This commentary was written by Ron Jacobs, a writer and longtime antiwar activist from Winooski.
The war between Russia and Ukraine is one of humanity’s most pointless wars in a history that includes many pointless wars. Our planet is suffering from an environmental crisis beyond the comprehension of most of us; a crisis that threatens humanity’s continued existence. Modern warfare has been proven to be an activity that creates some of the greatest environmental damage in the shortest amount of time. One need only recall the oil platform fires of the U.S. wars on Iraq or the radiation produced in the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki for representative examples of this environmental destruction.
Yet those infected with military madness around the world continue to look for excuses to take their nations to war. The current situation in Ukraine serves as a prime example of this mindset. After decades of military encirclement of Russia by NATO since the disintegration of the Soviet Union — and after the current government in Kyiv (under Washington’s tutelage) rejected neutrality, Moscow foolishly launched a military invasion of Ukraine. In doing so, it could not have fulfilled Washington’s hopes in a better way. Now, instead of Washington and NATO being criticized for its ongoing military encirclement of Russia’s western border — an encirclement that includes the positioning of nuclear-capable missiles very near that border — the governments of Europe could now blame Moscow for their growing troubles.
To make matters even worse for Europe’s citizens, Washington and London began working overtime imposing sanctions on Russian billionaires, Russian companies and Russian officials. In addition, NATO used Moscow’s military action as an excuse to move more of its forces closer to Russian territory, while simultaneously sending billions of dollars worth of weaponry to Kyiv’s military. It’s not like Washington wasn’t expecting this. Indeed, if one does a small amount of research, they will discover Washington and its military alliance NATO have been training Ukrainian troops since at least 2015, when Washington assisted an overthrow of the elected government there. In fact, I know members of the military who were involved in those training missions when they were deployed to Poland.
The most appalling element of this conflict so far is the rejection of peace negotiations. Equally appalling is that the western governments championing this war are leading the calls to reject negotiations while they pump billions of dollars worth of weaponry into Ukraine. The support for this weapons bonanza in the U.S. comes from Congress. The most recent vote to approve another $1.2 billion in mostly military aid was 368-57 in favor. This is in addition to tens of billions of dollars already approved since March 2022. Meanwhile, the mainstream media in the U.S. cheer the war and publish unverifiable stories that misrepresent the conflict to its consumers in an attempt to get them on board with the bloodshed.
There is no military solution to this conflict — not one that is worth the cost of lives and money. That is a cost that leads potentially to a wider, even nuclear war. It’s well past time to demand peace talks. It is up to us to demand this from our elected officials.
