizing, at the time, that servers were
often working their ways through university. Of course, Frank also was
renowned for his violent outbursts and possible organized crime
connections.)

I wish to contrast the French philosopher with a necrophilic personality:

Josef Stalin (1878-1953). Stalin once remarked that “the death of one man is
a tragedy; but, the death of a 1,000,000 men is History.” (He also commented
when asked what he thought of Pope Pious XII: “How many divisions does
he have?”) Stalin—and just by his language—was cold and calculating.
Devoid of compassion, empathy, and trust. He sought what was “bad” and
became worse with what he had accomplished throughout his military and
political careers. For him, it was uncomplicated to consign the memories of
1,000,000 individuals to the pages of History.

For two thousand years “European humankind” has been murdering/killing

itself off at will—usually for some sort of property and/or abundance.
Millions upon millions…. Record-breaking deaths of combatants and non-
combatants were registered during the twentieth century when the First &
Second World Wars were fought. Some estimate as many as 200,000,000
people. How many were children? How many were women raped? How
many had been tortured? One German woman sociologist has scientifically
estimated that 1,000,000 European women were raped by Russian, German,
American, and English soldiers during the Second World War.

War is in the DNA of the Europeans and has been for more than two
thousand years. Their colonialisms and imperialisms even exported the art
of aggression to other parts of the world where it flourished. In the
Americas millions of native Indians were massacred by the English and
Spanish in order to make way for Europeans themselves escaping from
political, religious, and economic persecution. In Africa and Asia the whip
of the Europeans’ bluster was also inflicted mercilessly. But it was the
Second World War that outdid all butcheries of human beings. It would
seem that nothing at all has been learned from that carnage. As if no effort
was made to do away with war. “War is war, and it will ever be with us. It’s
part of us and will always be so. There is nothing we can do about it.” So let
us just accept it as some fait accompli?

Let the Russians and the Ukrainians go at it. Let them kill themselves to
their hearts content. Let us give them the means to do it. I live in Italy—the
world’s sixth biggest arms exporter. Out of one side of their mouths Italian
politicians call for the Russian Federation to stop attacking the Ukraine, and
out of the other side they make arms’ deals with both the Russian
Federation and Ukraine. And the Italians helped the Nazis kill 30,000,000
Soviets during the Second World War! Now Italian politicians are
threatening to condemn the Russians before international courts of justice
accusing them of war crimes and even genocide. I am reminded here of a
quote about the Italians by André Glucksmann (1937-2015), the French
philosopher: “The Italians are the most entertaining buffoons in a
continent that does not have a brain in its head.”
Is it not time to say that there is something not right with the European
continent and its satellites? (Better said, “Is it not time to say that there is
something not right with Western Civilization One (Europe) and Western
Civilization Two (the DisUnited States of America?)That their objectives are
out of whack? That they have lost the sense of what it means to survive
within their own biospheres? That they are floundering in a sea of
desperation, confusion, and self-doubt? Must they not find a better role
model to follow? That what they are doing is reprehensible and non-
productive for anyone, anywhere, anytime?

Does this even have to be said? Do we think we can be content

nonchalantly flipping the pages of History after every time there is a
devastating war or conflict? What will arouse us to change us as never as
before? To start from the beginning all over again? There is no reason for
reasonable individuals to think otherwise—that we cannot renew ourselves
and incorporate ourselves into a new and more positive mode of living and
cooperation with others and others with us. It might be that we have no
choice.

Right now there is a “war” brewing between the Russian Federation and the
Ukraine—one of sixty other conflicts, according to one newspaper, now
ongoing throughout the world. No one is present to stop even one of them
in order to seek peace. There is protest against the conflicts, but they are
dissents that anticipate new events, details—as if we are waiting for more of
it, that what interests us most: the bloodcurdling fleshing outs surrounding
this “human abnormality.” Not only is there for some a hunger for war, for
others there is a craving for discussions concerning it. And television
stations and social medias are reeling with commentary by “experts” in
diplomacy, the military, and politics to keep viewers and listeners abreast of
the latest, up-to-the-minute details that concern the most recent attacks,
maneuvers of the warring military forces, and the death and wounded
statistics. War is an accepted fact. How are we going to stop it if we
acquiesce to its existence so insouciantly?

I also ask this: Why so often in Europe? Europe has been the Seat of
Battles, Wars. Europe is the Birthplace of War. Europe is where war was
given the nihil obstat quominus imprimatur by the saint, Thomas Aquinas.
Ever since groupings of European nations have dwelled next to each other,
they have followed the path of Battle Deaths. Would it be possible to count
all the deaths in Europe caused by wars, battles? Europeans hold the
world’s record for the killings of each other. Are they proud? Do they want
more? Are they again yearning for a genuine world war? Third World War?...
Really?

In 1960, the population of the world was estimated at 3 billion. Today it is at

8,000,000,000. From what I know about many people, I know they do not
want to participate in violence of any kind. I lived in New York for 21 years;
in the State of Oklahoma (Fort Sill) for 1 year; in the north of Vietnam for 1
year; in the Miami, Florida area for 4 years; in the Gainesville, Florida area
for about 4 years, in Caracas, Venezuela for almost 8 years; and, I now live in
Tuscany, Italy since 1 May 1983. I have a fair idea concerning the human
race and its inherent make-up. Most are pacific and want peace and quiet.
About 10-15% can be provoked to violence. About 10-15% will do all in their
ability to avoid violence. The rest, about 70% will stand still frozen not
knowing what to do in most cases that challenge them; and, they are
subjects easily led by others, those who can be adroitly induced to follow
fanatics and political strangenesses. (If you want to think badly about
people, become a priest, minister, or rabbi! But first give people a chance.
Many will amaze you with their friendliness.)

A sordid case in point for me, is the Mŷ Lai Massacre that occurred in
South Viet Nam, March, 1968, during which American soldiers murdered
Vietnamese civilians, children, and the elderly. This atrocity was performed,
and of course later covered up, under extenuating circumstances but it
underscored the poor ethical and military background training of American
soldiers and their low-educated superior officers. Not all members of the
infantry company participated in the mass murdering that eventually
counted some 500 dead bodies all toll. Many of the “grunts” had been left in
an ethical counterbalance: to kill or not to kill. Fortunately, not all members
of that infantry company of the 11 th Infantry Brigade took part in the free-
for-all killings probably because their upbringings prevented them from
doing so. It was not the Army’s training that prevented them. This tragedy
was by no means the only dishonorable event that tainted the United
States’ presence in Southeast Asia, and America paid, and continues to pay,
an enormous price for its unethical behavior carried out during its tenure
in South East Asia. The event should not have taken place, but there there
was little moral tutelage that could have prevented the tragedy—the
leadership quality of the Army’s officer corps was shamefully deficient.
It might be said that an American citizen raised on Hollywood films
depicting war and its violence, might be brainwashed into thinking that “all
is fair in love and war.” That a soldier placed on a battle field possesses the
license to kill at will to protect his or her country from some adjudged
enemy. It used to be so. Now we cannot, should not, risk antagonizing others
so vehemently. There exist so, so many others who might want to rile us!
Makes sense, no?

I wish to close this essay with an observation that I believe is pertinent

regards the conflict now playing out in the Ukraine between Russian and
Ukrainian military forces and that has caused so much suffering especially
for Ukrainian civilians, millions of whom have been displaced from their
homes and have left their homeland devastated and razed to the ground in
many places.

If we refer to History, we can remind ourselves that the aftermath of the

Second World War left cities all over the world demolished and in need of
rebuilding. Think of Dresden and Berlin in Germany. Think of Tokyo,
Nagasaki, and Hiroshima in Japan. These huge metropolitans were
destroyed not only because they were “the enemy,” but also because they
were examples of “non-progressive, non-capitalist” city states.

After the Second World War, German cities and Japanese cities were rebuilt
from “scratch,” and they became vibrant “Judeo-Christian ‘Democratic’
Capitalist” powerhouses. (I keep reminding Italians that there are countless
numbers of American entrepreneurs who would love to renovate the
Colesseum in Rome and convert it into a stadium for sports and concert
spectaculars.) If we look at the newsreels from the Ukraine, it is obvious
that that country will eventually have to be reconstructed—by whom, by
what resources? That remains to be seen. But we may guess.

One thing is certain. The DisUnited States of America, working behind the
scenes, is furnishing the Ukraine with the arms it needs to live out its
phantasy that it can defeat the Russian Federation—while, in fact, it is in
the process of helping to destroy the Ukraine for the return of Harvard
MBAs and disciples of Jeffrey Sacks and Thomas Friedman. A reconstructed
Ukraine, an economically prodigious capitalist Disneyland, right next to
China and the Russian Federation, would serve to impress upon those
hammer & sickle populations that capitalism and liberal democracy are not
only well and alive, they are thriving right in their backyards.
Should we blame Vladimir Putin for being furious?
Yankee go home! And stay home!

Authored by Anthony St. John

25 April MMXXII
Calenzano, Italy
anthony.st.john1944@gmail.com

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