What You Won't See on the News

 Since the Crimean war the graphics of war have grown by bounds.  From the first, time-exposed  collodion plates (usually of the dead, for the living tended not to stand still that long) to to-day's helmet cams - taking live action shots of the action, and uploading it for distribution almost immediately by satellite communication - the battlefield - once the property of the locals and the participants is something we can see ad hear almost at the same time it happens. There are other less pleasant sensations that we miss,  but the scenes of carnage are no less shocking to-day, as when Matthew Brady "Laid the dead at the doorsteps of the nation" in 1863.

I came across this rather lengthy video of some of the scenes of this summer's 'battles' in Eastern Ukraine. This one is quite remarkable in that it's virtually unedited and focuses on the civilian experience in Donetsk, Lugansk and smaller villages and towns around those cities.

Its politics are those of the participants, but, should someone be faulted with any of this, at some time in the future, it would make some great evidence.

Donbass Summer 2014


An analysis of MH17 

And now that the fighting has, for the most part, abated, the detritus of war is revealing that 'fratricides' can be even more unpleasant than the planned killing of a stranger.  If what has been reported is correct  there are some people, on both sides who should be appearing before a war crimes court. In my estimation, and in accordance with the current logic that saw 'terrorist backers', in New York and China, sentenced to life behind bars - there should be a number of national leaders in the dock to account for their recorded utterances.

This winter will tell the tale of the 'new' EUkraine.