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Robert Lyons's avatar

If you go back and listen to the Johnson tapes on the war in Viet Nam when the President and the Secretary of Defense are talking about their goals they were primarily motivated by their fear of Republican criticism. They were not trying to win the war, they knew that the couldn't. Hundred of young kids were dying each week to help them avoid attacks from the Right,

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Glen Brown's avatar

In order to succeed, a peaceful world-community would depend upon moral conformity by leaders of every nation composed of diverse cultural values, political ideologies, mixed economies and nationalistic tendencies. If the truth be told in Russia, for example, it would depend upon exposing and dismantling Vladimir Putin's malicious propaganda, conspiratorial gaslighting, kleptocratic capitalism and corrupt patronage. Now that he has shut down independent radio and television news stations and the internet, the majority of Russian people will be deceived indefinitely. The war in Ukraine can only be referred to as “a special military operation” in the media. Anyone who dares call it a war is subject to 15 years in prison.

Furthermore, it is indisputable that Putin’s systematic and vicious annihilation of the Ukrainian people is none other than what it is: a crime against humanity. What is the ultimate good which is supposed to compensate for this evil? Putin had no justifiable emergency and reasons to attack Ukraine in order to secure Russia’s survival, no just or legal cause, no right or moral intention, and no promise of a successful victory.

All attempts by media to understand and explain Putin’s xenophobia and his intentions and rationalizations for war, such as his all-consuming ambition to restore the Soviet Union, his claim that Ukraine is not a sovereign country and belongs to Russia, his desire to aid the Separatists in their autonomy in the Donbas region, and his belief that the minority-aligned fascist militias in southeastern Ukraine and NATO’s eastern expansion are serious threats to Russia’s sovereignty... do not justify the indiscriminate killing of innocent Ukrainian people as a means to murder and destroy their country.

Finally, let’s remember Putin’s threat to the world: “Today's Russia remains one of the most powerful nuclear states. Moreover, it has a certain advantage in several cutting-edge weapons. In this context, there should be no doubt for anyone that any potential aggressor will face defeat and ominous consequences never seen in history.”

Those of us who lived through the Cold War remember the fear of megaton nuclear bombs. Nuclear deterrence depends upon a leader's rational perceptions and decisions that the use of nuclear weapons would ensure mutual destruction of our planet, and that both America and Russia have not only first strike capabilities but also second-strike capabilities for massive nuclear retaliation posthumously.

What is more, the admonition that an invasion of “one inch of NATO territory” will ignite a world war is a disturbing declaration. President Biden “evokes a Gestalt [the whole is greater than its parts] in which an absolute boundary is emphasized, given its certain arbitrary delineation.”7 Though some world leaders might contend that warfare can be a necessary and noble endeavor, as in the case of World War II, perhaps the greatest menace to the world today is when leaders create a scenario where World War III becomes inevitable.

-Glen Brown

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Walter Esler's avatar

My 2nd great grandparents were citizens of a place which, like Ukraine, had spent many years under a conquerer's heel.

They died during a genocidal episode organized by the imperial power. Great grandfather was orphaned, and lived for a time stealing food.

The family was badly traumatized by what happened. They could not talk about it 100 years later. It took my generation 20 years. We spent that time digging, collecting scraps of information, making, several visits to the old country.

Just to recover their names.

So the "progressive" caucus wants us to force Ukraine into a compromise on Russian terms? And they hope to appease Putin?

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Fred Klonsky's avatar

You equate peace talks with "forcing Ukraine into a compromise on Russian terms." That is nonsense and an excuse to continue the killing. The outcome of talks will be determined by the participants. NATO and the U.S. are participants by virtue of the billions of dollars we spend. $150 million a day.

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