Second from me. Tom Pauken
Sent from my iPad On Apr 21, 2023, at 4:59 PM, Raymond L McGovern via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:
Thanks, Jack. You do not need an Amen from me, but AMEN anyway. Btw, I am doing a Zoom event on Tuesday, April 25, with Massachusetts Peace Action. I decided to explore one facet of Moscow's motivation that I don't think has been adequately explored so far -- despite the fact that abundant evidence about it exists. Here's a blurb introducing my talk:
Ray's talk will not be a
mere situation report. Rather, donning his old hat as presidential briefer, Ray
will draw on old-school media analysis and the expertise of weapons experts to
examine one key motive behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. After the US
withdrew from the ABM Treaty, missile holes started to appear in NATO allies
Romania and Poland. (They were said to be necessary to meet a threat from
Iran). THE PROBLEM: The Kremlin cannot be sure what missiles now dwell – or
could eventually dwell – in those holes. Nor could Moscow abide the possibility
of similar holes being dug even closer to Russia in Ukraine. Sixty years ago
President Kennedy faced a similar situation in Cuba.
Best to all, Ray
There is no way other countries were threatened by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Read Nikolai Petro's very insightful The Tragedy of Ukraine to understand. The history of the Eastern parts of Ukraine has nothing to do (before 1940) with the history of the Western part (Galicia and others.) The division within the borders Joseph Stalin and (in the case of Crimea, Nikita Khrushcheva) gave to Soviet Ukraine created at deeply divided country with a constitution that did not allow a federal structure to accommodate he differences. Russia would never have invaded if Ukraine had been willling to agree to a federal system (Missk accords) or that NATO would stay out. (The U;S. was already treating Ukraine as a NATO-protected entity in 2022 by supplying offensive weapons for use against Ukrainian citizens in the Donbas.) Anyone who would make a flat, simplistic statement is revealing total ignorance of recent history in the area. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been no worse for the Ukrainians (in fact not as bad for them) as the U.S. unprovoked invasion and total occupation of Iraq, a country which posed no threat! So the U.S., which also illegally invaded Syria with the intent to remove its recognized ruler, is in a poor position to enable more killing in Ukraine because Russia has acted in its own neighborhood the way the U.S. has throughout the world.. It is not in the real interests of the United States and its allies to keep this war going and to divide the world once again. Wise leaders in the U.S. and West would do anything to end the fighting and to back a settlement that would allow both Ukraine and Russia to be guaranteed secure borders. Given what has happened since 1991, and especially since the events of 2014, the current Ukrainian government will never be able to retore control over all of Joseph Stalin's borders of Ukraine. Enabling Ukraine to attempt to do so is only going to result in more killing and destruction. The U.S. and the EU have an interest in Ukraine and Russia living in peace with each other. We do not have an interest in precisely where the border is drawn.
Missing from from much of the discourse on the war in Ukraine, either pro - "Western" or pro - Russia, is consideration that Eastern Europe, 200+ Million people depending on who is counted , is not just the land between the “West” and Russia; rather it is a dozen nations who are immediately threatened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and whose views should be considered and may take precedence over geopolitical Russia/China/US perspectives. Treating Eastern Europe as a colony is not new. Candidate Gerald Ford said the quiet part out loud when he asserted there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe , as though the aspirations of the inhabitants of the region were inconsequential and even subordinate to Russia's imperial ambitions. The West's cavalier attitude toward Eastern European people was demonstrated in 1956 when we failed to halt Russia when it invaded Hungary and again in 1968 when Russian tanks rolled into Prague. The people of Eastern Europe are keenly aware of the threat of Russian aggression. We ask "Do we really want to go to war over Ukraine" not because we don't want to go to war, apparently we would go to war over Mexico, but because Ukraine (or Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Moldova, etc.) don't really matter, they are the land in between and therefore expendable. Apologists for the Russian invasion of Ukraine often raise the threat posed by NATO expansion into Eastern Europe. By that argument, Russia is responding to an existential threat in the same manner the US would respond if Russia invaded Mexico. Leaving aside the question of what are existential threats (neither threats nor in existence) and how nations should respond to them, the Mexico analogy has it backward. The invasion of Ukraine poses a real and immediate threat to the nations of Eastern Europe, all of whom have recent experience living under Russian domination. That is why they are eager to join NATO. So when we hear about the War in Ukraine in terms of the US vs Russia or the West vs the Global South (is Russia South of Italy?), we should stop and consider that the nations of Eastern Europe are real and, most importantly, the citizens of Ukraine who are suffering under the lash of Russian aggression, are real. President Zelensky eloquently articulated the sentiment of all Eastern European peopleat the beginning of the war in three words: "I am here".
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