War, Criminal, and Thieving “Successes”
I was struck by the topic of so-called “war, criminal, thieving, and similar successes” in the context of the attached text about the war in Ukraine.
“According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, in January 2026 Ukrainian forces were said to have lost 38,645 soldiers. In addition, the destruction of 611 armored vehicles of the opponent was reported, a slightly higher number than in previous months. Meanwhile, the Ukrainians declared 268 such successes. As for counter-artillery operations, the Ukrainian side counted 1,079 successes in the category of tube artillery systems and 46 missile systems, while the Russian side reported, respectively, 682 tube systems and 19 missile systems.”
What are “successes” in such a language? In the quoted passage, the word “success” does not mean an improvement in life, a resolution of conflict, or the achievement of the common good. It means a quantitative record of losses, destruction, and elimination. Thus, success becomes someone else’s loss, someone’s annihilation, a balance sheet of violence. A plan for tomorrow means tomorrow’s death of 60–100 thousand people in a given area, in both countries.
The same pattern appears in war, banditry, theft, mafia structures, and brutal systems of power. It seems a justified opinion—promoted by the current Polish government—that during two parliamentary terms the PiS party focused on how to steal another 50 million złoty from the state budget the next day.
The psychological mechanism reveals a shift in meaning from the act to the result.
Under normal conditions, an act leads to responsibility, and responsibility brings consequences. In the narrative of these so-called “successes,” the act is the number of others’ losses and one’s own prestige. A person ceases to see the faces of the victims, their lives, the trembling of dying bodies, their histories. What becomes visible is the statistic.
Empathy is cut off when one says “38,645 soldiers” instead of “38,645 human beings.” A well-known reduction of the human being to a calculable unit takes place—psychological anesthesia that facilitates further violence. This is not accidental; it is a protective mechanism and a tool of power.
Let us look at the common core: war + banditry + theft. They are inseparable companions. At the beginning of this war, Russian soldiers looted whatever they could carry from Ukrainian homes. From post offices in Belarus, they sent televisions to their families. A small remark: in my clairvoyant insights, gold coins from Swiss mints contain gold torn from extermination camps, from the teeth of Jews.
The same pattern of thinking appears regardless of scale. A thief says, “a successful heist,” a bandit says, “the operation was successful,” the state says, “a military success.” In each case, someone else’s loss is named by others as an achievement. The legality of such “successes” does not change the psychological structure of individuals and social groups. The difference between “state” war and criminal violence is legal and narrative, not structural. The internal mechanism is the same: domination, elimination, seizure, control.
The numbers of “successes” are tools of power and propaganda. In the quoted text, each side provides different numbers; each side proclaims its own successes. The numbers are incomparable and unverifiable. This shows that numbers do not serve truth; numbers serve to sustain a narrative. “Success” becomes a propaganda argument, a means of mobilization, a justification for further actions.
The long-term consequences of such thinking for the individual are emotional numbness, normalization of violence, and a split between private and public morality. A person may empathize in personal life because a family member is suffering from cancer, and at the same time accept mass violence as a “necessity.” For societies and nations, this entrenches the loss of a language for describing suffering, the upbringing of subsequent generations in the logic of “winners and losers,” and an easier consent to the escalation of conflicts.
Why are these “successes” illusory? If success must be measured by another’s loss, then it is not success, but an efficiently described failure of humanity. These are short-term successes, based on destruction, requiring constant maintenance through violence. War, criminal, and thieving “successes” do not create lasting stability, do not resolve the causes of conflicts, and always generate further side effects: misfortune, dark hours, karma with its inseparable combat shock.
Opublikowano: 04/02/2026
Autor: Sławomir Majda
Kateogrie: The Prostitute and the Soldier [PTSD, Combat Shock]
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