Abandoning talk of peace to the MAGAs.

Since the start of the Ukraine war when Russian troops invaded that country I have believed that neither side could win a military victory, that it would be incredibly bloody with thousands of dead and that the sooner there could be peace talks the better.

I also believed that viewed through a wider lens, it was a proxy war with the U.S. and NATO on one side and the Russians on the other.

Given the history of the United States, I could not swallow the story that it was supporting the Ukraine out of support for self-determination and national sovereignty.

It is a shame that so many on the Left and those who should be anti-war progressives have abandoned a peace position to the MAGA right.

It is mind boggling to hear Marjorie Taylor Greene being the voice for ending the war.

It is also odd to me that progressives who have historically sought to end big power interference and the turning of regional conflicts into wider power struggles with the danger of wider war, have abandoned that position now.

Yet a large part of the world sees the war in Ukraine in exactly that way.

The war in Ukraine has divided the world between the West and the Global South.

Many countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America – between 47 and 53 depending on the particular vote – chose to abstain in the three votes held in the United Nations General Assembly to condemn Russia.

Many others that went along with the vote subsequently refused to impose sanctions on Russia.

Many of these are democracies such as Turkey, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil and European Serbia.

The 47 abstainers in the first UN General Assembly vote represent over 50% of the world’s population. 

Many countries in the Global South view the West’s involvement in Ukraine from their own historical experience with colonialism. They refuse to put all the blame on one side.

As President Lula da Silva of Brazil has put it: “[Zelensky] is as responsible as Putin for the war.”

Lula does not stand alone on this among others in the Global South.