INSANITY

The horror show of the Ukraine Conflict continues at an ever-increasing rate. I remember the first televised war which was the Vietnam War. The American people, and the world were fed a constant stream of news films from Vietnam that were meant to shock people with the level of death and destruction. The media agenda of showing the film was to turn the public against the war. It was the beginning of what has been called “war porn.” We now have generations, in the West, who have never experienced the horror of war, all they have had is the increasingly realistic war films produced by the entertainment industry, not to mention the video games ubiquitous on the web. As a combat veteran who has seen the horror of war, I have been asked many times “what was it really like to be in combat.” The next question is usually, which of the war films is the most realistic. It seems that, for some people, there is no end to their need to get in touch with the reality of combat.

Today, the internet is filled with hundreds of short videos from the Ukraine Conflict which show, in graphic detail, the results of a brutal war and the extremely destructive weapons of modern war. “War porn” is everywhere and there seems to be an insatiable appetite for it.  Without a doubt, it is desensitizing the general public to a reality they hope they never have to experience. Like so much evil in the world today, with overwhelming exposure to it, people are getting a “ho-hum” attitude.

I believe it is our political class that has become the most desensitized to the destructive nature of war, and the decisions they are making, especially here in the West, can best be described as insane.

The Ukraine has now become the dumping ground for old weapon systems of the West that have marginal utility on the battlefield today. How old are the American Tube-Launched, Optically Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) anti-tank missile systems? I remember them in 1972 during the Vietnam War. How long will these TOW systems, mounted on light vehicles, last under a serious Russian artillery barrage. Think about it.

How old are the American made, Stinger man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) that operate as an infrared homing surface-to-air missile (SAM). They entered service in 1981. Does anyone remember the story of the U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens who was killed in Benghazi on September 11, 2011?  There were many stories that Ambassador Stevens had been sent to Benghazi to secretly retrieve US made Stinger Missiles that had been supplied to forces in Libya without Congressional permission. Does anyone remember that some of the Stinger missiles ended up in Afghanistan and it was reported that one of them was fired at a US Army Chinook helicopter? Fortunately, it did not explode, but it was reported that the information taken from the missile was traced back to a stash of US missiles that had been kept in Qatar.

There is growing evidence that some of the weapons that are being poured into Ukraine are ending up in the black markets of the weapons trade. The degree of accountability for the weapons being sent to Ukraine is abysmal at best. Weak voices from the American congress have made noises about accountability but very few people hold out any hope that an effective accounting for the weapons will ever happen. Will we see many of these weapons flooding into European countries and being put in the hands of people who want to hurt Europeans?  Has it already happened?  Many people watched videos of some of the rioters firing automatic weapons in the streets of France. How sad, and pathetic, to watch French citizens trying to defend themselves and their property with bats and sticks. Without weapons of their own, European citizens have no chance to stand up to well-armed rioters in their countries.

How long will it be before we see a serious incident of a stinger-like missile fired at a civilian aircraft somewhere in Europe?  It is clear that the blood now flowing in the Ukraine may well spread to places not imagined just a few short months ago. Will the politicians feeding the war machine be held accountable for the blood on their hands? If history is any indicator, the insanity will continue until there are no more Ukrainians willing to die for a lost cause.