Sunday, March 9, 2025

It Must be Won

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.

The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency;
 the second is war.
Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin.
But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country.
But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying.
You will die like a dog for no good reason.

Ernest Hemingway [1]


Since invading Ukraine three years ago, The Russians have committed war crimes.  They have targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure, raped, kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian children, mistreated prisoners of war, and executed Ukrainian civilians who opposed them.  The Russians say that they have not committed war crimes because they did not sign the international agreements that defined war crimes.  That is like a careless driver objecting to receiving a ticket for running a stop sign because he didn’t agree to putting the stop sign there.  A war crime is what it is, whether a nation signs off on it or not. 

As Ernest Hemmingway pointed out, and I have said in previous posts, war itself is a war crime.  The Book of Revelation, Chapter 6 famously describes John’s vision of the Four Horsemen.  A charismatic leader goes out to conquer, and he brings war with him.  War causes poverty and famine.  Hand in hand with the first three come sickness and death.  As John points out, war is Hell.  Want proof, take a long look at Gaza. 

President Trump says he is appalled by the slaughter in Russia’s war on Ukraine.  He says he wants to bring an end to it by brokering a peace agreement between the warring parties.  If he can get it done, then Praise God for answered prayer.  However, a word of caution is called for.  If Mr. Trump thinks he can trust Vladimir Putin, he is wrong.  You can’t do a “deal” with a criminal.  He has broken past agreements repeatedly, and he will keep any new peace agreement only as long as he thinks it is to his advantage to do so. 

Reasonable men have thought to negotiate with unreasonable, unprincipled, brutal autocrats and dictators before.  The example most cited is when, in 1938, Neville Chamberlain attempted to preserve peace in Europe by appeasing Adolph Hitler.  As a result, he agreed to recognize Italy’s claims to Ethiopia and keep Great Britain out of the Spanish Civil War.  England and France later abandoned the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, effectively giving it to Hitler.  In return, Hitler invaded Poland, and World War II was on. [2] Peace cannot be obtained by appeasing a thug. 

Brokering a just peace between the Russian Federation and Ukraine is the right thing to do.  Achieving a peace agreement by giving in to Putin’s unreasonable demands is the wrong thing to do.  We absolutely must not stab the Ukrainians in the back on this one.  If Putin gets his way in Ukraine, he will not stop there.  Like Hitler, he will move on to other countries, many of whom are now members of NATO.  If that happens, World War III is on, and humanity will be lucky to survive it.

 

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war. 

Ernest Hemingway [3]


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