Fresno State professor: Americans must avoid oversimplifying Russian-Ukraine war

Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine. The Russian invasion is an unprovoked attack that clearly violates the norms of international law. But let’s be careful as we respond to this aggression.

In times of crisis, thinking narrows and compassion fades. Crisis thinking tends to deal in stereotypes and generalizations. We saw this during the pandemic as Americans traded insults about those who wear masks and get vaccines — and those who don’t.

This narrowing tendency is especially obvious in wartime. When wars break out, nuance gives way to brute power and the tendency to oversimplify. Although wars are fought by individual soldiers, our thinking focuses on armies and nations. In wartime we tend to lump individuals into a collective whole.

This is understandable. But the collective view is both false and pernicious. In wartime there are dissenters and differences of opinion within nations and governments. And the gross generalizations of “us vs. them” thinking is a root cause of hatred and war.

This problem recurs throughout history. Ethnic and racial stereotyping often flares up in wartime. In the worst cases, this results in genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Americans have not been immune to this ugly tendency to stereotype and oversimplify. During the First World War, German-Americans were viewed as Kaiser-lovers and “Huns.” Japanese-Americans were confined in concentration camps during World War II. During the “war on terrorism,” Muslim Americans bore the brunt of racial profiling.

These cautionary tales should be kept in mind as we respond to Russian aggression. Shall we blame this unjust war on the Russian people or on Vladimir Putin? To ask that question is to acknowledge the difference between a country’s leadership, its army and its people.

The morality of war depends on this distinction. The just war tradition insists that we distinguish between combatants and noncombatants. Deliberate violations of this distinction are war crimes. Indeed, it looks as if Putin’s invasion is guilty of this crime. As Russian missiles rain down on city centers, more than 2,000 Ukrainian civilians have already been killed.

And what about our own nonviolent responses to Putin’s aggression? Nonviolent responses are made more difficult when we consider the difference between a country’s leadership and its people. Sanctions that target Putin and his cronies can easily be justified. But embargoes and blockades usually harm the poor more than the ruling class.

Historical evidence for this claim is chilling. U.S. sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s harmed children and the poor. And today, after withdrawing from Afghanistan, the U.S. has instituted a punishing set of sanctions against the Taliban regime. A recent article in The Intercept warns that more people may die from the evolving humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan than died during the past 20 years of war.

One of the strategic goals of economic sanctions is to provoke civil unrest, even to foment an uprising against a nation’s leadership. This strategy is understandable. We might think that the people of Afghanistan will rise up and overthrow the Taliban. Of course, that logic did not work in Iraq. Saddam Hussein remained in power despite the sanctions of the 1990s.

And what about Russia, whose economic and military power is much more substantial than Afghanistan or Iraq? Ordinary Russians are feeling the bite of economic sanctions. But will they take to the streets and demand an end of the war — or even oust Putin?

The reality of Russian repression makes this unlikely. The threat of civil unrest may prompt Russian security forces to become more repressive. Thousands of Russian anti-war protesters have already been arrested in the past week. We should cheer on those Russians who are calling for peace. But we should also realize that street protests in authoritarian regimes are risky.

So, what should be done? The moral situation is murky. This does not mean we should do nothing. But we must avoid oversimplifying. In wartime we need to think critically, carefully, and compassionately.

We must open our hearts to those who are suffering in Ukraine. We should express solidarity for those Russians who are pressing for an end to the war. And we should avoid those kinds of stereotypes and oversimplifications that undermine morality.