by Yuri Muckraker, May 31, 2022
On this edition of 1+1 our returning champion David Swanson of World beyond war, host of Talk Nation or Talk World Radio, author of several incredible books, and superb peace activist/ anti-war/anti-imperialist thinker, and independent journalist, media and NGO critic, and all round great human being came back on the program. We talked about World Beyond War’s big online conference which will be held early July of this year from July 8th-10th for more information check out here and it’ll be money well spent if you can make it and pay . https://worldbeyondwar.org/nowar2… .
This episode we devoted a great deal of time discussing on “If wars are EVER justifiable?”. David takes the position of no, and I tried to push back against his thesis by saying “what about wars of national liberation, a colonized people rising up to overthrow their oppressor, or wars of self-defense such as Indigenous people of Turtle Island, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere resisting an invader, settler colonialism, and a government responding to a war of aggression such as the US-UK-Australian coalition that invaded Iraq under Saddam Hussein, The Western/Gulf war on Libya under Gadhafi, or The Western/Gulf war on Syria under President Assad.
And we discussed at length the Russian-Ukrainian War of earlier this year and whether Russia could’ve avoided military action against Ukraine and stuck to diplomacy given the NATO build up on Russia’s borders, secret and not so secret documents that has the US and its allies wanting to provoke Russia into a conflict in Ukraine or elsewhere and trying to break apart/Balkanize the Russian Federation. Given all that and the fact the US and its allies (thrice) have meddled in Ukrainian affairs following the counterrevolution that saw the USSR and Warsaw Pact dissolved, and the extreme austerity imposed on Ukraine and much of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, then the Orange Color revolution and the Euromaiden coup in 2014 that saw Western backed oligarchs and Ultra Ukrainian nationalists/Neo-Nazis who lionize Ukrainian collaborators, backed by Western funded civil society groups who were founded by the same actors that are very much hostile to Russia and trying shamefully to rewrite history and lionize Nazi figures and war criminals, wasn’t Russia not only backed into a corner but very much provoked into taking the actions they’ve taken against Ukraine? David and I discussed this and had a fairly good debate regarding this and one which we hope to organize in the future with World Beyond War or simply on this program.
For more information on the topics addressed, to explore the work of David, and if you’d like to join World Beyond War wherever your based or start your own branch please visit the following links and check out the World Beyond War Event on July 8th-10th, an online conference with many events, if you have the money and time it’ll be both well spent.
1. https://worldbeyondwar.org/nowar2… & David plugging the event with World Beyond war Organizer and colleague Greta Zarro –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBWUP…
2. https://worldbeyondwar.org/
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5. https://www.youtube.com/afterdownings…
6. World Beyond War online event, a debate on whether if wars are ever justifiable featuring David –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npc47…
7. watch my past interview with David on World War I, the Spanish Civil War, World War II being marketed as “the good war” & used to justify all unjust/imperial wars since amongst other incredible topics explored
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbwCJ…
8. World Beyond War/World Beyond War Canada event “Stop the Western/Gulf War on Syria” which I co-hosted/moderated listen closely to David’s opening remarks –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUrRD…
featuring Rick Sterling of Mintpress News, Johnny Achi a Syrian-American, and Alfred De Zayas international law expert and professor, historian, author, and Former United Nations Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order.
9. My interview with David Swanson where he pushes back on the myth of certain “good wars” from the Gulf War to Yugoslavia, Afghanistan in the early 2000s, Syria and the Western/NATO/EU backed coup in Ukraine which led to the civil war in the East and the Russian invasion –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cseo-…
