Photo from Jewish Voice for Peace protest in Grand Central Station, New York, 10/27/2023
By Ann Menasche
This is the opinion of the author alone and does not represent the position of Feminists in Struggle.
The targeting of civilians in war, whether in the name of “resistance against occupation” or “defense against terrorism”, whether from bombs thrown from the air onto crowded residential neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and places of worship or attacks with guns, knives, explosives, or other violent attacks from the ground, means the brutal deaths of innocent women and their children at male hands. It is a particularly egregious form of mass femicide, this time, not directed against their “own” women – the women of their nation or ethnic group – but the women of the demonized “other”, the “enemy.” Because in virtually all contemporary societies, men are the large majority of combatants and the civilians are women, children and the elderly.
It was not until 1949, the aftermath of World War II, a war that resulted in over 38 million civilian deaths that international law in the Geneva Conventions legally defined war crimes or crimes against humanity. And it was not just Nazis that caused those deaths during World War II, though they caused a lot of them. The estimate of deaths from the allies’ firebombing of Dresden which were justified as an attempt to shorten the war and save soldiers’ lives, is at least 25,000 to 35,000 civilians; the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki immediately killed 214,000 Japanese civilians, not counting the later premature deaths of countless others from radiation. But the victors don’t usually get charged with war crimes. That slaughter was justified on the same grounds, but according to primary source I read in college, the U.S. was well aware that Japan was about to surrender; however, they wanted to show the Soviet Union their new powerful weapon, as the Cold War was just being launched.
Rules of war established after World War II have almost always been honored in the breach, with the U.S. having quite a lot of civilian blood on its hands, again mostly women and children. Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, justified by 9/11 and the “war on terror”, 280,000 to 315,000 Iraqi civilians were killed by the violence, not counting the life-threatening damage to civilian infrastructure that caused even more deaths. The bombing of Vietnam during the Vietnam war resulted in between 30,000- 65,000 civilian deaths. The Vietnam government estimates the total civilian deaths from the war to be 2,000,000 people. Again, we are talking about the wanton mass murder of women and children.
Of course, one reason the U.S. hesitates to criticize Israel as it indiscriminately kills thousands of Palestinian women and children in Gaza through its bombs and threatens more lives with its tightened blockade preventing clean water, food and energy from entering, and letting only a trickle of humanitarian aid in, is because the U.S. does the same thing. The U.S. government’s refusal to support the international call for a ceasefire in the Israel/Gaza war is criminal and makes our government complicit in the extensive war crimes going on right now.
War and peace are feminist issues because, among other reasons, war allows men to murder women and our children with impunity. Feminists, whatever side we may be on in a conflict, should never justify or support the deliberate targeting of civilians or the callous indifference to civilian lives so that men will sacrifice any number of innocent women and children to get the “bad guys.”
As feminists we should care about the lives and wellbeing of our sisters around the globe, including both Israelis and Palestinians. We should never excuse the crimes of the men on “our side” of these wars. No more femicide in my name.
As feminists, we should also know that only justice and equality can establish a solid ground for peace and safety for all the peoples of this planet.
As an Army medic in Viet Nam, my core belief system as an American citizen was completely dismantled after I returned from Viet Nam. I was The enemy in Viet Nam. I was part of the U.S. Military Madness in that country, to include Laos and Cambodia. I am going to say this very slowly: You do not win wars by just killing military combatants, you ultimately win wars by killing and slaughtering innocent civilians, because They Are Military Targets. Geneva Convention Rules are for fools. During the American War in Viet Nam, the U.S. was responsible for over 20 million bomb craters. During the American War in Viet Nam the U.S. fired 15 billion pounds of artillery shells. During the American War in Viet Nam the U.S. sprayed 70 million liters of poisonous herbicides, notably Agent Orange. In my three trips back to Viet Nam I have been in orphanages and held Vietnamese children who were third generation victims of Agent Orange. Children with no legs, no arms, twisted bodies, and children who were born with no eyes. U.S. ground troops committed atrocities everyday during the war. Noam Chomsky called the My Lai Massacre a metaphor for the entire Viet Nam War. I have been to My Lai three times. ( 1994, 2016, and 2018. ) I have talked to and photographed survivors. I met Ron Haeberle, who took all of those pictures that were in Life Magazine. I will say this very slowly: The killing of innocent civilians during America’s wars, Are High Value Military Targets. This is exactly what is happening in Gaza, as Israel and the U.S. continue with their Genocide. The United States represents 4.2% of the world’s population, yet it has over 750 U.S. military bases around the world. What is wrong with this picture? If one does not know the U.S. is a World Empire, they do not understand politics in America. The Pentagon is the most evil piece of real estate that has ever existed on the face of the Earth. I know this without a shadow of a doubt, because I was hospitalized three times in a psychiatric facility since I came back from Viet Nam because of this profound awareness. The United States of Amnesia is headed for a slow death. The swarming locusts will return in the name of Justice. The U.S. Government cannot continue to spend 50% of our tax dollars on the Military Industrial Complex and take care of its own people. I live in Portland, Oregon, where homelessness is an avalanche. This will only get worse, as this reality is the sign of the times. Everything is happening very quickly. If the American people do not revolt, the United States will eventually collapse, just like all Empires.
Mike Hastie
Army Medic Viet Nam
W A R = Wealthy Are Richer
( For the time being )
Whenever the truth threatens one’s core belief system,
there is an urgent need to deny its reality. That is why
history always repeats itself.
M. H.