“Never Again!” Yeah, Sure.

The phrase, “Never Again”, which is applied to the Holocaust in specific and genocide in particular, is probably too primal to have a specific origin.  But some attribute it to the epic poem, “Masada”, by Isaac Lamdan, written in 1927, a portion of which reads:

–The remnant.

Alone I remained on the day of great slaughter.

Alone, of father and mother, sisters and brothers.

Saved in an empty cask hid in a courtyard corner.

Huddled, a child in the womb of an anxious mother.

I survived.

Days upon days in fate’s embrace I cried and begged

for mercy:

Thy deed it is, O God, that I remain.

Then answer: Why?

If to bear the shame of man and the world.

To blazon it forever–

Release me! The world unshamed will flaunt this shame

As honor and spotless virtue!

And if to find atonement I survive

Then Answer: Where?

So importuning a silent voice replied:

“In Masada!”

And I obeyed that voice and so I came.

Silent my steps will raise me to the wall,

Silent as all the steps filled with the dread

Of what will come.

Tall, tall is the wall of Masada.

Deep, deep is the pit at its feet.

And if the silent voice deceived me,

From the high wall to the deep pit

I will fling me.

And let there be no sign remaining,

Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put the moral choice the free world bluntly and directly before the German parliament, using that phrase: “Every year we hear politicians say, ‘never again,’ and now, we see that these words simply mean nothing.”

I make it point of avoiding partisan politics in most of what I write.  No nation will ever be the Kingdom of God.  The saving locus of God’s saving work in the world is the body of Christ.  Legislation and public policy are no substitute for attending to the will of God.  None of the truly significant problems facing humanity are never fully addressed by partisan politics.  And it is dangerous thing to suggest that one party is even remotely representative of God’s will for humankind.

But the situation in the Ukraine isn’t about partisan politics.  The fortunes of Democrats and Republicans are not at stake here.  The fortunes of democracy and innocents are what is at stake.  Likewise, there can be no ambiguities about the moral justification for this war.  One can say what they will about the mistakes made by NATO and the United States.  One can talk about Russian history, aspirations, and historical pain.  But there is   There is nothing that justifies Russia’s presence in Ukraine, and there is even less to justify the targeting of women, children, and innocents.  The State Department may need to conduct an investigation to determine whether the Russian army has committed war crimes, but there is no doubt that they have.

What also seems to be beyond question is that now that Russia has invaded, it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which Vladimir Putin withdraws his troops that does not involve the destruction of Ukraine as an independent state.  NATO and the United States have attempted to avoid actions that will invite Putin to escalate the war that he has begun, and as an alternative they have chosen to arm the Ukrainians in the hope that they will prevail.  But our own leaders and leaders of the free world are strangely silent about what happens if Ukraine prevails.  Do we really believe that a man who talks about cleansing his country and who sees the history of Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union as a story of decline is likely to accept military humiliation at the hands of an obviously smaller, less well-armed opponent on the world’s stage?

The likely answer is “no”.  And, tragically, if that is the case, then we may have insulated ourselves and the world from that escalation (for now), but we will not have insulated Ukraine from harm at all.  Instead, we will have armed them to fight at great cost and exposure to great harm, only to watch them be overwhelmed by even greater brutality.

There are interpretations of foreign policy and national interest that might be offered as a justification for our position.  And we now live in a political world where there is a strange degree of congruence between Democrats and Republicans about how far to involve ourselves.  It is ironic how much agreement you can get out of two political parties when they are discussing the fate of the people in another country.  However, absent from their conversations seems to be any deep struggle with questions of justice and our responsibility as our “brother’s keeper” — let alone the challenge of taking up our cross or laying down our lives for others. But, as I said at the outset, none of the truly significant problems facing humanity are never fully addressed by partisan politics.

“Never again?”  Yeah, sure.

Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash