by Paul Shannon
On February 24 we mourn the fourth anniversary of the Ukraine War.
Several weeks earlier, on February 5, we also marked the expiration of the New Start Treaty – the last remaining nuclear weapons agreement.
The conflict continues to take thousands of lives and decimate Ukraine. It is also the most likely place on earth that nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia could start.
We might all see this war differently:
Some see it as a Russian imperial conquest of Ukraine, possibly a first step toward the conquest of the rest of Europe.
Others see it primarily as Russia’s response to the U.S. violation of its agreement 35 years ago to not expand NATO toward Russia; Russia is defending itself from the creation of a militarized bridgehead on its border.
Whatever our perspective on Russia’s invasion, we must now acknowledge that the U.S. and NATO strategy of fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian has been a catastrophe and total failure. In fact the very existence of an independent Ukraine is now in doubt. Despite providing the Ukraine government with untold hundreds of billions in money, weapons, intelligence and support – despite U.S. generals in Germany and CIA agents all over Ukraine running the war — Ukraine continues to lose and sustain enormous losses in the fighting. And no amount of more weapons and money can change that reality. The country is suffering a demographic catastrophe as entire generations of its men are being killed and seriously wounded. Its animals are dying. Its rich soil is poisoned. Millions of its people have left, most to western Europe and some to Russia. And its young men avoid the draft in droves. All because peace agreements that would have kept the country together were rejected by the U.S. and the west.
On top of that, British intelligence and the sophisticated intelligence and targeting that President Trump continues to provide Ukraine has been used to attack Russia’s nuclear bombers and early warning system; to assassinate Russian Generals and prominent civilians in Moscow; and even, evidently, to attack President Putin’s family residence. We are dancing on the edge of nuclear war between the world’s largest nuclear powers.
We support a realistic path toward ending the war in a way that:
- Maintains the existence of an independent Ukraine
- Resolves the fate of the regions of Ukraine that are now under Russian control (before even more regions are conquered)
- Guarantees long-term Ukrainian neutrality as asserted in Ukraine’s founding constitution
- Recognizes the legitimate security concerns of Ukraine and Russia, and
- Sets the stage for a lasting peace through the creation of a new European security system that includes Russia and Ukraine (as envisioned at the end of the cold war 35 years ago)
Let’s make sure we don’t have to commemorate a 5th anniversary of this war. Wherever you live, tell your congressional representatives to stop banging the drums for more money and weapons. It’s time for the best peace that these tragic circumstances allow.
