George W. Bush Jr., Vladimir Putin, and War Crimes
The first time I went to Washington D.C. for a protest, it was in opposition to a potential invasion of a foreign nation by a militarized superpower using disinformation to justify the war.
I’m talking about George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq and so-called “weapons of mass destruction.”
Of course, that administration didn’t limit itself to lies about the weapons the nation it was attacking possessed. It also justified torturing prisoners.
And of course all of this was really just cover for the real reason for our presence there: oil.
That’s our nation. My nation. The one where I am a citizen.
Now in 2022, watching Vladimir Putin commit war crimes in Ukraine, I feel just as powerless and enraged and distracted by the trumped up reasons Putin is giving for his war.
He claims Ukraine is led by Nazis. He considers Ukraine a military threat to his country.
But of course his real reason for the war is long-standing. He’s always wanted Ukraine and those lands. And he’s just the most recent in a long line of successors who sought the same. I’m reading an essay by Ernst Käsemann right now in a collection of his theological works, and he might as well have been describing Putin in 2022 when he writes in 1969 about Ukraine and Russia’s geopolitical aspirations.
But at least during Bush’s war crime spree I had the responsibility and opportunity to protest and resist. I loaded up into a bus with hundreds of other Wisconsinites and order through the night to stand on the mall and say, “No war!”
This time, it’s hard to know how to protest a war we didn’t initiate (even if on some levels we have probably precipitated). Of course we take up collections for refugees fleeing to safer nations. Our congregation is supporting a ministry in Slovakia housing refugees, and our local refugee resettlement affiliate will likely receive refugees if Ukrainians come to the United States.
And I’m thankful, as always, for the champions of cultures who help us understand places and peoples better, as some are doing for Ukrainian literature and music these days.
A few examples:
Ukrainian rock band in discussion with Billy Bragg
But I keep coming back to this sense that especially when we are powerless and geographically distant, a good portion of our responsibility is that of repentance. We are called to self-examination, called to ask ourselves how our inaction contributed to what we are now facing globally, ask ourselves how our direct actions exacerbated it.
For this reason I especially appreciate the dialogue modeled by Billy Bragg and Beton, who learned from each other and repented and are working to do better.
This is part of the work. Yes help refugees. Yes strive for peace and justice. But also take this difficult moment as a chance to grow.
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