By Gerry Condon, Veterans For Peace, March 18, 2023
Veterans For Peace is part of the Peace In Ukraine Coalition. We are calling for:
AN IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE in Ukraine — to stop the killing now — hundreds of soldiers – Ukrainians and Russians – are being slaughtered every day in a war that never should have happened.
We are calling for NEGOTIATIONS to End the War
NOT More and More-Lethal Weapons to Prolong the War
(We know that the Biden administration has blocked the path to negotiations and is escalating its proxy war against Russia)
We are calling for those BILLIONS of dollars to be spent on remediating the Climate Crisis, on creating good-paying Jobs, on universal Healthcare and affordable housing.
NOT on Weapons Manufacturers and War Profiteers,
And we know that the Climate Crisis is fueled by militarism. The US military is the largest consumer of oil, and it goes to war for oil.
And, finally, we are telling President Biden and Congress: DO NOT RISK NUCLEAR WAR!
And make no mistake about it: THEY ARE RISKING NUCLEAR WAR. They are playing nuclear chicken with the other nuclear superpower.
The mainstream media reminds us frequently that Russia’s President Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons. But has he really? Putin has reminded the world of the nuclear realities — the nuclear posture of both countries. Russia will use nuclear weapons to defend against a nuclear or non-nuclear attack if that attack threatens the Russia’s existence. The US will use nuclear weapons to defend itself, its allies and non-allies. So Putin is telling us something we need to know — that a US proxy war against Russia could very easily become a devastating nuclear war. So is that a threat?
The real threat is the existence of nuclear weapons, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the so-called “modernization” of nuclear weapons, and the normalization of the concept of nuclear war.
The war in Ukraine is the perfect scenario for World War III and a nuclear holocaust. It could happen at any time.
Veterans For Peace has produced its own Nuclear Posture Review. It is a comprehensive and compelling document. I recommend that you all get a copy at veteransforpeace.org. Among other things, we point out that the US has backed out of multiple arms control treaties with Russia, including the treaty against Intermediate-Range Nuclear Missiles in Europe. That the US stores nuclear weapons in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Turkey. That the US has placed missile bases in Romania and Poland, close to Russia’s borders. So who is threatening whom? And who is risking nuclear war?
This week US troops and South Korean troops are conducting joint “war games,” practicing for an offensive attack against the nuclear-armed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, aka North Korea. The US is flying nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over the Korean Peninsula. So whom is threatening whom? And who is risking nuclear war?
Most alarmingly, the US is openly preparing for war against China. They are attempting to use contradictions between Taiwan and China in the same way they have used Ukraine against Russia. What does the US have against China? China is out-competing the US economically and on the world stage. Washington’s answer is to surround nuclear-armed China with hostile military forces, and to foment a war that will set China back a few decades. Who is threatening whom? And who is risking nuclear war?
The mission of Veterans For Peace is to abolish nuclear weapons and to abolish war. We are calling on the US government to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to begin negotiating in good faith with the other eight nuclear-armed nations to get rid of all nuclear weapons.
But we know this will not happen as long as the US maintains its aggressive policy of global hegemony. And as long as our GI’s — poor and working-class men and women — are used as expendable pawns on the rich man’s chessboard.
Here in the US, Black men are systematically murdered by racist, militarized police –a reflection of US foreign policy. Veterans For Peace calls for an End to the war against Black America. We want Peace at Home as well as Peace Abroad.
Our mission calls upon us to “restrain our government from intervening, overtly or covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations.
To that end, we have a message the GI’s — for our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, nieces and nephews in the military today.
Refuse to fight unjust, illegal, immoral wars based on lies. Refuse to fight imperialist wars.
WE ALL have a part to play in the noble historic struggle for Peace and Justice. Let us all work together to abolish nuclear weapons — and to abolish war once and for all.
