By Joe White, A Year Without War
Ukrainian Cease-fire Spawns 2020 AYWW Hope.
Good news. On Friday, Sept 5, a cease-fire went into effect in the Ukraine. This Ukranian cease-fire is a delicate case study for our 2020 A Year Without War global community. To the perplexity of many, 2020 AYWW has never defined itself as a peace movement. Rather, the 2020 AYWW mission has been a modest, simple, one-year global cease-fire in 2020. As British Prime Minister David Cameron remarked on the present Ukraine cease-fire, “A cease-fire is good news; a peace plan would have been better news…” Indeed global peace would be great news but a simple global cease-fire would be good news. 2020 AYWW embraces the modest but meaningful and pragmatic goal of securing, as exemplified in the Ukraine so far, the first-step, a cease-fire, a truce.
In the past five months the Ukraine conflict has taken approximately 2,000 lives, as well as involved the downing of a civilian aircraft. Ukraine’s President Poroshenko pleaded, “The whole world is seeking peace, Urkraine is seeking peace, including millions of residents in the combat zones.” From Russia, Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, stated, “In Moscow, we hope that all provisions of the document and agreements reached will be closely observed by all sides and that the negotiation process will continue for the complete resolution of this crisis in Ukraine.” The specter of human beings stepping back from violence and combat gives hope. Mikhail Zurabov, a Russian representative, remarked that remaining differences would be ironed out in technical discussions… Human beings discussing their differences gives hope.
The Ukraine cease-fire has a 12 Step Program, which will hopefully serve to eventually establish peace and stability in that region. 2020 AYWW also has a 12 Step Program in development. The 2020 AYWW program is modeled on the 12 Step Program, which aids individuals in dealing with chemical addictions. 2020 AYWW proposes that humanity’s knee-jerk response of violence and war as a means of conflict resolution is an addiction that, like chemical addiction, ultimately proves profoundly counter-productive to individuals, families and communities. The first step is to stop war, a cease-fire, for one year.
Ukraine’s President Poroshenko stated that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to the cease-fire deal the previous Wednesday. Mr. Poroshenko remarked, “That is important in view of the fact that this truce will last for a long time. Now, it’s our shared responsibility.” 2020 AYWW has four Proclamations heading toward the United Nations General Assembly tailored to bring about a global cease-fire in the year 2020. Over the previous two decades, The International Olympic Committee has secured global truces, signed unanimously by UN member nations, supporting global cease-fires during each of the Winter and Summer Olympic Games. 2020 AYWW has modeled its global truce on the Olympic truces but extending it to one year. Such a shared truce should generate that sense of shared responsibility with the hope that it too will also last a long time.
As Adrian Karatnycky, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, remarked on the Ukraine truce, “The short-term interest of everyone is to have a cease-fire and take a breather.” Indeed, our global community needs to take a breather from the destruction and waste that is the sole mark of 21st century warfare. A global, one-year cease fire is in our short and long-term interest. Now is the time to JOIN 2020 AYWW to push for a global cease-fire in 2020. LIKE/SHARE AYWW Facebook and other social media.
– See more at: http://ayearwithoutwar.org/blog/detail/ukrainian_cease_fire_spawns_2020_ayww_hope#sthash.yU8fNGiI.dpuf
