Ukraine and A Brief History of Atrocities in War and Empire (G&R 155)

Websters defines atrocity as "a shockingly bad or atrocious act, object,  or situation."   

Russian atrocities on Ukrainian civilians have been the top of the 24 second news cycle since the invasion began. Since the advent of  industrial warfare at the end of 19th century, war has been waged  increasingly on civilian populations than opposing military forces. Wars  of attrition have had the goal of subjecting the populace to  "shockingly bad" actions to force the downfall of its ruling regime or  submission of a resisting insurgency. The 20th century is full of  examples of this by the British, the Germans, the Japanese, the  Russians, and of course, the Americans.    

As the stories emerge from the war between Ukraine and Russia,  detailing atrocities committed on civilian populations, we thought it  was a good moment to talk about some of this history. We start with the Civil War and World War One (early industrial wars), the advent of air power, brutal occupations in Nanking, Korea and Vietnam, bombings of  Dresden, Tokyo and Hiroshima, U.S. wars in Korea and Vietnam, Central American death squads and the forever wars in the Middle East.   

Through our discussion in this heavy episode, we talk about high level policy by politicians and military leadership that involved the use of mustard gas, napalm and mass bombings; and the abhorrent small scale (in comparison) massacres like No Gun Ri, My Lai and Haditha carried out by low-level troops and covered up by the command.  

Nation states, even liberal democratic capitalist states, require  investigation, discussion and critique, and Green and Red is here to do just that.  

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Outro// The Boss "War"   

Links//  

• Killing Civilians Is a Crime From Mosul to Raqqa to Mariupol (https://bit.ly/3KRlZo8) 
• Starvation and Propaganda as Weapons of War, 1917 (https://bit.ly/3JW2BVS)  
• G&R: War Pigs: Ukraine and the History of the Military-Industrial Complex (https://apple.co/34cn5KZ) 
• G&R: Deep Background on Ukraine and Russia (https://apple.co/3sn9w4T) 
• The Way Podcast: https://www.podcasttheway.com/  

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This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced  by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott  (@sparki1969).  “Green and Red Blues"  by Moody.  Editing by Isaac.