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There's a lively ongoing discussion on the United for Peace and
Justice mailing list - among other questions, How should the Peace
Movement respond to what's happening in the Ukraine? Some comments
I especially liked - Joseph Gainza's jiu-jitsu, holding the US and
UN security council to act as if our ideal motives were our real
ones; David Swanson's comment that we need to chew gum & walk at
the same time, acknowledging that both the US/NATO and Russia are at
fault in this proxy war; and a well written review of the situation
by Frank Brodhead. All three are below. -- Stuart<br>
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<td>Re: [ufpj-activist] The US Antiwar Movement and Ukraine</td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Date: </th>
<td>Mon, 3 Mar 2014 16:42:43 -0500</td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">From: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:jgainza@vtlink.net"><jgainza@vtlink.net></a></td>
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<td>Michael Eisenscher
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:m_eisenscher@uslaboragainstwar.org"><m_eisenscher@uslaboragainstwar.org></a>,
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org"><ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org></a></td>
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<div>Normally I would agree completely with Michael's
suggestion. But I think we are at a vary volatile moment and
that the UN, or any other international body able to do it,
would not be empowered to find the duplicities of one or
more of the permanent members of the Security Council. My
suggestion is for a politically possible move by the UN to
forestall what may well be a build-up to war; Russia would
be hard pressed to veto a commission looking into the safety
of ethnic Russians. Ukraine would welcome a chance for
temperatures to cool a little. The U.S. loves to see itself
as the peacemaker (while it does otherwise) and bringing
this proposal to the UNSC would enable it to be in the
limelight as such. When we have a commission in place, we
can then call for it to dig deeper into the role played by
the US and other EU countries. The object here, I repeat, it
to prevent bloodshed. We use the (false) narratives about
Ukraine which the US and the Russians are promoting to stop
them from completing their strategies. I think it is worth a
try. </div>
<div> </div>
<div style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR:
#000000">Joseph Gainza<br>
Vermont Action for Peace<br>
Producer & Host - Gathering Peace<br>
WGDR 91.1 FM WGDH 91.7 FM<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.wgdr.org">www.wgdr.org</a><br>
802-522-2376<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jgainza@vtlink.net">jgainza@vtlink.net</a></div>
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-------- Original Message --------
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE"
align="RIGHT">Subject: </th>
<td>Re: [ufpj-activist] The US Antiwar Movement
and Ukraine</td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE"
align="RIGHT">Date: </th>
<td>Mon, 3 Mar 2014 13:35:41 -0500</td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE"
align="RIGHT">From: </th>
<td>David Swanson <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:davidcnswanson@gmail.com"><davidcnswanson@gmail.com></a></td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE"
align="RIGHT">To: </th>
<td>Joseph Gainza <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:jgainza@vtlink.net"><jgainza@vtlink.net></a></td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE"
align="RIGHT">CC: </th>
<td>ufpj-activist
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org"><ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org></a></td>
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<div dir="ltr"><big>I don't think the disagreement here
is over the priority of saving lives but over the
separability of the topics. The threat that Russia
feels from NATO expansion and U.S. influence over a
coup on its borders, a coup to unseat a president
unwilling to join NATO -- just as the people of
Ukraine are unwilling to join NATO -- is a part of
the problem that cannot be ignored in its solution.
The most frustrating thing about this crisis, it
seems to me, is the great moral demand to completely
ignore either the U.S. or Russia, but never both. I
taped a show called Crosstalk on Thursday for Monday
(today). I denounced the U.S. at great length, but
the minute I said Russia should stop threatening
military action the host shouted me down. Then what
I warned of happened before the show could air, and
they taped a whole new one with other guests so as
not to look like complete idiots. Somewhere somehow
someone must find a way to walk and chew gum on
this: we must acknowledge that it is possible for
more than one actor to be at fault.</big><br>
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<div style="font-color: black"><b>From:</b> <a
title="fbrodhead@aol.com"
href="mailto:fbrodhead@aol.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">fbrodhead@aol.com</a> </div>
<div><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, March 02, 2014 7:45 PM</div>
<div><b>To:</b> <a
title="ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org"
href="mailto:ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org</a>
</div>
<div><b>Subject:</b> [ufpj-activist] The US Antiwar
Movement and Ukraine</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align="center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal">The Antiwar Movement and Ukraine</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align="center">By Frank Brodhead</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">During the run-up to the
war against Iraq, the US antiwar movement
maintained that a US invasion of Iraq would be
illegal – would constitute a “crime of
aggression†– if it did not have the UN
Security Council approval, or if it did not
constitute a short-term defensive war against an
attack from Iraq or a “pre-emptive†attack
against an imminent threat from Iraq.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As neither
of these requirements was met by the US attack
against Iraq, we rightly decried the war as
(among other things) an illegal war, a crime of
aggression.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Though the situation in the
Ukraine today is admittedly very complex, surely
we should hold the Russians and their military
action in Ukraine to the same standard.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Did it
receive the approval of the UN Security Council?<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Does it
constitute self-defense against a Ukrainian
attack on Russia, or a pre-emptive strike
against an imminent attack?<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In both
cases, the answer is No.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">It is, of course, bizarre
to hear President Obama and Secretary of State
Kerry going on about the Russian violations of
international law in regard to Russian military
action in the Ukraine.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Do they have no shame?<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And yet,
on the basis of the standards of the world
antiwar movement that rose up in 2002-2003, the
Russian attack <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">is </i>a violation of international
law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And
this is important.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>And we should not engage in
debating the US-Russian-Ukrainian imbroglio
without acknowledging this.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">In a sense, the Russians
are justifying their military intervention into
Ukraine on the grounds of “humanitarian
intervention.â€<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>They are making several claims.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The first
is that the government of Ukrainian president <span
style="COLOR: #333333">Yanukovich was
legitimately elected, and that his overthrow
was a coup by a minority of disaffected
voters. </span>The second claim is that the
ethnic Russian population in the eastern half of
Ukraine is endangered by the new government, or
by lawless forces within Ukraine.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And a
third claim is that the uprising in Ukraine was
in fact a form of external aggression, in that
fascist and other groups that bore the brunt of
the fighting against the government were
supported by, or even were creatures of, outside
forces, most particularly the United States and
the CIA.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Of course, each of these
claims needs to be examined on their merits.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There is
some truth to all of them.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And yet do
they give legitimacy to Russian military
intervention?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When
the same defenses are made by supporters of US
military intervention, we have been (rightly)
skeptical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We
reject “humanitarian intervention†as simply
new clothes for the same old imperialism.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We are on
dangerous grounds if we concede that Russian
“humanitarian intervention†is OK, while
that of the United States or the European
(former) colonial powers is not.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">A third concern that I have
when reading some of the writing on the Left
about the US-Russian-Ukrainian situation is the
disappearance of actually-existing people.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For
example, Bruce Gagnon has been a stalwart in the
US antiwar movement for decades.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Yet in his
piece on Ukraine posted on his website and
circulated on the UFPJ list today, the people
who live in the Ukraine are invisible.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are
not part of the story.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Max Blumenthal piece on <a
href="http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/us-backing-neo-nazis-ukraine"
moz-do-not-send="true">Alternet</a> (“Is the
U.S. Backing Neo-Nazis in the Ukraine?â€) was
similar, in that the 99 percent of Ukrainians
who are not neo-nazis were not part of the
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Millions
of Ukrainians protested the corrupt regime of
Yanukovich; and a large proportion of them also
want nothing to do with the Opposition, who
robbed the country blind when <i
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">they </i>were
in power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The
US antiwar movement needs to keep the
aspirations and needs of Ukrainians in our minds
and hearts, even as we are protesting US
attempts to manipulate Ukrainian politics and US
military threats against Russia.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Finally, we need to
recognize that the Russians are not united on
the wisdom of military intervention in Ukraine.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Boris
Kargarlitsky has written several important
articles about this that are now up on <a
href="http://zcomm.org/znetarticle/a-quadrille-of-monsters-and-smashing-the-feed-trough/"
moz-do-not-send="true">ZNet</a>; and I
understand that Russian dissidents have posted
petitions on Russian-language websites
protesting the military intervention. We need to
learn more about this activity and reach out to
our antiwar allies is Russia.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">What should the US
antiwar/peace movements do re: the
US-Russia-Ukraine?<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Needless to say, there is not a
sound-bite answer. Combating a US military
response to the events in Ukraine is obviously
of the greatest importance.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So too is
exposing and opposing US “covertâ€
intervention in the internal affairs of Ukraine.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And we
must recognize that the aspirations of people in
the Ukraine are widely divergent, and will not
be reconciled in the short term. But we cannot
be part of a peace movement without
acknowledging the illegality and recklessness of
Russia’s military intervention.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The
binaries of the Cold War era need to be put into
the trash can of history; the real world has
moved on, and so must we.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
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