Like most of the world's population, I am outraged at the carnage that is happening in Ukraine at the hands of Putin's invading army. I cannot recall another time when the world seemed so united in support of a common cause. That being said, I feel that we need to broaden our outrage... there's this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that the world should be just as outraged at other atrocities. There's also a nagging feeling that the outrage about the invasion of Ukraine is driven in large part by feelings of kinship... the Ukrainians, besides being valiant, are a photogenic people. I remarked to a coworker, "It's like Putin invaded a country of supermodels."
While we are outraged about Ukraine, we really need to band together against ALL genocidal regimes around the world. The Biden Administration's determination that Myanmar's campaign against the Rohynga is a genocide is a start, but more needs to be done globally. Given Saudi Arabia's genocidal war in Yemen, the sale of weapons to the Saudis is a utter moral failure.
Similarly, the Russian-backed Syrian regime should be censured, and punished, for its attacks on civilian populations, as should China's policy of ethnic cleansing and forced assimilation against its Uyghur minority.
Perhaps the greatest failure of American foreign policy in the 21st Century is the failure to protect the Kurds, who have been steadfast allies. To countenance aggression against these people, as valiant as the Ukrainians, by allies such as Turkey as well as rivals such as Russia, is a betrayal.
I'm outraged by the hideous war perpetrated on Ukraine by Putin's regime, but I've had a near-bottomless well of outrage for the entire 21st Century. My outrage extends to all murderous regimes, including the one which unleashed carnage upon the Iraqi people, and allowed a disproportionate reaction for the 9/11 attacks to be visited upon the poverty-stricken, cleric-bedeviled Afghans. We need a broader outrage, a global outrage. The genocide in Ukraine is horrific, all genocides are horrific- now is the time we should rally against all of the perpetrators.
A major Formula One competition just finished in Saudi Arabia, briefly interrupted by a missile strike by Yemeni Houthis. I'm sure if you asked any of the racers or their team sponsors, they'd fall all over themselves condemning Putin.
ReplyDeleteHaven't reached the outrage stage*, I'm still stunned at watching fifty years of progress evaporate in less than an instant, the blink of a fly's eye. Hunter S Thompson wrote something about that, about a wave evaporating; [sigh] history's harbingers only repeat to those paying attention.
ReplyDeleteWhile we're shocked and awed at the shock and awe, let's not be distracted from our own history of shock and awe. Glass houses, all that.
*I've been outraged since the sixties, and I'm still stunned ...
Absolutely "now is the time we should rally against all of the perpetrators." Well spoken. Now I wonder if we can get that done. It seems like the right time.
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