Children of War

Defending those who cannot defend themselves is one of the most sacred callings a man may ever have in life. Much more than a moral imperative, being of service to the most vulnerable is a religious duty owed to Christ himself. Protecting an innocent child from the malevolent dictates of contemptible men is a religious obligation arising from St. Matthew 18:6. This is a Biblical passage where Christ direly admonishes:"If anyone causes any of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." The Messiah could hardly have been any clearer about the impending consequences for those who harm children of faith. If only the rest of the world could sincerely come to accept and embrace this spiritual verity, little children everywhere would never suffer as miserably as they always have.

So horrific has been the tragic plight of children in the world today that their pain almost seems apocalyptic in magnitude and scale. The alarming numbers recently compiled by the United Nations are calamitous even by eschatological standards. UNICEF estimates that 4.8 million children perished before their 5th birthday only in 2023, an ominous figure that amounts to 13,150 children tragically dying every single day. While some cynics may dismiss these figures as being demographically reasonable, especially given an estimated global population of 8.2 billion people, the preventable death of a single child already seems like enough of an unspeakable tragedy in its own right. Almost half of these 4.8 million youngsters passed away before they could even complete their very first month of age, arguably at the most vulnerable stage of human existence. How this many babies can wantonly die at such an early stage of their lives certainly speaks poorly of humanity's dearth of shared values and paucity of common civility.

Despite the myriad causes of death for these defenseless infants, warfare was found to be a common underlying driving force and main contributing factor in many cases. While battlefield harm can directly kill untold thousands or even millions of children, war also claims many more lives through its nefarious indirect effects. One should always bear in mind that armed conflict tends to obliterate national health care systems and destroy a country's basic infrastructure, intempestively halting essential medical services and interrupting vaccination programs. All this disastrous collateral damage then contributes, in no small measure, to the outbreak of many otherwise entirely preventable diseases, further adding to the total death toll of any given armed conflict. As familial access to food and water is partially curtailed or completely severed, starvation, malnutrition, dehydration, lack of proper sanitation and famine also annihilate an untold number of children, as so often has been the case throughout history.

While living through this desolate predicament, solely being an unarmed civilian noncombatant hardly precludes one from being deliberately targeted and willfully slain after the violent outbreak of war. No wonder military conflict can be so traumatizing and disheartening for so many of the parties tragically concerned. While war always serves the vested interests of the most powerful, it also seems to betray the best interests of the most vulnerable. This is especially true when the Geneva Convention is flagrantly violated and the requisite distinction between unarmed civilian noncombatants and armed enemy combatants is no longer made. As a highly vulnerable demographic group, horrendously subjected to the most tragic consequences of war, children have been victimized by armed conflict since time immemorial. Though countless tomes have already been written on this harrowing subject, the war in Ukraine now urgently pleads for our most exigent attention.  

If innocence really is the first casualty of war, children have long been on the front lines in Ukraine. In a cold-hearted world where military might so often makes right, those who cannot defend themselves are usually the same ones to suffer most during unforgiving times of war. According to the UK Ministry of Defence, this  cowardly and fratricidal war of imperial aggression has already caused both sides well over 1,000,000 casualties and at least 250,000 fatalities. More than three and a half years into the greatest European armed conflict since World War II, and thousands of Ukrainian children have already been maimed, killed, raped, tortured, forcibly removed from their terrorized families, and compulsorily relocated from their original homes. How a child is supposed to grow as one while the entire world seems to be falling apart around him is a tragedy most Ukrainian parents have yet to properly address.

Children of war usually have to mature long before a familially agreeable time. Despite being evidently unable to fully understand the many mysteries of life, children of war are compelled by tragic circumstances to contemplate the very meaning of grief, loss and death itself. Knowing that one's country can be viciously invaded and subjected to so much unjustifiable violence is a sobering realization indeed. The desperation of feeling utterly alone when defending one's own family can traumatize all who once thrived on a communal sense of peace, not to mention a halcyon religious life. War can sometimes tear apart the very social fabric of a community so that children must vie to become young adults if they are to stand a realistic chance of survival. That one or more generations should be sacrificed in this highly regrettable way remains one of the main tragedies of this ongoing war. Though facing the impending prospect of an imminent death can forever change a child's outlook on life, there are many other ways violating the sanctity of a youngster's home can also inflict irreparable damage.

Saying that myriad Ukrainian homes have already been perversely violated and thousands of young children made to suffer terribly would be the understatement of the century. At least 19,000 Ukrainian children were violently extracted from their families, unlawfully deported and forcibly transferred from occupied territories all the way to Russia. What becomes of their precious future is no longer a delicate impasse solely to be decided by their families alone, but a quandary to be deliberated by all who still believe a just peace can eventually be achieved. Long as this may take, only when Ukrainian resistance prevails, and the country successfully repels the Russian invasion, will the well-being of its children be effectively guaranteed.   

Although the International Criminal Court has already issued an arrest warrant for the Russian President Vladimir Putin, striving to hold him accountable for the many notorious war crimes committed against Ukrainian children, there is much more the international community must be willing to do in regards to this atrocity. A war so heavily reliant on drones and missiles has hardly ever made any special provisions for the well-being of children, especially when these weapon systems are so flagrantly aimed at civilian infrastructure and major urban centers. While the general Ukrainian population is openly targeted, time itself has become the most perfidious of enemy combatants.

One should never forget that preparing only for a short war has long been a surefire way of being prematurely defeated by unwarrantedly misguided optimism. Winning what has now become a protracted and bitterly entrenched war of attrition will require much more than simply bolstering Ukrainian air defenses to intercept guided drones and ballistic missiles. If nothing else, the West should carefully ensure that Ukraine has both the financial means and the military wherewithal to fight off Russian aggression. Financing the valiant Ukrainian war effort may require the EU to seize the €300 billion in Russian central bank reserves currently frozen in Belgium. This may very well be the only expedient way to make up for the shortfall in American financing, as President Trump is unlikely to treat Ukraine with the same indulgent largesse as former President Biden once so courageously did.

Only to further compound this most lamentable quagmire, nearly 11 million Ukrainians have already been displaced because of the war according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Addressing the vital needs of this many highly vulnerable refugees has not been easy by any wild strecht of the imagination. As myriad Ukrainian families have been torn apart and violently separated by this ongoing military conflict, millions of children have suffered appalling privations while relocating across provinces and countries, always in desperate need and search for safety. Educational disruption, debilitating mental health distress, shortage of adequate shelter, sexual abuse, subjection to physical violence, lack of proper health care and demoralizing hunger are all delicate issues that directly affect children and have yet to be properly addressed.

The UN even estimates that while 9 million Ukrainians were food insecure during the first year of the war, 70% of all Ukrainian children are still being denied access to basic goods and services today, even being impenitently deprived of adequate food and shelter. Saying that time has not been on Ukraine's side is another somber realization this far into the war. The lapse of time by itself has done very little to mitigate all the pain and destruction inflicted on Ukraine. Although its civilian population has already suffered atrociously because of this international military conflict, finding an alternative peaceful solution has so far proven utterly elusive, especially given the harshness of the peace terms literally dictated by Russia. If Ukraine is to preserve its sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence, absolutely no leeway should be provided for appeasement, no immediately reasonable alternative given to war.

Although preparing for a protracted military conflict may not be such a straightforward diplomatic feat, Ukraine would be well advised to reject Russia's maximalist demands, peremptorily repudiating a forcefully dictated peace. A unilateral settlement with an imperial power, always ravenous for more territory and people, would never end well for Kyiv, especially when it so closely resembles a humiliating unconditional surrender. The best interests of Ukrainian children would never be well served by a humiliating national defeat imposed by military force, albeit one politically dressed as a diplomatically negotiated peace. This would expressely violate the country's Constitution, undermine its sovereignty, compromise its independence and amputate at least 20% of Ukraine's territory, incurring the forced naturalization of several million of its citizens. Such an appalling resolution to an illegal war of aggression obdurately speaks against any diplomatic settlement where Russia obtains through secret negotiations what could otherwise only be achieved on the cold battlefields of Ukraine. A just war that must necessarily be fought is one that must necessarily be won, there being absolutely no other ulterior way out.

For all these strategic reasons, an interested observer can only pray and hope that Ukraine will continue to defend itself with the same implacable valor and obstinate dignity already brandished in the recent past. Resilience is now absolutely indispensable because a halcyon denouement to this dreadful conflict is not yet in clear sight. Before there can be any long-lasting peace, waging more war still remains tenaciously imperative. This is unavoidable lest international law should be forever debased into the travesty of legality it has now sadly become. When a bellicose permanent member of the UN Security Council like Russia cowardly invades a peaceful UN member nation like Ukraine, this can only be deemed a disgraceful international outrage of epic proportions. Allowing Russia to permanently annex Ukraine would surely degrade the UN Charter into the most expensive roll of toilet paper imaginable, much to the obvious detriment of international law and world peace as a whole.

It's never too late to remember that the UN Charter was originally written in 1945 to safeguard all future generations from the scourge of war, which had twice during the first half of the 20th century unleashed a cataclysmic armed conflict of worldwide proportions. These two horrific World Wars not only claimed approximately 100 million lives but also convulsed more countries than ever before, culminating with the use of nuclear weapons against Japan. For the purposes of safeguarding peace, article 2(4) of the UN Charter deemed all wars of territorial annexation to be entirely illegal according to international law. Had Russia, an original founding member of the UN, abided by the peaceful dispositions of the UN Charter, Ukraine would never have been invaded in the first place. At this point, an Ukrainian defensive victory on the battlefield would be necessary not only to safeguard international law but also to protect the rest of Eastern Europe from Russian imperialism and its belated need for post-Cold War geopolitical revisionism. Needless to say, the immediate survival and protracted well-being of millions of children also hangs in the balance of power.

Without ignoring this urgent and compelling need for victory, a prescient geopolitical disclaimer must now be expressly made. Commendable as Europe's unwavering support for the resolute defense of Ukraine has been so far, there are strict limits to what military assistance the West can directly provide this much beleagered nation. Dragging NATO into this fratricidal armed conflict would only pit three nuclear powers such as the US, France and the UK directly against Russia in what would presumably commence as a conventional war only to soon escalate into a nuclear holocaust of apocalyptic proportions. This would undeniably be a losing proposition for all parties concerned, as well as the world as a whole. Although Ukraine should never be sacrificed before the altars of Russian imperial expansionism, military aggression and geopolitical revisionism, there are stringent limits to be observed. Assuming a total nuclear war is an apocalyptic outcome to be adamantly averted, our primal instincts must surely now be indefatigably and resolutely mastered.

One should also remember that the children from both the present and future generations all deserve to live in a peaceful world where issues of undeniable global importance, such as nuclear disarmament and nuclear nonproliferation, are not irresponsibly debased into macabre jokes of ill-repute. A short recapitulation of the recent history behind the war in Ukraine would clearly tell us why this is the case. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became an independent country that inherited the third most powerful nuclear arsenal in the world. As the infamous Budapest Memorandum attests, in 1994 Ukraine peacefully agreed to disarm and surrender its entire nuclear arsenal to Russia in exchange for international security guarantees provided by the US, the UK and Russia itself. In 2014, only twenty years after this diplomatic arrangement was negotiated, Russia dastardly reneged on it, egregiously violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity while surreptitiously seizing the coastal province of Crimea. By 2022, Russia once again declared war against Ukraine, this time openly challenging the final geopolitical settlement of the Cold War while vying to annex the entire country as a whole.

The tragic lesson that remains from this fateful story is quite simple: a once mighty nuclear power that peacefully agrees to disarm can only hope to sacrifice its own security and sovereignty by doing so, being nearly swallowed whole by another nuclear power such as Russia with relative impunity. That a peace-loving nation like Ukraine should be treated in this shameful way only makes a mockery of nuclear disarmament and nuclear nonproliferation, setting an abominable historical precedent that should never be allowed to stand. Why would any nuclear power ever agree to disarm only to later be invaded and possibly conquered by another nuclear power who never abandoned the warpath and refused to relinquish its own warheads? Would rogue nations like North Korea ever agree to denuclearize? How many states like Iran would now think that only by developing their own nuclear arsenals will they ever truly be safe in this extremely dangerous and unforgiving world of ours? These are all deeply troubling questions that children of today will soon be expected to answer tomorrow, not only in Ukraine, but all across the world. As we care about the well-being of both present and future generations, what becomes of nuclear weapons still remains a strategic issue to be conscientiously deliberated.

Whether nuclear deterrence will continue to be the basis on which so much of the international relations between great powers is strategically based also remains to be seen. While America has recently announced its decision to build a game-changing, global, space-based, anti-nuclear missile defense shield, Russia has questioned the balance of power in Eastern Europe while indirectly attempting to test and suppress NATO's military and geopolitical reach. Antimissile defense has already proven to work remarkably well both in Israel and even in Ukraine, opening up the possibility that technology may now allow nuclear missile defense to literally take off as never before. How this affects military calculations involving nuclear deterrence is still an open-ended question. As the deterrent system of mutual assured destruction could soon be rendered obsolete, the successful probability of a nuclear first strike is remarkably increased. Consequently, even as China quadruples its nuclear arsenal, many of the lessons that so often kept the peace during the Cold War may soon no longer be entirely applicable. The children of today will be forced to tackle all of these developments, especially as they strive to learn both from the epochal accomplishments and pivotal mistakes of their own forefathers.

As these unpretentious words are fastidiously appraised in the coming years, always with the breadth of view and length of perspective that only the hindsight of time can ever provide, may the future generations know where we all stood on this historical juncture. Despite the continuation of this relentless war of entrenched attrition, concerned as one may be for the plight of the most vulnerable and defenseless, the price of appeasement still seems far too costly to be cravenly borne. European leaders should be candidly informed that diplomacy alone is unlikely to achieve what war itself has failed to attain. What a pity that so many lives should be sacrificed at the behest of Cold War revanchism, geopolitical revisionism and brotherly discord.

Amid a violent and dangerous world, always so tragically torn apart by war, of the many priceless lessons bequeathed by childhood, remembering the true meaning of peace may now be the most excruciating one. Although maturity often exacts a price many would simply rather not pay, sometimes in order to defend a child we cannot afford to contemplate the world as one. Since Christ once taught that we must all learn to see the world through the eyes of a child just to one day experience Heaven, the ultimate price paid for lost purity can never be underestimated. Sadly enough, there is only so much an innocent child can ever teach a spiritually battle-hardened man. If one paradise is to be lost, another shall be regained. May love in its most divine always light our way.