Pro-War Propaganda Loves Claiming Harm To Children

Recently the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Russian officials including President Putin for allegedly kidnapping and interning thousands of Ukrainian children. 

The U.S. has not signed on to the ICC (nor have Russia or Ukraine) and in fact at one point the U.S. threatened to arrest and sanction ICC judges if anyone in the U.S. were to be indicted for war crimes in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, the corporate media that serve as stenographers to the government have widely promoted the ICC news and President Biden used it as a pretext for further vilifying Putin.

Eva Bartlett, a Canadian journalist who covers the war in Ukraine from on site, interviewed a refugee mom in Russia about the alleged kidnappings. The woman shared that her own mother-in-law had heard such claims circulating in Ukraine (where the older parent remained) and was alarmed about her grandchildren's safety. The kids' mom reassured grandma that they were fine and allowed to move freely in and out of the refugee camp where they're staying now.

Western MSM claim that Russia “forcibly deported”up to 1.6 million Ukrainians.

In Anapa, Russia, I met refugees from the Kherson region who refuted Western media's claims that Russia had "kidnapped" them.

They said Ukrainian shelling was the reason for seeking safety in Russia. pic.twitter.com/dqKxu7ToX3

— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) December 26, 2022

Link to tweet with video if embedded version doesn't work for you: https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1607465857386414081

War propaganda often spreads claims of harm to children by evildoers on the other side. Claims of kidnapping, atrocities, or babies thrown out of incubators are bread and butter propaganda tropes that warmakers never tire of using. Because inflaming emotions with assertions about alleged harm to kids work on an audience driven by sentimental thinking but lacking a clear analysis of facts on the ground.

One of the reasons I have little interest in examining war atrocities reported on either side in the Ukraine war is that I know 1) truth as seen through the fog of war is murky at best; and 2) all armies commit atrocities against civilians in warfare. Just ask the villagers who survived the U.S. Army's My Lai massacre.

Let's talk about another real harm to children: recruiting them to fight in wars for conquest.

AOC, a Democrat who represents some of the low income youth of color who reside in the Bronx, is advertising her desire to "be of service" by connecting them with military recruiters.

One of the best essays I've read about this was featured in the military publication Stars & Stripes, "The First Casualty Of War Is Truth: Iraq 20 Years Later" by retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Joe Plenzler. An excerpt:

a former U.S. Central Command commander, recently retired,.. at a closed door meeting in a large, empty conference room with the [1st Marine] division's officers..shocked many of us when he said, "Marines, there is no ongoing WMD program in Iraq, but you are going to war anyway."

He paused, and with an exasperated look on his face, said gravely, "The administration is cooking the books on the intel about WMD in Iraq." 

This was a leader who had been in charge of all U.S. military activities in the region for more than three years and had the highest of security clearances.

He let that thought hang for a moment -- that the administration was cooking the books -- and then continued, "But if you don't go through the Iraqi Army like a hot knife through butter, I'll disown every one of you."

So who's really guilty of harming children -- those who throw them gleefully into the gears of the imperial war machine, or those who escort them and their parents out of war zones? 

My friend Pat Taub who lives in Maine wrote to me this morning, "the local NPR station announced for a future series on the military they were soliciting stories from locals re: their military service.  I had fantasies of the Pentagon sending out a directive to all NPR stations to broadcast these stories.”

I suspect the mechanism is more likely one of the many new narrative management agencies  that Matt Taibbi has been reporting on, but the end result is the same.

Let's hope the ICC considers who has been shelling civilians in the Donbas since 2014 (that would be the government of Ukraine) as they examine the inflammatory claim of wartime kidnapping. 

Then they might move on to indicting someone for half a million Iraqi children dying as the result of sanctions. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, heard here, is dead now, but plenty of the neocons responsible are free, and none have been held responsible for this war crime of mammoth proportions.

Link to video if embedded version doesn't work for you: https://youtu.be/RM0uvgHKZe8

Or the ICC could still indict someone for "Operation Babylift" in which 3,000+ Vietnamese children were flown to the U.S. and put up for adoption. 

Vietnamese babies on a flight from Saigon to the U.S. during the mass evacuation of children at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Photo credit: Jean-Claude FRANCOLON/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Now that we've emerged from the fog of those wars, what's stopping the ICC from seeking justice? Unless they're just a NATO political tribunal as some people claim.

No To Nuclear War With China And Russia Say Mainers

 

Westbrook, Maine March 18, 2023 Photo credit: Mary Beth Sullivan

Report back from yesterday's March 18 peace action in Westbrook, Maine:

We had 50 folks come from all over Maine today to our protest in conjunction with the national event at the White House in Washington.

We met at a very busy intersection in Westbrook (near Portland). It was attended by people from six political parties in the state. (Maine Green Independent Party, Communist Party of Maine, Libertarian Party, Portland Republican Party, People's Party of Maine, and Party for Socialism & Liberation of Maine.)

Cynthia Howard with the banner she created with the help of the Artists' Rapid Response Team (ARRT!) of the Maine Union of Visual Artists. Photo credit: Mark Roman

 

We had a steady and huge amount of honks, waves and peace signs from the cars passing by. Everyone was really pumped by the experience. We all agreed that the 'worm is turning' and that the public (all across the political landscape) is not happy about the Biden administration and Congress funneling $113 billion to the proxy war in Ukraine that is aimed at Russia (and soon China as well).

We had a good mix of all ages at the event - something that has been a long time coming in Maine as the peace movement here has been aging.

We had a final closing circle and invited people to share why they had come. It was very moving to hear those present applaud for the speakers from various political parties. I made sure to make the point that there are good people in all the parties and political organizations and we must resist the 'divide and conquer' efforts by the corporate oligarchs that run our country.

Today was a great example of what is indeed possible if we try with good faith and a cooperative spirit to work together. We can come together in solidarity. We don't have to agree with each other on every single issue. But today was a resounding call that we must oppose this suicidal US-NATO permanent war path.

More to come. Stay tuned.

Keep paddling.

Bruce Gagnon

PS Try as we might we did not get every single person into a photo. We are sorry for that.

 

As far as press coverage, I had an op-ed published in the Maine Beacon a day prior to the protest while Bruce gave an interview to a camera crew from a local news station on site in Westbrook. Sadly, it would appear that an editor at the station must have killed the story -- at least there's nothing on the WMTW website. We'll keep looking.

And we'll keep organizing. A protest on tax day, Saturday April 15 in Topsham at 1:30pm is in formation sponsored by the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and the Maine Natural Guard. Co-sponsors are welcome! Email us or leave a comment.