Russian war fever: Will it spread? (Part 2)

By guest author Alfred L. McAlister, Ph.D.

Part 1 of this series addressed the current crisis in Crimea from the perspective of the ploys used to gain popular support for military aggression. These include:

Map of Ukraine with Crimea highlighted
Map of Ukraine with Crimea highlighted. Image (map) by Sven Teschke, from Wikimedia Commons. Used under CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
  • Invocation of a moral obligation
  • Advantageous comparisons with worse actions by other nations, and
  • The demonization of enemies.

Let’s hope that history does not repeat itself now–that Western leaders don’t invoke debatable moral justifications for a military response to the crisis in Crimea, such as the need to preserve national reputation, prove the strength of our resolution to defend freedom abroad, or to punish Russian misdeeds to make an example that will deter acts of aggression elsewhere.

Let’s hope we don’t hear palliative contrasts between Western-led multilateral military action and Russia’s unilateral move, or portrayals of Russians as bestial characters only able to understand force as a means of negotiation.

If we do hear those kinds of arguments for an aggressive response to the conflict in Crimea, let’s be prepared to reject them. Let’s make peaceful negotiation backed by economic sanctions, no matter how long it takes or imperfect the results, the only option we accept for resolving international conflict unless our national interests are gravely and immediately threatened.

By anticipating the ways of thinking that spread war fever, we can “inoculate” ourselves against them and begin to make popular support for offensive warfare by democratic nations–like ancient plagues–a part of our past and not our future.

Dr. Alfred McAlister’s essay, “War Fever: How Can We Resist?” will be published this spring in the International Handbook of Negotiation and Mediation, edited by Mauro Gallucio (Berlin: Springer).

Shattering my world (Liberate THIS, Part 3)

[Note by Kathie Malley-Morrison:  Today we are pleased to publish the third in our ongoing series from Dr. Dahlia Wasfi‘s book, Liberate THIS.]

The missiles that trailed across the Arabian night sky that January of 1991 fractured the calm over Iraq, like the war itself shattered my world and my memories to pieces.

Marine fighter planes during Iraq war
Marine fighter planes during Iraq war (Image in public domain)

There was no question that the regime of Saddam Hussein was politically repressive. But now, Iraqis suffered under brutality from within and aerial bombardment from without.

Iraqi families were under attack.  My fellow students were celebrating.

Yet, even though I had insight that no one else could have, I said and did nothing for our victims.  At the time, assimilation was a higher priority for me than speaking the truth.  I reeked of selling out.

More than 100,000 Iraqis perished during the 42 days of Gulf War I, but I was lucky.  My blood relatives survived. The worst was yet to come, however, because our aerial assaults had purposely targeted Iraq’s electricity plants, telecommunication centers, and water treatment facilities.  These attacks were in direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilians in war[1].

In a matter of days, life became desperate. There was no potable water, no electricity, and with economic sanctions in place, there soon would be no means of rebuilding.

Severe economic sanctions had been imposed on Iraq four days after Iraqi troops entered Kuwait, on August 6, 1990.  (In sad irony, that date was the forty-five year anniversary of another Western targeting of a civilian population, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.)  All of Iraq’s exports and imports were banned in order to induce Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait.[2]

Though withdrawal was completed by the end of the 1991 Gulf War in April, those brutal sanctions remained in place for years.  Once stored resources were depleted, Iraqis began to starve.  It was a stringent medical, cultural, intellectual, and nutritional embargo that victimized the already-suffering Iraqi people.

I knew the direct correlation between my government’s actions and human suffering.  I did nothing.

Dahlia Wasfi


[1] http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/INTRO/380  Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

[2] Herring, Eric.  “Between Iraq and a Hard Place:  A Critique of the Case for UN Economic Sanctions” in Falk, Richard, Irene Gendzier, and Robert Jay Lifton, eds.  Crimes of War:  Iraq. Avalon Publishing Group, Inc.  New York, NY.  2006. p .223.