Ukraine war: Are the Greens still pacifists – or are they now warmongers?

Created: 08/01/2022, 20:04

By: Stefan Stukenbrok

Lost dove over the image of the destruction © Uncredited/AP/dpa / dpa-Bildfunk

The Greens have been Putin's regime's harshest critics for years and are the most willing to support Ukraine with heavy weapons.

How does this fit in with the party's "pacifist DNA"?

A comment

Are Ms. Baerbock and Mr. Habeck pacifists?

Do Bündnis 90/Die Grünen still represent pacifism?

Tens of pages have been and will continue to be written on the subject of pacifism, and the Ukraine war always means there is a need for further discussion.

From a pacifist point of view, can an invaded country be helped with arms support?

Ukraine war: Gandhi would not have stood a chance against Putin

Pacifism was not and is not a rigid definition.

The best known variant is probably that of Gandhi - the unconditional non-violence towards the opponent.

However, Gandhi was dealing with relatively moral Britons for whom a massacre or a policy of annihilation was out of the question to assert their interests.

Gandhi himself admitted that with his method he would have had no chance against Hitler, for example.

He wouldn't have stood a chance against Vladimir Putin either.

Tortured, tortured, abused, raped, deported and murdered civilians, including women and children - all without resistance - prove this.

Not only in Bucha and Mariupol, the best-known examples of contemporary Russian barbarism.

The basic right to integrity and respect for life is an essential part of pacifism - to sacrifice this because of the dogmatic non-violence is a contradiction in terms and leads pacifism ad absurdum.

Ukraine War: Gandhi would supply heavy arms

The pacifism of Baerbock and Habeck is more modern, namely to force the aggressor to make peace, to create the conditions for it.

The optimal case is to achieve this through negotiations.

The numerous, grotesque negotiations with Putin at his long table are legion and turned out to be pure show.

Putin is a fascist, an imperialist and a notorious liar - he doesn't (seriously) want to negotiate (yet).

It is taken for granted that we now have to lament numerous deported Ukrainians.

ID cards and mobile phones were taken from families and distributed separately to test, filtration, re-education, labor and final camps.

66 of these camps are known.

These deportations are taking place from conquered, "former" Ukrainian regions, which by the way are only in a kind of "state of peace" because they were bombed, destroyed and seized by the Russians, so the Ukrainians had to retreat.

Peace according to Putin's idea means procrastination and "cleansing".

If serious negotiations with reliable results are not possible, the aggressor must be treated as equals.

You can't do that with Swiss army knives or lit tea lights in front of some church.