BY SEBASTIAN JUNGER
WORLD
You have been at war for a year now, and death must have touched virtually every family in your country. Your struggle reminds me of Sarajevo, where I first experienced war as a journalist in 1993. The Bosnian Serb army had besieged the beautiful Bosnian capital, and ordinary citizens—many just teenagers—learned to use the tools of war to defend their families and homes. ▶
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The situation was both noble and tragic, inspiring and sad. It made me want to be Sarajevan. It made me want a great cause in my life that would require me to put others before myself. You seem to make yourself immortal when you do that; you seem to make yourself impervious to pain and fear and doubt. The reality is much more complicated, of course. But over and over throughout history, ordinary people defending their homes and families have found themselves capable of feats they never could have imagined.
My father was a refugee from two wars. In 1936 he and his family fled Madrid when the fascists came in under General Francisco Franco, and then fled again when the Nazis invaded France. It looked as if fascism was going to take over the world, but some people knew better. All of Western Europe’s authoritarian regimes have collapsed since World War II. Of the Eastern bloc countries, only Russia and Belarus have slid back into authoritarianism. Europe is an overwhelmingly democratic continent because there are people everywhere who were and are willing to risk their lives defying evil.
Resistance fighters in France and other occupied countries joined Allied soldiers in World War II to crush the Nazi regime and eradicate fascism in Central Europe. The Ukrainian resistance is a direct descendent of these heroic citizens.
Like Hitler, Putin will fail in his endeavor—not only will he fail, but it will eventually destroy him. As a result, other dictators around the world will take note of the fact that smaller countries often win wars against invaders, and that invading a supposedly weak neighbor will probably end in failure. History is filled with inspiring examples. The Ottoman Empire invaded Montenegro over and over in the 1600s, outnumbering the Montenegrins by as much as 12 to 1. Each time, these mountain people drove out their invaders—often inflicting high casualties. And after the failed Easter Rising of 1916, Irish rebels eventually overthrew English rule despite the fact that they were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned.
FREEDOM IS ONE of the
