Wheelbarrows of War?!

If you can't have peace, at least have a wheelbarrow

Credit: Microsoft Bing image creator

I was minding my own business in the living room a few weeks ago during a family visit and my husband and brother (ex military) were discussing the war. My husband said “Oh, I saw this foreign legion guy (Joseph MacDonald) talking to an interviewer (Lindybeige) on YouTube about things that work for current battlefields and things that don’t. This Legionnaire, who volunteered to fight for Ukraine, actually went and bought a wheelbarrow to use in the war.” This struck as me completely inane, brilliantly practical, and ludicrously funny at the same time. Since then I’ve turned this over and over in my brain, wearing away the humor but still sensing that there’s something so damnably human about using a wheelbarrow that I had to share it.

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Everyone who follows me knows I despise war. There is no excuse for war. None. It should be globally illegal, replaced by something competitive but relatively benign like a sports match, a card game, or monopoly tournament. On the surface this sounds ridiculous but in reality it is no less ridiculous than pouring trillions of dollars into wars about land or religion or money or resources; wars which have killed or caused the deaths of 187 million people since 1800 alone. (Src: List of wars by death toll - Wikipedia)

That said, it appears that times have indeed changed. The U.S. Civil War was fought with rifles, pistols, grenades, and cannons. While WWI was dominated by machine guns, protective trenches, barbed wire, and mines; WWII saw the rise of airborne bombers, submariner torpedo’s, V1 rockets, howitzers, and tanks as battlefield staples. The advent of radio changed everything with real-time communication to the front lines. Tanks effectively ended the reign of trench warfare which formerly dominated defense. And definitively, the atomic bomb changed the world. Conflicts and skirmishes since then make use of the latest surface to air missiles. The Patriot system and cruise missiles have made tanks and planes nearly obsolete. And, drones have made distance warfare incredibly effective, day or night. Of course nuclear weapons, intended to be the great equalizer and prevent world wars, have become bargaining chips for psychos.

Enter Joseph MacDonald. He likened his time in the military to his prior experience as a festival organizer. His candid manner in the interview was natural and self-effacing. He appeared one of the most practical people I’ve seen on YouTube. He said the army camp was like the festivals he planned, minus the entertainment - people going in and out, checking ID at gates, using radios, arranging food, and performing activities. He felt prepared and said that many were not, not remotely. Many volunteers had unrealistic expectations about weapons, supplies, and the support provided by others such as air or artillery support. He felt the US soldiers were spoiled because of the wealth and power of the US military. Their expectations for certain kit, weapons, and support were too high for the realities of the ground battles covered in drone strikes. Here, soldiers must survive with problem solving and resourcefulness. The kind of resourcefulness that sent these men back into the trenches, circa WW2. Joe made note that trenches, tanks, and helicopters have made a comeback, being the most effective strategies against the drone scourge.

Credit: Eagle News - trenches for escape from Bakhmut

In Bravo Company, Joe became known as "Big Mac”. The interviewer mentioned comments from those who had emailed him about his series of interviews with Joe, sharing both negative (undisciplined, fought, a lot of alcohol use) and positive (friendly, good with problems, and a digger ) and one who said “Tell him I said hi. Nobody digs like ‘Big Mac’”. Here is where Joe’s humanity shines through. He immediately nodded in agreement but said if you need a digger, “Digger Dave can dig. You start digging with this guy who’s 50-ish with a beer gut and mutton chops, I guarantee he’ll still be digging 8 hours later.” Joe felt that digging, walking with pack and gear, and moving stuff were the core tasks in the field and the big steroid types couldn’t match the commitment of ‘Digger Dave’. He further stated that “Digger Dave should get a medal for his service to entrenchment.” Joe feels that the trench is the best ‘armor’, “nothing else is better than mother earth.”

When questioned about his most important kit, Joe said he asked his superiors for a wheelbarrow. It would allow them to build bunkers faster. It could move dirt, tools, equipment, and people. He ended up buying his own when they refused to supply one. It’s astounding to me that we appear to be back to basics - dig dirt, load dirt, move dirt, repeat. I give you the new savior of the battlefield, among billions of dollars of high-tech weaponry and drones - the absolute core of the military industrial complex - the humble $70 steel wheelbarrow now used to shore up the defenses of trench warfare.

While despots and madmen rage on, crushing civilizations and pillaging for their own filthy gain, we have Joseph MacDonald hustling dirt out of the trenches with a wheelbarrow. Now that he’s out, he is working with a friend who’s a retired NASA engineer to design the perfect wheelbarrow for soldiers. It’ll have steel tubes mounted to the top of the sides to insert tree branches which effectively convert it into a litter for larger soldiers who are injured and must be moved quickly. Using the branches as handles, he described their ability to guide the wheelbarrow up even the steepest, slickest embankments quickly, using the glide of the wheel. Here is a man, at the complete and utter mercy of psychopathic world leaders, who is thinking from inside the trench, on the front lines where good men go to die.

Credit: Getty Images

When asked by the interviewer if he felt he was brave, he again deferred to others with this story. “I definitely know some really brave people. I don’t know if I’m brave or just the right sort of detached at times.” “Whether it’s bravery or a certain kind of detachment or exactly the right kind of mental illness - who can say.”