I was anti-war while you cheered for bombing Iraq.
I was anti-war while you cheered for bombing Syria.
I was anti-war while you cheered for bombing Libya.
I was anti-war while you cheered for bombing Gaza.
I was anti-war while you cheered for bombing Iran.
And I'm anti-war now.
Stop Pretending
Americans, we've got to stop pretending that we're without sin. We cannot cast the first stone. We must understand how culpable we've been in instigating this current mess that could kill millions upon millions.Do you remember the Minsk Accords? Do you remember how our CIA overthrew the elected government in Ukraine and installed its own puppet? Why do you think that you aren't being kept in the dark about what's really going on behind the scenes now?
In February 2014, a coup overthrew the Ukrainian government which came to power in an election certified by the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation). The president, Viktor Yanukovich, was forced to flee for his life...
The coup was promoted by United States officials. Neo-conservatives such as Victoria Nuland and John McCain actively supported the protests. As confirmed in a secretly recorded phone call, Nuland managed the coup but Vice President Biden was overall in charge. As Nuland says in the phone call, Biden would give the ultimate “atta boy” to the coup leaders. Subsequently, Joe Biden’s son personally benefited from the coup. Victoria Nuland has even more power now as the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs...
The coup government immediately acted with hostility toward its Russian speaking citizens. Approximately 30% of Ukrainian citizens have Russian as their first language, yet on the first day in power, the coup regime acted to make Russian no longer an official state language. This was followed by more actions of hostility...
...US intervention, both open and secret, has been a major driver of the events in Ukraine. The US has instigated the conflict. Ukrainians and Russians are now paying the price. --Rick Sterling, How the US Instigated the Ukraine Crisis
The 2014 coup d’état in Ukraine brought to power hardliners who adopted policies detrimental to the Russians living in the eastern part of the country, especially banning the Russian language in all areas of life.
As a result, the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces in eastern Ukraine refused to recognize the post-coup government and demanded that they be given a special status and broad powers, especially the right to use the Russian language. In response, Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against them. A ceasefire was brokered by Russia, France, and Germany, and an agreement (the Minsk Accords) was reached between the two sides, so they could negotiate with each other in order to ensure that Ukraine observed the special status of the 2 provinces.
...Putin is no angel, but his red lines have been consistent: no more NATO expansion, actual or by proxy, and security guarantees for the ethnic Russian population in the Donbas region. The west/Ukraine has not delivered on either of these, but Putin’s recognition of the 2 proxy states, and his sending in security forces to protect them from a Ukrainian backlash, is his new bargaining chip in negotiations with the west... Putin wants Ukraine to be a buffer zone between NATO and Russia. It’ll be recalled that John Kennedy wanted something similar when the USSR leader Khrushchev tried to put nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962. --Kenneth Surin, Crisis Over Ukraine: A Primer
Stop pretending that the US and its NATO partners (and related defense contractors) didn't "prod the bear with a stick." They've been salivating to start a war for a while now. They've been impatient it's taken so long after circling Russia with NATO bases. Western warmongers are happy with pushing Putin over the edge. Collateral damage, such as massive loss of human life, is of no consequence to the military-industrial-media-complex.
The consequences of pushing NATO up to the borders with Russia — there is now a NATO missile base in Poland 100 miles from the Russian border — were well known to policy makers. Yet they did it anyway. It made no geopolitical sense. But it made commercial sense. War, after all, is a business, a very lucrative one. It is why we spent two decades in Afghanistan although there was near universal consensus after a few years of fruitless fighting that we had waded into a quagmire we could never win. -- Chris Hedges, Chronicle of a War Foretold
The greatest tragedy for the Ukrainian people is that the conflict that now envelopes them is, in essence not their conflict. The real conflict is between NATO and Russia. -- Marc Ash, Ukraine is a Proxy for Russia v. NATO
Pouring more weapons into Ukraine is not how you save lives; you save lives by negotiating a ceasefire. Pouring more weapons into Ukraine is how you create a long and expensive military quagmire for Russia at the cost of many thousands of lives to advance US strategic interests. While making a vast fortune for the arms industry. --Caitlin Johnstone, Civilized Nations Kill With Sanctions and Proxy Armies
We've really got to stop pretending that somehow hitmen who are working for the arms and fossil fuel industries are "heroes." They're just making billionaires richer--and terrorizing ethnic minorities.
Anti-Russia critics have often claimed that the accusation that Ukraine’s Western-backed government is infiltrated by neo-Nazis and far-right extremists is “Russian propaganda.”
Yet in 2018, the Atlantic Council itself admitted this undeniable fact, in an article titled “Ukraine’s Got a Real Problem with Far-Right Violence (And No, RT Didn’t Write This Headline).”
The post reported that Ukraine’s Ministry of Youth and Sports gave funding to the neo-Nazi group C14 to promote “national patriotic education projects.” C14 has launched brutal attacks on the Roma and LGBTQ communities.
It also cited mainstream human rights organization Amnesty International, which warned that “Ukraine is sinking into a chaos of uncontrolled violence posed by radical groups and their total impunity.” --Ben Norton, NATO's Atlantic Council Promoted Ukraine's Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion
It's time to stop pretending that we actually care what happens on the other side of the planet and how many get hurt. We've got the war we want. The Raytheons and Lockheed Martins are making their billions upon billions in profits. Soon we'll witness the shut down of the Nord Stream pipeline and watch the price of gas and oil rise as high as Western fossil fuel corporations can push it. So please, stop pretending that the US and its actors--NATO, the CIA and related agencies, the MIC, Big Oil--didn't plan this conflict from the start for the benefit of the 1% and their growing bank accounts.
And start giving a sh*t about bringing the whole bloody mess to a halt before the entire planet suffers a nuclear winter.
Related articles with information that you've probably not read or heard mentioned on mainstream media outlets. (Feel free to share with others.):
https://popularresistance.org/how-the-us-instigated-the-ukraine-crisis/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/02/28/crisis-over-ukraine-a-primer/
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/twelve-thoughts-on-ukraine
https://popularresistance.org/natos-atlantic-council-promoted-ukraines-neo-nazi-azov-battalion/
https://scheerpost.com/2022/02/24/hedges-the-chronicle-of-a-war-foretold/
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/experts-warned-for-years-that-nato
https://www.rsn.org/001/independent-american-and-russian-women-call-for-peace.html
https://www.directleft.com/p/i-survived-war-and-i-condemn-militarism?utm_source=url
https://jacobinmag.com/2022/02/the-left-vladimir-putin-russia-war-ukraine
https://www.rsn.org/001/how-the-peaceful-atom-makes-ukraine-a-nuke-war.html
https://www.rsn.org/001/ukraine-is-a-proxy-for-russia-v-nato.html
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/civilized-nations-kill-with-sanctions
The Ukraine Crisis--interview with Ben Norton (video): https://leecamp.com/the-ukraine-crisis-with-ben-norton/
The Belmarsh Tribunal (video): https://youtu.be/Tp8b6U3Pvlk
Seen on Twitter:
Ukraine army troops are blocking African medical students in Ukraine from getting on trains in Kyiv to leave for safe passage, while only letting white people on the trains. #AfricansinUkraine https://t.co/jnH1VQbo3e
— Prof Zenkus (@anthonyzenkus) February 27, 2022
For anyone who understands the liberal mind, please explain to me why the lives of Ukrainians are more precious than Haitians, Palestinians, Ethiopians, Afghans, Syrians, Iranians, Africans. Is it only the images of white suffering that moves them?
— Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) February 28, 2022
Solidarity with the working class in Ukraine, Russia, and every corner of the earth. The people of this planet deserve to live in peace—which is impossible as long as humanity is controlled by an economic system that pits us against each other in order to enrich the ruling class.
— Ryan Knight ☭ (@ProudSocialist) February 24, 2022
Somebody please help me. With over 900 thousand unnecessary deaths from pandemic, over 800 bases around the world, wars in Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, coups in Honduras, Egypt, Ukraine, illegal sanctions - how does U.S. get away with pretending to be champions of law & democracy?
— Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) February 20, 2022
Maybe if the United States hadn't help to overthrow the Ukrainian Gov't, flooded it with weapons and started to try to make it a part of NATO, Russia wouldn't be there right now.
— Black in the Empire (@blackintheempir) February 25, 2022
I'm not exactly sure where everybody has been living, but our Government didn't care about the Kurds, doesn't care about the women in Afghanistan, and doesn't care about the people in Ukraine.
— Black in the Empire (@blackintheempir) February 24, 2022
They don't even care about the people in America
While things have certainly escalated between Russia and Ukraine, the war has been ongoing since 2014 when a US-backed coup led to daily shelling of eastern Ukraine at the expense of 10,000+ ethnic Russian lives.
— Danny Haiphong (@SpiritofHo) February 25, 2022
Yet those outraged now were and continue to be silent about this.
It’s wild how less than a week ago France was killing civilians in Mali & Mali was threatened with sanctions not France. Now here we are with all this pearl clutching about Russia meanwhile numerous NATO members refuse to leave countless countries they are currently occupying .
— America The Ghetto🇵🇸🇨🇺 (@LizzMurr56) February 25, 2022
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You can also read and share these recent articles:
Open Letter on Ukraine from WBW Ireland
Western Media Fall in Lockstep for Neo-Nazi Publicity Stunt in Ukraine
VIDEO: Webinar: In Conversation With Lara Marlowe
A Path Away From War | The Science Of Peace Systems
Podcast: Peace Education and Action for Impact
VIDEO: Debate: Can War Ever Be Justified? Mark Welton vs. David Swanson
Don’t Overlook NATO’s Successes
You're invited to join World BEYOND War & partners for our 2nd annual virtual film festival from March 15-22!
With the escalating conflict over Ukraine, our work to call for the
abolition of war seems ever more pertinent. In trying times like these,
it feels especially important for us to come together in solidarity,
unifying our collective call for demilitarization and nonviolence. Our "Water & War" film festival from March 15-22
will provide that opportunity for international networking and
discussion, as we watch and learn about the human and environmental
impact of war and militarism worldwide, and the stories of those who are
standing up to resist it.
This year’s “Water & War” theme explores the intersection
of militarism & water, survival & resistance, in the lead-up to
#WorldWaterDay on March 22. A unique mix of films explores
this theme, from PFAS pollution on a military base in Michigan and the
infamous U.S. Navy's Red Hill fuel leak in Hawai’i poisoning
groundwater, to Syrian war refugees fleeing violent conflict by boat to
Europe and the story of the assassination of Honduran Indigenous water
activist Berta Cáceres. Get tickets!
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Day 1 of the festival on Tuesday, March 15 at 7:00pm Eastern Daylight Time launches with a discussion of the sweeping water contamination caused by U.S. military bases worldwide with screenings of No Defense & The Empire Files' A Battle for Water in Hawai’i. The post-film discussion will include Craig Minor, Tony Spaniola, Mikey Inouye, and other special guests TBA.
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Day 2 on Saturday, March 19 at 3:00pm Eastern Daylight Time features a screening of the film The Crossing, with director George Kurian. A rare, firsthand account of one of the most dangerous journeys of our time, this timely, nail-biting documentary follows the grueling plight of a group of Syrian refugees as they cross the Mediterranean Sea and travel across Europe. The panel discussion will feature director George Kurian and Niamh Ní Bhriain, coordinator of the Transnational Institute’s War and Pacification Programme.
Day 3, the festival finale on #WorldWaterDay (Tuesday, March 22 at 7:00pm Eastern Daylight Time), features Berta Didn’t Die, She Multiplied!,
a celebration of the life and legacy of Honduran Indigenous, feminist,
and environmental activist Berta Cáceres. The film tells the story of
the Honduran military coup, the assassination of Berta, and the victory
in the Indigenous struggle to protect the Gualcarque River. From Flint
to Standing Rock to Honduras, the water is sacred and the power is in
the people. The post-film discussion will feature director Sam Vinal and
other special guests to be announced.
Learn more and reserve your spot for this unique film festival!
In peace & solidarity,
Greta Zarro
Organizing Director
World BEYOND War
greta@worldbeyondwar.org
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