The most important and troubling fact of the current war in Ukraine is that the U.S. is on the brink of nuclear war with Russia. Our foreign policy establishment has maneuvered the U.S. into a position of direct confrontation with Russia, the most heavily armed nuclear power. The United States has the second largest nuclear armament. To support the Ukrainian government, the U.S. has effectively declared economic war on Russia, and we are supplying lethal military aid to Ukraine to be used on the battlefield against Russia. We are urging other countries, like Germany, to do the same. How did we get to this precarious situation?
Over the last two decades, U.S. foreign policy has been dominated by militaristic thinking. The use of military power through aggressive war and the threat of military action has been a means of asserting U.S. influence in international affairs. This approach has been unsuccessful, to say the least. Now the same policy makers who created the disasters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria are urging similar militaristic adventures directed against Russia and China. But Russia and China are not militarily weak and vulnerable states like the past victims of U.S. aggression. They are nuclear armed, and there is no defense against nuclear weapons. Once a nuclear war begins, the whole world will be impacted!
The American people are now asked to trust the judgment of a Washington power elite with a record of repeated disastrous miscalculation as it urges increasing hostility toward Russia and China. Errors of judgment in Iraq and Afghanistan led to death and destruction in distant lands, but similar errors in dealing with Russia and China could lead to the nuclear destruction of cities in the United States and around the world..
The Peace Action Committee of the Green Party of the U.S. calls for ending America’s militaristic foreign policy, beginning with advocacy of a negotiated settlement of the war in Ukraine. The U.S., which has enormous influence over the Zelensky government, and has interfered greatly in Ukraine’s affairs at least since the coup of 2014, is currently acting to prolong the armed struggle. Sacrificing the lives of thousands of Ukrainians in a futile struggle against an overwhelming invasion force is an irresponsible action. A neutral Ukraine can coexist peacefully with Russia, just as Finland and Austria have since the end of WWII.
Keeping the U.S. on the brink of nuclear war with Russia and China by sustaining and aggravating regional disputes risks world-wide catastrophe. We must prevent the U.S. policy of unending war fever from becoming a fatal affliction for all humankind. All countries in the world deserve to live in peace and security.