Editorial | Effective warfare does not require contempt for the enemy

Editorial|Editorial

Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Jussi Halla-aho (ps) has bought an artillery shell from a Ukrainian online service, which he sent with his greetings to the Russians. The same service has previously been used by, among others, MP Mikko Kärnä (center), writer Sofi Oksanen and evp officer Martti J. Kari.

The use of designated munitions has raised questions about the growth of Russian hatred. The Finnish-Italian non-fiction writer Anton Monti’s demands that Finland should reconquer Karelia and Petsamo have also been added to this.

In this situation, it is not surprising that the talks get tougher. Finns identify with the sufferings of the Ukrainians and feel resentment towards the Russian leadership, Russia and to some extent also Russians.

The emotional reactions of individual citizens can be understood, but the chairman of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee is not an individual citizen. He is one of the key players in foreign and security policy, a representative of official Finland.

In her Facebook text, Halla-aho argued that respect for human life must be abandoned in war. “In wartime, it’s a disadvantage. This inhibition is aimed at suppressing by dehumanizing the enemy to be killed, i.e. by demonizing him or describing him as a rat, cockroach or other disgusting animal. – – If killing Russian soldiers in this situation is right and necessary, everything that contributes to their killing is also right and necessary. Demonizing and carnivalizing killing is right and necessary.”

Halla-aho has adopted a rhetorical method in which he proceeds to extreme conclusions seemingly logically. With that method, he has ended up, among other things, calling Islam a pedophile religion, belittling the Holocaust and praising Donald Trump. In retrospect, Halla-aho has been reluctant to comment on his old speeches. That may well be the case with the most recent speeches as well.

Describe these strange times we live in, that the editorial even has to justify why people shouldn’t be talked about like cockroaches and why killing people shouldn’t be made a joke.

The obvious answer is that it is against our values. Two worldviews are fighting in Ukraine: on one side, a totalitarian ideology that despises human dignity, on the other, a democratic ideology based on freedom and human rights. If we adopt the other side’s worldview, we lose even if we win.

Russia must lose this war, but giving up humanity is not even militarily effective. If that were the case, Russia would have the most powerful army in the world. And if Halla-aho had completed conscript service, he would have seen that a Finnish soldier is trained to be a disciplined fighter, not a brute raging in anger.

War may be inhuman, but that doesn’t mean a soldier should be. War also includes rules for the treatment of prisoners, wounded or civilians, for example. A soldier who regards the enemy as a rat hardly respects them. Deprivation of humanity opens the way to war crimes and genocide.

Demonizing the enemy is also strategically stupid. In the Second World War, the German army would have had a good chance of winning the Ukrainians over to their side, if they had not treated them as subhumans. Russia has repeated the same mistake. The aggressor’s brutality has united Ukrainians and broken the ties of neighboring nations.

Finland’s decision-makers sympathized with Russia for a long time, but now some of them have put on a big war helmet, and others don’t seem to be able to talk sense into them. Fortunately, the people seem to remain calmer than their leaders. More so on the streets than also in opinion polls there are no signs of very big Russian hatred. When it comes to Russia, the people have often been wiser than their leaders. That seems to be the case even now.

The editorials are HS’s positions on a current topic. The articles are prepared by HS’s editorial department, and they reflect the magazine principle line.