How “War” Becomes War

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Ours of Us

One of my colleagues, serving in the Ukrainian armed forces, spent two and half years in captivity as a prisoner of war of the Russians. Amidst the physical torture came repeated interrogations.

One of his interrogators kept returning to the beginning of the war, seeking to blame Ukraine.

My friend would then ask: “Which country’s army crossed which country’s border?” To which the interrogator would reply something along the lines of: “At a deeper level…” or “But what was really going on was…” or “There was a Ukrainian plan to…”

Russia invaded Ukraine. The Russian army crossed the borders of Ukraine, unprovoked. But the unambiguous act of aggression was and is surrounded by a constant flow of conspiratorial nonsense, designed to create a sense that Russia was somehow the victim.

I was thinking about all this last Tuesday, October 28th, in Portland. That city, along with others, has been categorized by Trump and his close advisors as a threat, as a reason for attack, as a site of “war.”

My friend’s interrogator kept saying that Ukraine was about to invade Russia. This was absurd. There was no such plan, no such force in array, nothing at all. But, once Russia had done the invading, the invaders themselves clung to such ideas.

In the United States – I found myself reflecting as I walked and drove around Portland – we find ourselves in a similar place. Lies are being told, big ones, gigantic ones, to generate some sense that the country is under attack — not by another country, but by its own cities.

Portland is no threat to the Republic. There is nothing at all like the burning of buildings and the closing of businesses that Trump talks about. The first sight upon leaving my hotel was a flourishing haberdashery. Portland was the site of very large No Kings protests. And they were constructive and peaceful and very much in the spirit of the rights proclaimed by the Constitution.

Flourishing haberdashery, Portland

In Trumpish propaganda, the building that ICE leases in Portland is supposed to be ground zero of the urban war. When I visited last Wednesday, there was creative, quiet, legal protest. A pair, dressed as a frog and as a fox, were playing hacky sack. Meanwhile masked and armed men in incongruous desert fatigues and body armor loitered on the building’s roof, looking down and taking photographs. A pickup truck driven by what I guess I must call a counter-protestor circled the block, mounted flags proclaiming his support of Trump, ICE, and the goal of deporting “all of them.”

But of course the details are not really the point. Had there been huge protests going on downtown when I visited, or had there been two hundred people in animal suits instead of two, there still would have been no “war” and no “war zone.” There is nothing, in Portland, or any other city, or anywhere else in our country, that justifies the use of the word “war.”

“At a deeper level…” or “But what was really going on was…” or “There was a plan to…” This is the sort of language that now comes from the White House, that we find for example in Stephen Miller’s terror memo. No contact is sought with reality. Innuendo clings to paranoia, generating a sense that the strong side, the people giving the orders, planning the killing, are the true victims.

Big lies are meant to start wars — including self-invasions, including wars against ourselves. But they need not work. They have to be seen for what they are. Speaking the small truths about the cities and mocking the big lie about “war” is a start.

But we also have to recognize that the big lie serves a social function: Trump and Miller and the others are telling American soldiers that they will be seen as heroes after they kill their fellow Americans.

It is important to be clear and vocal about this element of the lie. We live in a country where the armed services enjoy unusual prestige. Military service is treated with ritualized respect by essentially everyone in the public sphere.

Actual respect for the men and women who serve would include telling the truth. The Trump people will not. And so others must:

From the moment the armed services violently engage their first civilians, their prestige will be gone forever, and service members will be destroying the Republic they are sworn to serve.

We don’t want American soldiers fighting a war against their own people, we don’t want them echoing lies as they interrogate and torture their fellow citizens. We don’t want them mumbling about “what was really going on…” as they attach the electrodes.

That is, sadly, what the Trump administration seems to wish for them. And that is what we must all work together to stop, by telling the truths, the ones that are easy, and the ones that are a little harder.

PS Please vote today!