Obviously, I have no idea about the deep details of either US or Russian policy. I’m horrified by the images and stories from Ukraine and fervently pray for the conflict to end.
But having worked for peace my whole life, I’m alarmed by the nearly universal support for the war in Ukraine.
History has shown the many times a pretext, or even false claims started wars. There were the Gulf of Tonkin incidents that led to the US becoming involved in the war in Vietnam. The false claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Claims that weren’t credible even at the time they were made.
Some might say the US is not directly at war with Russia. But the US involvement is obviously a proxy war.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul joins Garrett Haake to share his reaction to Russia’s strike on a Ukrainian nuclear plant, and to assess the motivations behind President Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. “I think people really need to understand that this is just a proxy war for his fight against us,” says Ambassador McFaul. “That’s the way he frames this: the regime there is just a puppet American regime put in place by us.”
Amb. McFaul: Putin’s fight in Ukraine ‘is just a proxy war for his fight against’ the U.S., NBC Universal, March 4, 2022
Some of my questions and observations are:
- Why was it not possible to meet Putin’s demand that Ukraine would not join NATO?
- Who benefits from this conflict?
- The war industry
- Energy
- Shutting down Russia’s oil industry
- Shutting down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline
- Terminating Russian oil imports
- Calls to increase US oil and gas production
- Calls to increase renewable energy
- The President’s approval ratings
- Why is it so easy for Congress to provide billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, but not for social programs in the US?
- Where is the concern about adding to the national debt?
Quakers and Mutual Aid 