Those Are Russian Mothers’ Sons

[Kamaji]

Those Are Russian Mothers’ Sons

The enemy—especially his foot soldiers—are not monsters. It behooves us never to forget that as we keep doing so, war after war.

By JAMES JEFFREY
MARCH 23, 2022

“Our ancestors have bred pugnacity into our bone and marrow, and thousands of years of peace won’t breed it out of us,” William James wrote in his 1910 essay “The Moral Equivalent of War.” “The popular imagination fairly fattens on the thought of wars.”

James’s point is borne out in the vitriol currently directed at Russia. Simplistic media narratives leave no room for recognizing that destroyed Russian military vehicles contain dead Russian sons, brothers, and fathers. After so many wars of our own here in the West, you might have hoped the shared humanity of our enemies would be established by now. The evidence suggests otherwise.

On Twitter today, I feel I might as well be back in Afghanistan in 2009 watching remote feeds of bomb drops and A-10 gun runs on the Taliban. Social and television media are awash with videos of Russian tanks and AFVs being destroyed. There are regular posts of the latest daily tally of Russian equipment losses—a weird inversion of those daily Covid-19 death tallies. People cheer Ukrainian multiple-launch rocket systems launching barrages on Russian positions and Javelin anti-tank missiles in action amid a general sense of gleeful bloodlust.

The lack of appreciation for the quandary of ordinary Russian soldiers is lamentable. These are young men in their late teens and early twenties who appear entirely expendable to their officers and leaders as they face astonishing fatigue and fear in a war many may well not believe in. The Russian top brass are not the only ones being callous toward their soldiers, judging by the content of Western media and public debate.

In case you think I am being too soft here on the Russians, I note the points recently made by Gregory S. Newbold, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general, in a recent essay for Task & Purpose that addresses what he calls “a form of dementia” prevailing among many politicians and generals over what sets the military apart, as they forget the preeminent importance of lethality. He writes:

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Source:  https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/those-are-russian-mothers-sons/

[DefiantMassRINO]

As long as they are fighting for Putin they'll be de-humanized as war criminals.

Once they are wounded, taken prisoner, surrender, or leave Ukraine, they can re-humanized.

You can't humanize someone whose actively trying to kill you.  That can cause fatal hesitancy which gets you or someone else killed.

War is the deconstruction of our humanity to create the animal instincts necessary to kill without hesitation.

War should always be the absolute last resort.

Russians don't want to kill Ukranians, and Ukrainians don't want to kill Russians.  They are Slavic brother nations.

The only man that wanted war was Putin.  He is a kleptocrat upset that he cannot steal what he thinks is already his.

https://www.boston.com/sports/new-england-patriots/2020/09/10/robert-kraft-putin-super-bowl-ring/

New details shed light on the Robert Kraft-Vladimir Putin Super Bowl ring controversy
The Bush Administration allegedly told Kraft to say that he gifted his Super Bowl ring to Putin.

By Deyscha Smith   
September 10, 2020

The controversy over how Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly stole Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl ring has made headlines throughout the years. Did Putin steal it, or did Kraft give it as a gift? Was it all just a misunderstanding? ...

[LMAO]

We dehumanized the enemy, especially the Japanese, in World War II

That dehumanization ended after they surrendered

Dehumanizing the enemy during war is done to rationalize killing of another human being. We had a patient several years ago in the hospital whose unit came upon a small group of Hitler Youths at a campfire cooking food and killed them all during hand-in-hand combat.  His wife told us he never recovered emotionally from that.