I Want The Circle To Be Broken Already
War. War never changes.
Following America’s entrance into WWI, a Methodist minister preached, “It is the Christian duty of Americans to decorate convenient lamp posts with German spies and agents of the Kaiser, native or foreign-born.” In Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1917, police arrested sixteen “Wobblies,” members of the Industrial Workers of the World, the most radical labor union America has ever seen - and staunchly anti-war. The IWW members were then passed off to a group of armed vigilantes:
The vigilantes stripped the Wobblies to the waist and made them remove their shoes. Then, one by one, they marched each man at gunpoint to the tree, tied him to it, and whipped him until his back bled. The lashing, according to one eyewitness, was done with double pieces of heavy rope soaked in saltwater; according to another, with a “black-snake” - a long leather whip weighted with shot.
Then the vigilantes produced a pot of hot tar. As they brushed it onto each Wobbly’s chest and bleeding back, from beneath his hood the group’s leader intoned, “In the name of the outraged women and children of Belgium.” (German atrocities there were a centerpiece of American war propaganda.) The mob next slit open pillows and rubbed handfuls of feathers onto the tar.
One member poured gasoline over a pile of shoes and clothing taken from the Wobblies, which contained their watches, pocketknives, money, and “everything that we owned in the world” in the words of one victim, and set it on fire. Finally, the Knights of Liberty told the barefoot Wobblies to run for it. To the accompaniment of volley after volley of rifle and pistol shots over their heads, they scattered into the frigid darkness.1
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, acts of kidnapping and public humiliation began occurring in Ukraine against anti-war activists, looters, minorities, and “Putin supporters.” The WSW reports:
In several videos the tying up and beating of Ukrainian citizens is performed by regular Ukrainian Armed Forces members, suggesting that legal and civil rights have been effectively abandoned in a country that is supposedly a pinnacle of European “democracy” compared to the “totalitarian” Putin regime.
Ostensibly, the victims of such vigilante justice are looters or Russian agents and saboteurs. However, no evidence is presented of their guilt, and the allegations against an individual often change in disparate postings of the same video.
Shocking videos of this “flogging” have been shared widely by far-right social media accounts in Ukraine. Victims include children, as well as members of the Sinti and Roma minorities.
In addition to being wrapped in plastic wrap and tied to a pole, the victims of such dehumanizing abuse regularly have their pants pulled down and are subsequently beaten by passersby or members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Some also have their faces painted in green or blue.
Following America’s entrance into WWI, the flags of the Allied nations (France, Britain, Italy) became ubiquitous.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian flag became ubiquitous. Who is selling all of these goddamn things? I attended an event where most people carried one:
The theme of the local Women’s March rally this year was “Engage For Equity,” and a portion of the proceeds raised were going to help the people of Ukraine since Putin had ordered Russian troops to invade their country. The blue and yellow bars of the Ukrainian flag were ubiquitous that sunny day, held aloft in solidarity for the worthy victims of a terrible war of Russian aggression.
The people who held those Ukrainian flags that day were reading a script that had been written for them. It is remarkable, and deeply troubling, the degree to which public opinion follows the dictates and undergirding ideologies of the United States empire. There is no propaganda as effective, stifling, or incensing as war propaganda.
Where are all the Palestinian flags?
Vijay Prashad went off about this:
February, Russian troops enter Ukraine. All of Facebook is colonized by Ukrainian flags. And you know, that really pissed me off. That pissed me off because I reported the war in Iraq. I reported the war in Syria. I reported the war in Libya. I was in Libya during that war. And none of the fucking people who put Ukrainian flags know what the colors of any of these flags are like. What does the Yemeni flag look like? If I asked you what does the Yemeni flag look like, how many of you know what the Yemeni flag looks like? … The West doesn’t give a shit about people who live in places like Iraq or Iran or Libya or the Congo or Mozambique….And nobody said a damn thing about the people of Mozambique because they don’t exist. They are on the other side of the international division of humanity. There are Ukrainians, and then there are the other people who deserve to be bombed….It’s good to bomb them. In fact, it’s educational…You take a bomb and then you drop it on some Arabs and they get shocked into modernity.
…
The rage [in the Global South] against the way this war is going is not turned on Russia, let me tell you. In Africa, in Asia, in Latin America, people are disappointed and angry with the reaction of the West. It’s not about NATO and geopolitics. That’s not there. People aren’t thinking about NATO expansion. No, it’s not that. People are pissed off because when you bomb us, you think it’s fine. But when you have your own refugees, then you’re outraged. Then Poland, Germany - open arms to refugees! You come and destroy Syria, no Syrians allowed - you can drown in the Mediterranean but you can’t come here. We can bomb you, but you can’t come and be my neighbor. You bomb me and make me run to you and then you put up a gate. That’s who you are. That’s what people thought when they saw the Ukraine war….And also, as many people in South Africa told me, they still think of the fact that when they were fighting their liberation wars, the Russians helped them.
With America’s entrance into WWI, the Boston Symphony Orchestra hired private detectives to spy on its foreign-born musicians. The symphony’s German-born conductor, a Swiss citizen, was arrested and sent to an internment camp in Georgia. Meanwhile, New York’s Metropolitan Opera ceased performing works in German. A German singer with the opera, Margarethe Arndt-Ober, was later fired by the Met.2
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Metropolitan Opera fired Russian singer Anna Netrebko for failing to denounce Putin.
Following America’s entrance into WWI and President Wilson’s institution of the draft, “hundreds of thousands of men [were] questioned by vigilantes who fanned out across town, intent on rounding up ‘slackers,’ as they were called, trying to avoid the draft.”3 Hundreds of conscientious objectors were imprisoned and tortured in military detainment. Prisoners were beaten, starved, shackled in stress positions, and subjected to deadly water torture. In one case, three pacifist brothers were locked in a pitch-black cage for weeks at a time on Alcatraz island. Two of them later died from exposure. They were dressed in their caskets with the military uniforms they refused to wear in life.
Ukraine has instituted a military draft and outlawed adult men from leaving the country. Prison sentences have risen to ten to twelve years for deserters and draft dodgers. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian men have bribed their way out of the country. The Ukrainian president called this “treason.” The Guardian writes:
In the first weeks after the invasion, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Ukrainians volunteered to serve at the front in an explosion of patriotism that helped keep the country independent and fight off the initial attack.
More than a year later, however, many of those initial recruits are now dead, wounded or simply exhausted, and the army needs new recruits to fill the ranks….
…Crews of mobilisation officers roam the streets and sometimes go door to door to hand out notices. Viral videos show officers bundling men into vans to deposit them at enlistment offices.
…
“I met a guy who told me he was taken from the street and within a week his unit was starting to attack a village near Bakhmut. And he told me ‘What the fuck – it is the first time I picked up a rifle and after a week I go to attack this village’. He was shot twice, once in the arm and once in the back.”
Following America’s involvement in WWI, hundreds of people were imprisoned for “sedition” and “espionage” for nothing more than speaking out or writing against the war.
Ukraine has raided the home of a pacifist, Yurii Sheliazhenko, and charged him with “justifying Russian aggression.”
Mere hours after Britain declared war against Germany in WWI, a British ship severed underwater telegraph cables in the English Channel connecting Germany to the United States. British surveillance of remaining cables guaranteed that no news stories which went against the Allies’ interests ever made it to the U.S.4 The U.S. Postal Service banned the mailing of 74 different American periodicals which were viewed as insufficiently patriotic.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Union banned the broadcasting of Russian media outlets RT and Radio Sputnik. U.S. and Australian cable companies banned RT from being aired. The Australian government said it is working with tech companies to suppress Russian-sponsored media. The EU lobbied for Google to censor and suppress search results for RT and Radio Sputnik on the web and on social media. Google completely scrubbed RT and RT America from Youtube, thereby removing access to years worth of news and analysis. Google stated:
[W]e are also now blocking access to YouTube channels associated with Russian state-funded media globally, expanding from across Europe. This change is effective immediately, and we expect our systems to take time to ramp up. Since our last update, our teams have now removed more than 1,000 channels and over 15,000 videos for violating not only our hate speech policy, but also our policies around misinformation, graphic content and more…In addition, we recently paused all YouTube ads in Russia. We’ve now extended this to all of the ways to monetize on our platform in Russia.
The CEO of DuckDuckGo, a search engine that brands itself as a more ethical alternative to Google, announced that they would suppress “Russian disinformation.”
Lee Camp, a former employee of RT America, had his show deleted from Spotify.
The 2017 Director of National Intelligence report makes explicitly clear what it sees as the threat of these foreign news outlets. The report, which was used to justify the labeling of RT America as a foreign agent, highlights what U.S. officials are deathly afraid of:
“The channel portrayed the US electoral process as undemocratic and featured calls by US protesters for the public to rise up and ‘take this government back.’”
“In an effort to highlight the alleged ‘lack of democracy’ in the United States, RT broadcast, hosted, and advertised third-party candidate debates and ran reporting supportive of the political agenda of these candidates. The RT hosts asserted that the US two-party system does not represent the views of at least one-third of the population and is a ‘sham.’”
“RT aired a documentary about the Occupy Wall Street movement… RT framed the movement as a fight against ‘the ruling class’ and described the current US political system as corrupt and dominated by corporations.”
“RT's reports often characterize the United States as a ‘surveillance state’ and allege widespread infringements of civil liberties, police brutality, and drone use”
“RT has also focused on criticism of the US economic system, US currency policy, alleged Wall Street greed, and the US national debt.”
“RT runs anti-fracking programming, highlighting environmental issues and the impacts on public health.”
“RT is a leading media voice opposing Western intervention in the Syrian conflict and blaming the West for waging ‘information wars’ against the Syrian Government”
Alleged Wall Street greed. Third-party candidates. Environmental issues. Alleged infringement of civil liberties. That’s what’s so dangerous. Get these lunatics off the airwaves.
Following America’s involvement in WWI, anti-German hysteria ran wild. In Oklahoma, crowds burned German books on July 4th. A public library in Columbus, Ohio sold its German books as scrap paper. In Illinois, 300 people surrounded a German Lutheran Church demanding that it “cease using German or they would burn down the building. A Justice Department official on the scene ordered the church to comply.” Two states, Iowa and Nebraska, banned the speaking in public of all foreign languages. Many German-Americans and German businesses changed their names to sound more Anglo-American, fearing reprisals if they didn’t.5
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a Russian community center in Canada was vandalized with the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Also in Canada, a Russian church was splattered with red paint. U.S. congressmembers called for Russian students to be kicked out of the country. Russian businesses have been boycotted. Wimbledon banned Russian tennis players. Russian cats were barred from whatever kind of competitions cats participate in. Artists organized a demonstration at the Guggenheim museum calling on the U.S. to institute an escalatory and dangerous no-fly zone over Ukraine.
In the original version of President Wilson’s speech to congress declaring that the nation should go to war, he said that the U.S. should not negotiate with Germany “until the German people have a government we can trust.”
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Biden said that Putin cannot remain in power, suggesting that he must be overthrown either internally or externally. Some prominent political figures called for a Russian coup, with some banking on destabilizing sanctions to push Russian civilians into toppling their own government.
During WWI, the Allies instituted a blockade and sanctions against Germany which barred all transports from reaching the country, even ones carrying food and medicine.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Visa and Mastercard cancelled their services in the country. The U.S. banned Russian oil imports. McDonald’s shut down its operations in Russia. Sanctions have been targeted against Russian oligarchs (read: billionaires). Russia’s Nordstream 2 pipeline, carrying fuel to the rest of Europe, was likely bombed in a U.S.-planned operation.
Critics of America’s involvement in WWI, whether from the left or the right, were painted as treasonous. Some conservatives in small towns saw the conflict as a fight between foreigners, best left to them to sort out. Leftists saw the war as a fight between imperial powers squabbling over territory, chiefly benefitting capitalists at the expense of labor. Thousands of such critics were imprisoned, often for years, if not expelled from the country or lynched by blood-thirsty mobs.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, right-wing critics were painted as Putin-apologists, providing un-American cover for Moscow’s talking points. Similarly, left-wing critics have been sidelined as faux-populists, conspiracy theorists, “appeasers,” and spreaders of disinformation. Ukraine has added prominent American critics to a list of “Russian propagandists.” A black socialist organization in the U.S. had its leadership indicted by federal agents for being “undeclared foreign agents.” A Ukrainian government-affiliated organization maintains a de facto kill list of people it doesn’t agree with, including several Americans.
During WWI, the American Protective League, a right-wing vigilante organization started by U.S. veterans of the horrid Philippine War, prowled the country looking for any and all anti-war subversives. The APL, an all-white organization, was given the imprimatur of the nascent FBI and participated in break-ins, surveillance, arrests, and lynchings throughout the U.S.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many white supremacists, including American veterans, travelled to Ukraine to train and fight alongside the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Azov Battalion. These U.S. nationals are returning home after having used U.S.-supplied modern weaponry. A former Marine and current member of a violent white-supremacist group praised the U.S. for supporting the Ukrainian Nazis.
When President Wilson announced to congress his intention to go to war in Europe, Chief Justice Edward Douglass White started a resounding cheer, “with an expression of joy and thankfulness on his face…raised his hands high in the air, and brought them together with a heartfelt bang; and House, Senate, and galleries followed him with a roar like a storm. It was a cheer so deep and so intense and so much from the heart that it sounded like a shouted prayer,” wrote the New York Times. A man sitting next to the Chief Justice wrote, “He was on his feet instantly leading the Supreme Court and the entire assembly. His face…worked almost convulsively and great tears began to roll down his cheeks.”6
The U.S. congress has so far approved $113.1 billion for Ukraine in 2022 alone, largely as a bipartisan effort. This spending on Ukraine rivals the total discretionary spending on education. Meanwhile, FEMA has run out funds, offering only $700 to families whose homes were destroyed by wildfires in Hawaii.
When I say that I want the circle to be broken already, I mean that I want this mad stupidity to stop. When I call this kind of war hysteria stupid, I mean that the people who are making these stupid decisions are playing a predictable, clichéd role. They are acting out the exact same behaviors of history which, with time, have been rightly deemed abhorrent.
If it was abhorrent to destroy civil liberties, fall into jingoism, racism, and bitter nationalism, and physically harm others who spoke out against war in the past, then it is also abhorrent to do those things today. Even if it is clichéd, the people who do these things today are dangerous, deadly so. That is why it is important to resist such tendencies. The people who do these terrible things are stupid because they either have no nuanced sense of history, such that they would realize that they are playing the same ridiculous roles as others have played before them, or they do indeed know their history but choose to act like brutes anyway.
At least just stop being so predictable in your barbarism. It’s depressing.
Adam Hochschild, American Midnight (New York, NY: Mariner Books, 2022).
Adam Hochschild, American Midnight (New York, NY: Mariner Books, 2022).
Adam Hochschild, American Midnight (New York, NY: Mariner Books, 2022).
Adam Hochschild, American Midnight (New York, NY: Mariner Books, 2022).
Adam Hochschild, American Midnight (New York, NY: Mariner Books, 2022). (do you get it yet?)
Adam Hochschild, American Midnight (New York, NY: Mariner Books, 2022).