This Summer

I am a trained historian and one of the things I was trained to do was to avoid throwing my hands in the air and screaming that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. It is more difficult to do this summer than in most times I can remember. The problems date back to the previous winter and events that are much further in the past. Putin of Russia has spent the time since Boris Yeltsin died stirring up nationalism in Russia. When the Ukraine was offered political ties to the West that would be in their long term interests, the government said yes. Then Putin pulled on the leash that this puppet Ukrainian president wore in exchange for vast material wealth. In a move that surprised everyone, Ukraine overthrew the Kremlin dominated government first by voting and then in the streets when the constitutional steps were ignored. Ukrainian security forces first attempted to repress the people and then refused to engage in more than a certain level of violence against the people.

No one was surprised when Putin made the face saving step of occupying the Crimean Peninsula. Russia has considered that ground worth a war since the aptly named Crimean War in which poor communications caused a certain Light Brigade to charge the wrong hill. I can't help but throw these little historical lessons in when I can. The British commander on the ground had a big hill blocking his view of the battlefield when he ordered his light brigade of cavalry to counterattack a hill where their enemies had not yet consolidated their defenses. Instead of attacking that hill, they were slaughtered attempting to capture a much better defended hill that their commander could not see.

My information on internal Russian politics is outdated since I've been fighting my own war since the end of the Soviet era but I am better informed than some. What seems to have happened is that the nationalists who helped Putin hold on to power for this long insisted that Russia retake Ukraine. It is too far away from the United States to gather military strength there quickly, it has been considered within the Russian sphere of influence since the Cold War began - I had to delete Soviet twice before I managed to type Russian. - and it had not yet begun to be considered European especially by the regular people of Europe. Putin's nationalist critics must be proud because Putin chose well.

Then the Ukrainians failed to fall in line and recognize that they had been checkmated on the chess board of Great Power politics. I expected Russian troops to have occupied Ukraine by now in all honesty. With NATO allies on Ukraine's other borders, there was not much further the Russians could go without triggering Article 5 of the NATO treaty. That would have meant a war that Russia could not win if it were pursued in earnest. Forget the US Armed Forces for the moment. Russia could have been stalemated by Lithuania, Poland and Germany using weapons already supplied by the United States. The historian in me sees Great Power politics at work: Putin wants a buffer zone against those NATO countries I just mentioned and eastern Ukraine would do yet the traditional American in me sees an underdog defying a bully and wants that bully's nose to be bloodied. Chances are that diplomats will find some face saving measure for Putin that doesn't include annexation but might include a demilitarized zone or some other creative idea that most of us haven't considered. Sanctions will work given time because they are targeted at the nationalists pushing Putin.

Here's the fun part. Writing about Gaza will have friends leaving flaming bags of dog "waste" on my front step and I can only hope that they stick with the metaphorical kind. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict seems to have no beginning so it seems to have no possible end. This conflict predates the printing press for sure and, in some ways, can be said to predate common use of the written word. It doesn't help much to limit things to the modern (1948 - now) version of the conflict. I could give you three or four well regarded accounts of how the modern conflict started and not one of them will be in complete agreement with another. Right now, a murderous regime gained power in Gaza thanks to a vote that the region was not ready to handle. One major reason why this murderous group (Hamas) gained power is that the Israeli right wing cannot stop itself from doing whatever it can to provoke anger from the common man on the Arab street.

As recently as the 90s, both sides were committed to peace. On the other hand, both sides agreed to let the looniest person they could find drive the bus. The agreement was that the Palestinian Authority would crackdown on anti-Israeli violence in exchange for the means to do so. Israel agreed to pull back its borders and allow a contiguous state to exist there. The weakness in this agreement was that there were parties on both sides committed to killing. Telling a crazed murdering type that he can prevent peace by a simple act of violence was insane. I'm not claiming that Israel had only one crazed murderer to deal with but the principle is the same. On the Palestinian side, you had suicide bombers infliction gruesome death and destruction on the Israelis which makes it sound as if the Palestinians were at fault.and Israel was completely innocent.

That ignores the all-out economic war that Israel has carried out around the same time as the suicide bombings started. Israeli settlement (ironically driven by Jews fleeing persecution in the Soviet Union in the 80s when they were allowed to leave) has choked off Palestinian economic development in a number of ways. Every time a settlement has gone up, it has taken the most valuable land they considered available. That means things like access to drinking water in that parched land. It means armed settlers putting up barricades that cut off access to vital resources like water on one extreme and the seemingly innocent delays required by having to pass through checkpoints on the other. If you have ever spoken to an American commuter, you know how angry traffic can make someone. There would be riots if something like the unexplained lane closures on the George Washington Bridge lasted long enough. It's like that in places on the West Bank daily.

Despite the fact that I have never been a soldier under fire and I've never faced artillery, seeing the carnage in Gaza has triggered PTSD symptoms in me. The helplessness I endured during my summer of robberies has joined my Chiari symptoms in making me react badly to loud noises. It sounds so stupid but fireworks send me cowering and pain is only part of it. I find myself barely consoled by Melissa's soothing words and the fact that my cats run to me when startled. I look at the violence on one level and know that Israel must respond to bombardment of their territory and that Hamas has been emboldened by the blocked that Gaza has suffered for seven years. Blockades are considered acts of war. I want to scream at someone in an Israeli consulate to use a more effective military strategy against Hamas. Give Gaza port access again and find some way to make it clear that Israel and the Palestinian Authority accomplished this despite Hamas. Otherwise, I want some adults to come in and collect all the weapons being used by both sides.

It felt like a last straw when Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, MO. It may not feel this way but the worst atrocities were committed at the very start. This all took place after the NYPD choked an unarmed man which caused him to die of complications. I have a horror of not being able to breathe. That man having his chest compressed against the sidewalk and his neck compressed in the choke hold hit the sweet spots in my personal health fears. I believe that I would die from such mistreatment even without considering the Chiari. First, there is the unpardonable act of police murder where Michael Brown was killed. That first night, there was some looting and destruction of property which can be replaced. A strong police presence that included justice for Mr. Brown's family was required Sunday night. Instead, pictures that seemed to come from Iraq, the Gaza Strip and Ukraine started up. After the community suffered a small riot, the police rioted for three nights. All I wanted was for some adults to come in and take control. Couldn't the National Guard disarm this police department? All that choking gas in the air which a reporter suffered on live TV routed me. My coping ability shut down and I just sat there all night barely able to look away long enough to sleep.

Actually, no disarming was required that we know of but the Missouri state Highway Patrol came in and set a shining example for us all. An order from the governor (that a critical local official had the gall to call unlawful) was all it took. It seems that President Obama may have made some strong hints about nationalizing the Missouri National Guard but Governor Jay Nixon did step up. It was almost as much relief as a dose of pain medicine when I saw clear air where there had been tear gas and angry but orderly protestors where the police had rioted. I had my first taste of relief last night since Robin Williams died. It was not total relief from physical pain by any means but I was able to sleep.

It won't last but I could think of it as my own 12 hour humanitarian truce. My dinner made no threats to come back up and I had no nightmares. I did not mention ISIS in this entry because my mind was already overflowing with horror. They have their place in my nightmares despite the lack of direct presence. Perhaps that story will work out as well. Ferguson could still go badly, Gaza could fill our TV screens again and Putin could decide to invade the Ukraine. Sometimes, all you can ask is for a pause in your personal horrors.

A lot of these problems are related with no more than a few adding up to the Shrub's policies coming home to roost. Let's overthrow all the dictators and hold elections so that violent fundamentalists can seize power. Then let's make deals with Putin to use his influence to calm the falling regimes and sell them weapons. I need to go before I'm overwhelmed by disgust again.