Last week’s revelation that Russia’s flagship, The Moskva, was sunk by Ukrainian missiles, and the U.S. Defense Dept.’s revelation that over 7,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the first three weeks of the Ukraine War, which is three times as many as the total of US service members killed in 20 years of the Afghanistan War, has some in America celebrating Russian tactical military incompetence versus American tactical military superiority, but there is another aspect of American military greatness besides its tactical military masterfulness that’s not celebrated or talked about enough.
After Russian soldiers retreated from the Ukrainian village of Novyi Bykiv after a month-long occupation, nothing resembling military greatness was left behind, Natalia Samson returned to her home there to find that Russian soldiers had stolen her perfumes, jewelry, wine, a scooter, and a collection of old coins. When Samson returned to the school where she serves as the deputy headteacher, she discovered Russian soldiers had stolen most of the computers, the projectors, and other electronic equipment. At a home in a town outside Kyiv that was partially controlled by Russian forces in March, a family returned home to discover that Russian soldiers had been living there. “They took away all the clothes literally everything, male and female coats, boots, shirts, jackets, even my dresses, and lingerie,” said a female member of the family.
The image, shared by a journalist from the UK Defense Journal, shows looted phones, watches, passports, cash, jewelry and other valuables all found on a captured Russian lieutenant
According to Ukraine’s Directorate of Intelligence for the Ministry of Defense, “the Russian military has opened a bazaar to trade in loot”, attempting to sell the personal property they have stolen from Ukrainian civilians. “In the city of Narovlya (Belarus) the occupiers set up a specialized bazaar selling property looted in Ukraine. The ‘assortment’ of the marauders’ bazaar included: washing machines and dishwashers, refrigerators, jewelry, cars, bicycles, motorcycles, dishes, carpets, works of art, children’s toys, and cosmetics. All of these things, the Russians gained through marauding and robbing peaceful civilians in Ukraine”.
As Russian soldiers retreat from previously held territory not only is it revealed that Russia’s military greatness is the ability to loot and steal, but proof that some Russian soldiers are true scum and vermin is emerging. In a rural neighborhood west of Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv, a woman using the alias Anna to protect her identity said she was at home with her husband when a Russian soldier invaded their premises, “At gunpoint, he took me to a house nearby. He ordered me: Take your clothes off or I’ll shoot you. He kept threatening to kill me if I didn’t do as he said. Then he started raping me”. When Anna returned home after being raped she found her husband had been shot, “He had tried to run after me to save me, but he was hit by a round of bullets”, and because of the war medical care for his gunshot wound was unavailable causing him to die 2 days later.
Andrii Nebytov, the police chief of Kyiv recounts the death and rape of a young family of 3, “several soldiers of the Russian army entered the house. The husband tried to protect his wife and child. So they shot him in the yard. After that, two soldiers repeatedly raped the wife. They would leave and then come back. They returned three times to rape her. They threatened that if she resisted they would harm her little boy. To protect her child she didn’t resist.” When the soldiers came back for the final time before they left, they added homelessness and additional love loss to the widowed wife and now fatherless child by burning down the house and shooting the family’s dogs.
Ukraine’s Ombudsman for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova says: “About 25 girls and women aged 14 to 24 were systematically raped during the occupation in the basement of one house in Bucha. Nine of them are pregnant, Russian soldiers told them they would rape them to the point where they wouldn’t want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having Ukrainian children.” Unfortunately, Bucha is not only a city of Russian rape but also a city of Russian mass murder of innocent non-combative Ukraine civilians. Many were found with their hands bound behind their backs, many were found with bullet holes in their head or back, and all were found dressed in civilian clothes.
All of Russia’s degenerate military behavior in Ukraine should remind Americans and the world to acknowledge the American military greatness hardly ever talked about or celebrated, the moral integrity and character of the American military. Moral integrity or moral character might not be words that first come to mind when speaking of men and women trained to kill, but integrity and character do affect how a military conducts itself. The moral integrity reflected in America’s military greatness is the reason why it’s a RARE EXCEPTION and not the rule, as is the case with the Russian military, that an American military man or woman in a war would ever loot or sexually assault anyone, be they enemy combatant or innocent civilian.
The hand of a corpse buried along with other bodies is seen in a mass grave Russian soldiers created in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv
Since the Vietnam War, approximately 50 years ago, the American military has been involved in over 20 wars as either the main combatant or as a co-combatant, and has never been accused of the looting or raping that’s commonplace for Russian soldiers. No women in Iraq or Afghanistan have come forward and accused American soldiers of rape. No Afghanistan or Iraq citizens have come forward and said they went home one day and discovered American soldiers had stolen all their possessions. No mass graves of people shot in the head or back wearing civilian clothes were discovered when American troops left Iraq or Afghanistan.
The main reason for this display of American military greatness is the strict enforcement of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) by the United States Department of Defense (DOD), specifically the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM) Article 134 which states that any soldier found guilty of assault with intent to commit murder or rape, will suffer a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and imprisonment for 20 years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin demonstrated last Monday why military greatness is non-existent in the Russian military and how looting, rape, and murder became commonplace for Russian soldiers when he awarded Russia’s 64th motor rifle brigade, known as the “butchers of Bucha” because of their genocide of hundreds of innocent Ukraine civilians, with the honorary title of “Guards” and issued a proclamation stating: “This is a high honor and recognition of your special merits, mass heroism and courage shown in defending the Fatherland, upholding the sovereignty and national interests of Russia”. In other words for looting, raping, and murdering innocent non-combative Ukrainian civilians under the false guise of defending Russia we honor you!!!
Unfortunately, killing innocent civilians is the one thing both the Russian military and the American military have in common but with one very important distinction. When the American military kills civilians it’s unintentional, usually from a drone bomb strike hitting a mistaken target or unintended collateral damage from a drone bomb strike hitting the right target. When the Russian military kills civilians it’s intentional, either by a bomb aimed at civilians or by close-up bullet shots to the victim’s head or back and with their hands sometimes bound behind their back.
This is a scene you will not see with a Russian soldier. A U.S. Marine assigned to 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) comforts an infant while they wait for the mother during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan
Unlike the Russian military, the integrity and character of the American military produced the following 2 administrative policies that demonstrate its commitment to atoning for and avoiding civilian casualties:
1) Since the Korean War the American military has made civilian casualties payments to those unintentionally injured or killed
2) The American military established a public Web portal for people to directly report military-civilian abuse allegations.
Another indication of the moral integrity and character of the American military is the 750 American military bases located in 80 countries, versus the 9 Russian military bases located in former Soviet Union republics and 1 located in Syria. Anytime there’s a suggestion to close an American military base in 1 of the 80 countries, the country with the suggested closure always asks the United States to remain and keep the base open, versus the 21 countries that have decided that Russian military bases should close and leave their country.
An American soldier like this one would always provide water to a war victim in need, a Russian soldier would always steal the water from a war victim in need
But the best indication of the integrity and character of the American military is how it treated one of its own after discovering desertion and possible treason. On the night of June 30, 2009, Bowe Bergdahl leaving his weapon and combat gear behind, walked away from his infantry regiment in Paktika province near the Pakistani border five months after being deployed to Afghanistan. Before leaving Bergdahl wrote e-mails to his parents saying he had become disillusioned with the war effort, that he was bothered by the treatment of Afghans by American soldiers, and that he was ashamed to be an American.
Bergdahl’s desertion walk led him to 5 years of captivity by the Taliban. Most militaries would say good riddance DESERTER/TRAITOR, you’re getting what you deserve. But the integrity and character of the American military demanded a different response. Significant resources were deployed to find Bergdahl. Two Pashto-language leaflets were distributed by the U.S. military, one showed a smiling GI shaking hands with Afghan children and a caption calling him a guest in Afghanistan. The other showed a door being broken down and threatened that those holding Bergdahl would be hunted down. During missions to find Bergdahl, several U.S. troops were wounded, including one who lost the ability to walk, talk or care for himself after being shot through the head.
The American military is not only skilled at destruction, the American military is also skilled at construction. Apparently the Russian military is skilled at neither
Not only did the military launch an all-out rescue mission for Bergdahl, but military leaders knowing Bergdahl was a likely deserter signed off on trading 5 battle-hardened enemy-combatant soldiers, who would most likely end up back on the battlefield fighting American soldiers, for his release. After Bergdahl was recaptured the then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said “The questions about this particular soldier’s conduct are separate from our effort to recover any U.S. service member in enemy captivity” and the general also said that the military would investigate how Bergdahl was captured.
“Like any American, he is innocent until proven guilty. Our Army’s leaders will not look away from misconduct if it occurred. In the meantime, we will continue to care for him and his family.” As former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dempsey said the military didn’t look away from Bergdahl’s desertion, he was given a sentence of dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of $1,000 in pay per month, a reduction in rank from sergeant to private, and a loss of all Veteran Administration health benefits, although he was found guilty of desertion there are no military regrets about recapturing Bergdahl. Because the moral character and integrity of America’s military demanded that everything possible be done to save the life of Bergdahl regardless of his desertion.
Unlike the Russian military the American military doesn’t steal food from people it distributes food to people
America’s military greatness is far from being perfect but its track record of not offensively invading countries but instead defensively fighting wars to protect countries around the world, its moral integrity and character commitment of not looting war opponents or sexually assaulting war victims, its transparency in admitting war mistakes even when the mistake resulted in an innocent loss of life, its attempts to make financial amends for civilian casualties, its refusal to take hostage or murder innocent civilians, its tradition of always leaving a place in better condition than when it arrived, and its strict mandate that all military personnel follows the Uniform Code of Military Justice, is American military greatness that Americans and the world should never take for granted but should always celebrate!!!
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