Comments concerning Fletcher/Leary on Ukraine, Nov 2022
Fletcher/Leary on Ukraine, Nov 2022, at
https://convergencemag.com/articles/qa-navigating-the-lefts-ukraine-debate/
Also posted here:
Some comments:
First off, I’m with peace activist David Swanson in opposing both sides of the war.
https://davidswanson.org/how-to-oppose-both-sides-of-a-war/
In fact, he and I oppose all wars.
Arms merchants who benefit from all the US arms aid to Ukraine (gasoline on a fire) think like thi$:
Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes was quoted as remaining optimistic about rising tensions in Eastern Europe saying that he “fully expect[s]” that “we’re going to see some benefit from it.”
--CODEPINK e-mail of Feb 3, 2022
Total US aid to Ukraine, in dollars, looks like it exceeds the total military budgets of all but two countries in the world. These would be the U.S. at number one, China at number two.
https://nukewatchinfo.org/category/quarterly-newsletter/
The arms merchants are never going to tell you that between 1900 and 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts.
https://www.ericachenoweth.com/research/wcrw
They aren’t going to tell you of
GENE SHARP'S 198 METHODS OF NONVIOLENT ACTION
https://wri-irg.org/en/resources/2008/gene-sharps-198-methods-nonviolent-action
Swanson compiled these 89 examples of nonviolent resistance:
Here is Noam Chomsky:
Chomsky [b. 1928] continued, “Of course, it was provoked. Otherwise, they wouldn’t refer to it all the time as an unprovoked invasion. By now, censorship in the United States has reached such a level beyond anything in my lifetime. Such a level that you are not permitted to read the Russian position. Literally. Americans are not allowed to know what the Russians are saying. Except, selected things. So, if Putin makes a speech to Russians with all kinds of outlandish claims about Peter the Great and so on, then, you see it on the front pages. If the Russians make an offer for a negotiation, you can’t find it. That’s suppressed. You’re not allowed to know what they are saying. I have never seen a level of censorship like this.”
From Kennan to Kissinger, Western foreign-policy thinkers including Biden’s CIA chief saw NATO’s eastward march as provocative to Russia.
It sure does appear to be a proxy war:
“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree it cannot do the kind things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a press conference in Poland after returning from an unannounced visit to Ukraine.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/25/us-makes-it-clear-its-aim-is-to-weaken-russia/
Talks were taking place during the first month after the Russian invasion, when Russia and Ukraine tentatively agreed to a fifteen-point peace plan in talks mediated by Turkey. Details still had to be worked out, but the framework and the political will were there.
“Russia was ready to withdraw from all of Ukraine, except for Crimea and the self-declared republics in Donbas. Ukraine was ready to renounce future membership in NATO and adopt a position of neutrality between Russia and NATO.”
What happened? The U.S. and the U.K. put a stop to all that. Details here:
https://worldbeyondwar.org/peace-talks-essential-as-war-rages-on-in-ukraine/
Read Russia’s ignored demands before they resorted to war here:
https://davidswanson.org/russias-demands-have-changed/
Swanson remarks: “These were perfectly reasonable, just what the U.S. demanded when Soviet missiles were in Cuba, just what the U.S. would demand now if Russian missiles were in Canada, and ought to have simply been met, or at the very least treated as serious points to be respectfully considered.”
Swanson further remarks: “Want to claim Russia is lying about a willingness to negotiate and compromise? Call Russia’s bluff. You’re obviously willing to call its bluff on starting the nuclear apocalypse, so why not on negotiating peace? … Let Russia respond. If you’re right that Russia’s lying, this will make Russia look worse than a dozen speeches about how bad Russia is.”
https://davidswanson.org/ukraine-without-ukrainians-earth-without-life/
Swanson has posted this slogan to his website:
“Russia out of Ukraine; NATO out of existence.”
Thank you for considering these points many of which are little known, such is our “free press” corporate media.
Sincerely,
Mark M
Racine, WI Writer-in-Residence
P.S. Carl, at some point in the last ZOOM, you said something like Trump is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russia/Putin.
I put this in the chat (not as a defense of Trump! but) as a rebuttal of what you suggested:
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/19/25-times-trump-has-been-dangerously-hawkish-on-russia/
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