Here is the talk given by Camillo Mac Bica, on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at CINEMA ARTS CENTRE in Huntington, NY, following the showing of the documentary ALL OUR NOs about the 650,000 Italian Military Internees Soldiers Captured Who Refused to Fight Alongside Nazis during WWII
Camillo Mac Bica, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy and ethics at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His philosophical focus is on Applied Ethics, particularly the relation between war, morality, and healing. Dr. Bica is a former United States Marine Corps Officer and veteran of the Vietnam War. He is a long-time activist for peace and justice, a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and Coordinator of the Long Island Chapter of Veterans for Peace. In addition to his latest book, Essays on War, Morality, and Military Service from his War and Morality Series and the three books in his War Legacy Series, “Worthy of Gratitude,”Beyond PTSD,” and “There Are No Flowers in a War Zone,” articles by Dr. Bica have been published in numerous philosophical journals and online alternative news sites.
I am pleased and honored to participate in this event that tells the story and brings to international attention the sacrifices of some 650,000 Italian soldiers who endured imprisonment, forced labor, torture, and death, as a consequence of making the morally courageous decision to put down their weapons and say NO to war. As a former United States Marine Corps Officer who participated in the American war in Vietnam, I wish that I had had the courage to do likewise. Sadly, despite my increasing awareness of the war’s immorality, and that all war is atrocity, I chose to continue my participation, a decision I regret and will have to live with for the rest of my life.
Morality
Whatever their source and content, and however the process occurs, humankind has accepted and internalized a set of values and norms through which we define ourselves as persons, structure our world, and render our relationship to it, and to other human beings, comprehensible. It is these values and norms that provide the parameters of our being – our moral identity. Consequently, we now have the need and the means to weigh concrete situations to determine acceptable (right) and unacceptable (wrong) behavior.
Whether we choose to act rightly or wrongly, i.e., according to or in violation of our moral identity, will affect whether we perceive ourselves as true to our personal convictions (to the dictates of our conscience) and to others who share our values and ideals. Guilt is, simply speaking, the awareness of having transgressed our moral convictions and the anxiety precipitated by a perceived breakdown of our ethical cohesion – our integrity – and an alienation from the moral community. Shame is the loss of self-esteem consequent to a failure to live up to personal and societal expectations. The Italian Military internees are a model of moral courage for all of us, a moral ideal to which we should all aspire.
Tragically, as soldiers experience the horror and cruelty of war and the moral gravity of their actions becomes apparent, they inevitably suffer the consequences of acting in violation of their moral code. Consequently, soldiers suffer not only the effects of trauma, but also moral injury.
Moral Injury
Moral Injury has been defined, probably characterized is better, as “dissonance and conflict,” that is, the “lasting psychological, social, spiritual, and behavioral impact consequent to perpetrating, failing to prevent, or bearing witness to acts that transgress deeply held beliefs and expectations about right and wrong and personal goodness.”
Hesitant about acknowledging the relevance and importance of morality to psychic injury, some clinicians have chosen instead to characterize such injuries as “Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress (PITS)”, a form of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused not by traditionally expected roles, such as being a victim of a traumatic event, but by being an active participant in perpetrating or inflicting injury upon others.
Many of us who have seen humankind at its worst realize a responsibility to continue to sacrifice, by following the example of the IMIs and to work for war’s eradication, hence the origin of our activist organizations the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace. Or perhaps, we do it also as retribution, as penance for our participation in the sacrilege of war. Either way, we must realize, before it’s too late, that the very survival of our species, depends upon our ability and our willingness to overcome our prejudices and petty differences, that ALL of humanity, nay, all of life, regardless of species, geographical borders, or political ideologies, are interconnected and of one family. What Thich Nhat Hanh, A Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Master termed “Interbeing.”
Let us demand the accountability of Warists, political leaders, corporate executives, industrialists, and bankers who, while risking nothing in the undertaking, advocate for and profit from war, those War criminals who dare to initiate such wars and connive to use deception and myth to encourage participation and support.
Recognizing endless war to be in their interest, they perpetuate the myth of heroism and purpose, a fantastical scenario in which war is falsely portrayed to a fearful and vulnerable citizenry as necessary to meet a threat to our freedom and our values. Perhaps war is a reality that will not soon go away, and sacrifices on the field of battle will again occur. But rather than to “commemorate” and celebrate” the prosecution of wars with jingoistic rhetoric and lies, let us end the mythologizing of war and demand truth. Let us question war’s purpose and necessity and ensure a clarity of vision rather than a blind compliance that some wish to portray as patriotism. Let us ensure that war remains a means of last resort and that no other person will again have to kill, die, or grieve the loss of a son or daughter for a cause that is misguided. Let us make this our legacy and celebrate peace rather than war. Let us remember the sacrifices and courage of the Italian Military Internees, and say NO to war, NO to fascism, and NO to violence. Let us honor their legacy and say YES to a culture of peace, YES to democracy, and YES to respect for the dignity of all humankind regardless of ethnicity, religion, or nationality.
On April 4, 1967, exactly one year to the day before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King reminded us of the threat that war posed to our very survival.
“We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. . . Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to humankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all of humankind.”
The Rose
I remember once in another lifetime
Noticing a lone rose rising
defiantly from beneath
the rubble of a destroyed city
north of Danang.
It had no business being there
Adding color to the drabness of war,
Beauty to the ugliness of destruction,
And hope of life when life
Held nothing but suffering and death.
It was a contradiction and created confusion
Amidst the clarity of killing to survive
. . . I stepped on it.
There are no flowers in a war zone,
Nor color, nor beauty, nor hope.
