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For the other articles see > SPECIAL ARCHIVE UKRAINE
There is talk of Godot here and there, and gas has replaced him somewhat, while images of war crimes and destructions accumulate along with the feigned withdrawal of the occupying army.
The West has given itself an appearance of coherence, while in other parts of the world, this imperial war by Putin brings up memories of other wars, by the same one, in Georgia, Chechnya, Syria, or yet again, those fought by “the West” in the Middle-East and on the African continent.
Godot no longer serves any purpose other than justifying temporizing while some in Europe shamelessly carry on with providing their interpretations of the origins of this war, to a background of electioneering for some, and of fears for energy supplies for others, and Russian tactical pullback of troops uncovers their killings and other crimes.
The fierce resistance of the Ukrainian populations, the organization and solidarity of which they are capable caused a momentary surge in unified condemnation of the Russian aggression and in the will to isolate the aggressor while aiding Ukraine, including with weapons. Apparently, such is a unified response from the European States and NATO.
Yet, there are still voices denouncing the shipment of weapons for Ukraine’s military resistance or for limiting them, even while witnessing an entire people organizing a war of resistance. The Ukrainian people refuse what was called in other historical times, armistice and collaboration from the same voices suggesting “necessary compromise” following urgent “negotiations”.
Are these same voices still questioning themselves on the “red lines” of “non-intervention” set by the “Westerners” themselves?
For that is the vocabulary now re-emerging, with its procession of “values” questioned quite rightly by a number of countries across the world, before aligning or not around decided sanctions. On which of the bombs are these “values” inscribed?
And without searching any further, why are they different when it comes to refugees?
How can they express themselves in real time, through human solidarity, during every passing day of this war, while, at the same time, having the taste in our mouths of the lies spoken by international political leaders?
Considering the destruction of towns and cities, the annihilation of all potentialities for social and economic life, the deliberate assassination of civilians, terror perpetrated against them through every means available, rapes, kidnappings, bombings, the obligation to flee. The words “war crimes” emerge then, and with them the idea of international justice passing judgment.
But a good number of members of the very Security Council at the UN have ratified none of the conventions recognizing the power of the tribunal over their actions. Exit the crimes committed in Irak, for example. Nothing about those committed in Chechnya, or Syria, Libya, Erithrea…
While almost every single contract signed with Russia for weapons in the last few years were honored, given the partner’s snow-white innocence.
So, will we settle for yammering against “dirty wars”, “the same as all the others” or even mentioning at times the “stress experienced by Rusian soldiers poorly greeted by the populations” (sic)?
So as not to add “war to war”, will the European States impel these violated and displaced populations to a “territorial compromise” ? It would definitely be in the best of European traditions.
Beside the fact this would mean there is nothing else to wait for except the next war, that would mean using Ukraine’s soil to cover over other legitimate resentments, ready to break out again, and would be nothing other than the peace of the assassins.
Twenty-six years after the fact, even the tribunal over Ex-Yugoslavia — which was followed by a disguised ethnic partition — did not provide protection for what is already announcing itself in this context of Russian aggression. This matter of international justice then becomes nothing other than a way to attenuate the power of the images arriving from crime scenes. What has the EU retained of Srebrenica?
It is difficult for capitalist European States to question the applied globalization model in which Russian fossil energies took pride of place and to realize that this happy facade of globalization was built on an absence of reciprocal security pacts, other than the call to the protection by NATO, itself nothing but a military agreement. These same States were made to realize, when a far right populist was in power in the USA that their « protection » rested on his good will, and, at the same time, that they had closed their eyes for 20 years over the nature of the Russian regime, suddenly so clearly revealed in the light of day. These last twenty years were dominated by European Neo-liberalism, with political alliances between social democracies and right-leaning liberals, they were the years of the Euro and of free enterprise, not that of the union of the Peoples in Europe and beyond, and of those truly indispensable “compromises”, those required for a common living space on the Continent.
Yet, Peace through Money has lived.
There is no dearth of literature, congresses and meetings, programs and studies, seminars, speeches, books and films showing that the Peoples in Europe have notions concerning their future.
And that future does not go through competition through trade be it free or tricked, nor through military or economic war either. Not through that path which is the one of deregulated capitalism whose only regulating mechanisms are through crises, wars and imperialist ventures.
Thus does the war in Ukraine reveal this failure for the peace represented by this pseudo happy capitalist globalization. Not only does this financial capitalism make war between the classes among the Peoples, but it can make them rise up against one another. And if the EU had managed to occult it for a time, reality is still there. This capitalism does not protect from wars, it even feeds on them.
This war also occurs as political sovereignism invades Europe and its political elites. This terme of “elite” is poorly chosen no doubt, when one sees the weakness and stupidity of the identitarian populist leaders providing the scum on this sovereignist broth. But the facts are there, this war and the apparent unity within the EU cannot hide the ideological proximities that persist. Those currently turning their backs on Putin because of the war, continue carrying the same visions of power as he does.
More than ever, this war turns us into spectators. Even solidarity becomes a spectacle. Often the media over here show us more of the solidarity and generosity generated for the Ukrainian people than it does of that existing among themselves; when faced by such aggression, populations would not have been able to resist without extremely strong links of interior solidarity and sharing. Here also, this type of coverage serves to assuage guilty consciences and pushes back questions about how to get the aggressor to yield, how to avoid letting this war become a stinking canker on the European continent becoming accustomed to the stench.
VLADIMIR - Was I sleeping while others suffered? Am I sleeping at the moment? Tomorow, when I will think I’m awakening, what will I say about this day?
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.
To be continued, while waiting…
For the other articles see > SPECIAL ARCHIVE UKRAINE
Translation from French by Renée Lucie Bourges
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