"Casualties of War"
by Joel Bowman
“War is father of all, and king of all. He renders some gods,
others men; he makes some slaves, others free.”
~ Heraclitus (5th Century BC)
Buenos Aires, Argentina - "Many and varied are the fissures, fractures and fault lines that divide mankind. Capitalism vs. communism... analytic vs. continental philosophy... Marilyn vs. Jackie... Some dichotomies, like individual rights vs. collective obligations... or Hume’s radical skepticism versus Kant’s transcendental idealism... are clear enough to differentiate such that they may be debated heartily and openly by all and sundry. Others, like a gentleman’s preference for blondes or brunettes... are fraught with peril, and thus best left to unmarried men to argue over. Moving on, then...
War in Pieces: When we left you last, we were distracting ourselves with yet another historic matchup: war vs. peace. Is the world careening toward the former, as it appears... or ready to embrace the latter? As the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us, there is a time for all things, for all seasons, under heaven... including, but not limited to...
“...a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.”
So where are we in this grand, cosmic cycle? Here, the Commander-in-Chief of history’s most powerful military gives us a not-so-subtle hint. From Fox News..."Trump signs order renaming Pentagon back to ‘Department of War’
Trump said the name is 'a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now.' Like everything The Donald does, his 200th Executive Order was met with chest beating and teary salutes from one TDS team (those given to Trump Devotion Syndrome)... and howls of protest from the other TDS faction (those soft and empty craniums in which the president lives “rent free”).
For our part, we approve of the new name... which is really a return to the old, pre-1947 name. Even if we’re not for costly foreign entanglements and mass killing to the “sound of trumpets,” as Voltaire described the scourge of war, we are in favor of calling a thing by its proper name. And whatever dubious traits the Department of Defense might claim for itself, truth in advertising was surely not among them. But let us return to the battlefields, so to speak. The latest, from the frontlines...
From AFP: "Israel army says it will use 'unprecedented force' in Gaza City." Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) – The Israeli military warned on Friday it would operate with "unprecedented force" in Gaza City, telling residents to flee southwards as it presses its ground offensive on the territory's largest urban centre. Israel has pummelled Gaza City with strikes and tank fire in its bid to seize it, nearly two years into the war that has devastated the Palestinian territory and left the Gaza City area gripped by a UN-declared famine.
Interesting timing, too. According to the newswire, “The assault comes ahead of a planned move by several Western countries, including France and Britain, to recognise a Palestinian state next week at a UN summit.” And now comes news of a “large wave of airstrikes” into southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours. Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah. Lebanon claims otherwise. And the battlefield enlarges...
War Games and Military Drills: So too does the theater of war expand in Europe, with western newswires aflutter with reports of Russian drone incursions in Poland and Romania during the past week. Russia denies the claims, with Moscow’s ambassador to the UK pointing to “many false flag operations from Kyiv authorities during these years.”
Whether true or not, the war drums beat louder by the day. From (Polish broadcaster) TVP World..."Poland and NATO deploy 30,000 troops in military drills after Russia-Belarus war games. The Polish armed forces are staging their largest military drills of the year, bringing together around 30,000 troops from Poland and NATO alongside more than 600 tanks, aircraft and missile systems. Codenamed “Iron Gate,” the exercises are taking place at a training ground in Orzysz, just 100 kilometers from the strategic Suwałki Gap - a narrow corridor connecting northeastern Poland and Lithuania, sandwiched between Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.
This area has long been described as NATO’s “Achilles’ heel” - but the drills, part of the alliance’s wider “Iron Defender” maneuvers, are meant to display unity against the backdrop of heightened tensions with Russia. NATO’s “Iron Gage” military flex comes as Germany leads a 14-nation firepower display, Quadriga 2025, in the Baltics. The exercise, which involves air, land, and naval units - including warships, aircraft, armored vehicles, and logistics operations - marshals another 8,000 troops along Russia’s border.
Then there’s Operation Eastern Sentry, ostensibly designed to “bolster NATO’s eastern flank defenses” in response to the alleged violations of Polish airspace, which involves the mobilization of assets from multiple NATO members... including fighter jets from Denmark (F-16s), France (Rafales), Germany (Eurofighters) and likely others, including from the UK (where Trump just wrapped a press tour)...
But don’t you worry, dear reader. There’s nothing to see here. Naturally, “our” war buildup – also known as “exercises” and “military drills” – are brave... defensive... and all for the good. “Their” buildup – also known as “war games” – are menacing... offensive... fashioned from pure evil.
Friend From Foe: Of course, in the fog of war, it’s difficult to tell friend from foe, the enemy at the gates from the enemy within them. Propaganda, as is well known, finds fertile soil in shallow minds. That goes for both sides. Certainly, it doesn’t take a Tolstoyan imagination to conjure the pathos-rich headlines landing on the working Russian’s doorstep every morning...
“Foreign military alliance conducts war games along Russian border.”
“NATO gathers forces, assembles fighter jets, as peace talks collapse.”
“The Germans are coming!”
At the risk of seeing things from a different perspective, a dangerous undertaking in this, the Age of Certainty, one dares ask the obvious question: what might Washington’s response be if, say, a Chinese-led military alliance amassed 30,000 troops – along with “more than 600 tanks, aircraft and missile systems” – along the Canadian border? Would such a move put the Commander-in-Chief in the mood for good faith peace negotiations? Or might it be seen as crossing the brightest of bright red lines?
One recalls Mr. Kennedy being none-too-pleased when Mr. Khrushchev was caught installing medium- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles in America’s own backyard, in Cuba, back in 1962. Indeed, the human race waited in tenterhooks as U.S. forces worldwide were raised to DEFCON 2, the highest level ever in U.S. history short of nuclear war.
Several near misses and miscommunications during the crisis – including a US spy plane being shot down over Cuba (the pilot was killed)... and another veering into Russian airspace... on the very same day – could easily have triggered the “mutually assured destruction” the world so feared. In the end, it is something of a miracle that man – aided in no small part by his own dumb luck – has managed to avoid nuclear annihilation for this long.
Yes, dear reader, the story of our errant species is not without its moments of hubris and folly. No doubt both sides thought themselves on the “right side of history” along the way... but like so many things, history is only good while it lasts. Truth, as they say, is often the first casualty of war. But it’s not just the one-sided coverage of foreign conflicts that has hampered America’s once proud Fourth Estate.
From the fake-news-a-thon during the general elections… to the Covid hysteria… to ongoing cultural wars… to slanted and partisan coverage of every aspect of daily life, even down to the weather itself… people are growing tired of being fed “the narrative.” Indeed, the latest polls from Gallup show American’s Trust in Media at a well-deserved, five decade low."
Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World..."
