TERMINOLOGY: Collateral damages or When civilians die

English has that ugly expression collateral damages (euphemistically “collateral losses”), which expresses that modern war does not choose and civilians also die in it, or even fire into one’s own. Those are the times when opposing armies settled in the meadow outside the city, and even then it was no idyll.

It is always sad when people die, and Englishmen died in bombed-out English cities and Germans in German ones. Both suffered equally. However, there was a difference between them. The English resisted the attack, but the Germans chose Hitler and enthusiastically applauded his initial military successes. So they were complicit and reaped what they helped to sow. Even so, it’s not something either side would be proud of years later.

Today, the world is watching a similar situation in the Middle East. Gazans face Israeli retaliation for Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians, atrocities and hostage taking and rocket fire. Hamas hides among people, under hospitals and schools, so civilians die while fighting it. We feel sorry for them, but they are the civilians who enthusiastically applauded the attack on Israel and burned its flags. And they voted for Hamas.

You will argue that during totalitarianism we also voted for the Bolsheviks by over 90%. Yes, out of self-preservation, but there wasn’t that much enthusiasm at the mandatory May Day demonstrations, let alone the burning of American flags. And we overthrew the regime at the first real opportunity.

Israel is in a special situation. It is surrounded by a hostile Arab ethnic group that has already tried to destroy it several times. So he must be able to defend himself effectively, because the first loss would probably be the last. That’s why he has our sympathy. After all the historical hardships, the Jews deserve to have their own state. Moreover, in historical Old Testament territories. It is also an island of democracy, which we like.

Although it’s tricky with those historical territories. Over the millennia, someone has always lived somewhere, and today even the Celts could say that Bohemia is Celtic. Fortunately, it wouldn’t matter to them. The status quo always decides, i.e. the winners and the distribution of forces, what constitutes the borders. And changing them is very dangerous. That is why the Basques and Catalans in Spain did not succeed, nor did the Scots flirting with independence. That’s why Putin has antagonized part of the world when he tries to change Ukraine’s borders. We acknowledge that Russian-speaking Ukrainians probably did not like the post-Maidan regime, but Putin’s invasion is too reminiscent of Hitler’s blocking of the Sudetenland in the name of protecting the Germans.

Slovaks succeeded in changing the borders in 1993, but with calm and rational actions. We weren’t thrilled about it, but we gave it a try. We are better friends today than before.

Today’s world, after the first cooperative years of the new century, is once again becoming a heated place with foci of hatred. We blame the dictators, but we got a little wet too. Believing that democracy is the best thing people can have, we spread it like the communists once did the world revolution. That is, even to places where it does not fit or where people do not understand and do not want it. Somehow we failed to understand that even those dictators can stabilize the area and prevent chaos. Even the expansion of the EU or NATO is thus a bit of a change of borders, even if it cannot be compared with the invasion of Ukraine.

In history, the big ones always divided the little ones, and they didn’t have much say in it. Now the world is changing a bit. He knows that the world war cannot be won with nuclear weapons, and campaigns like the capture of Berlin will not be repeated. Already during the Cuban crisis, Khrushchev withdrew his missiles from Cuba and Kennedy from Turkey. In the EU, even the smaller ones can make a difference here and there. Therefore, it is necessary to continue cooperation, to prevent problems, and when they do arise, to solve them through negotiation. This will prevent damage and suffering. Those who trade with each other are not at war with each other.

Therefore, it will be necessary to once again include Russia in the world economy, as China is in it, and the extensive interlinked trade with it seems to protect us from war conflict for the time being.