After more than 30 days of destructive war, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine appears to be stuck in a stalemate. Putin’s ambition to quickly decapitate Ukraine by conquering Kyiv has failed, because the brave Ukrainians are defending their freedom and sovereignty, and because NATO is united in its support of Ukraine and its opposition to Russia.
If our and NATO’s policy doesn’t change, however, a painful, bloody, drawn-out, destructive war of attrition will likely ensue, in which the quantity of Russia’s bombs will be matched against the number of Ukrainian buildings and their inhabitants’ lives. That ain’t right. Why should Putin’s war be fought on Ukraine’s soil, being saturated with Ukrainian blood? Why should Putin be allowed to level Ukraine’s beautiful cities as he leveled Grozny in Chechnya and he turned Aleppo to rubble in Syria?
In addition to giving Ukraine’s army defensive weapons to destroy the tanks that are pounding their apartment buildings and to down the drones that are bombing their hospitals, we should give them offensive weapons. Ukraine should have weapons to bomb military staging areas and supply depots in Russia that are feeding the Russian attack. We should enable Ukraine to take the war of attrition to Russia rather than suffer it solely on Ukrainian soil.
But the logistics of arming Ukraine with offensive weapons creates a strategic problem. Russia has threatened nuclear warfare if we intervene directly, frightening our leaders with the fear that Putin is desperate and demented enough to do so, even though the nuclear fallout would cause the demise of humanity on our entire planet.
There is another way we can stop Putin’s destruction of Ukraine. We can declare war on Ukraine ourselves. Putin doesn’t want us helping Ukraine, but he shouldn’t be the only one who can invade it! Why let Putin try to capture Ukraine’s valuable lithium and nickel mines, and its abundant agriculture? Why shouldn’t we capture those scarce and necessary resources? Let’s go into Ukraine and take it over before the Ruskies do! Ukraine’s resources and its people should be our resources and our people, not Putin’s.
Then, after we have pushed the Ruskies back into Russia, we can decide what is best for Ukraine, and for ourselves, even if that means letting Ukraine’s people decide the question for themselves.
Nearly Sincerely,
BRUCE JOFFE, Piedmont, Calif.
The Progressive Populist of 4/1/22 confirms my conviction that the progressive Left has lost its collective mind. I am an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialism, anti-war activist and have been so since the struggle to end the Vietnam War. In the pages of this issue, I find only a few voices having any other message than a simple condemnation, mostly of Putin, but also of Russia. Most progressives know from bitter experience that the US never, ever tells the truth about its regime-change adventures to advance its imperial program. But somehow, when it comes to Russia and China, they forget the lies justifying US aggression and think, “Oh, they are telling the truth this time.” They are not. As anti-war, anti-imperialist activists, we can express our disgust with war but we need to focus on the US government, Biden and his neocons, to stop the killing and destruction.
TED TRIPP, Apalachicola, Fla.
Will people please get behind President Biden and stop the quisling sniping and lukewarm prissiness? When the president has locked horns with a world enemy like Putin, there is no tie for that stuff. What Biden said is what a lot of people are thinking, even if they don’t say it in front of the cameras. Putin is rattling sabers with WMDs.
Putin is really a prissy little creep, not unlike the notorious French leader Robespierre. More crooked, but the same syndrome of anti-social hatred and grand delusion. These guys’ fantasy grand delusion causes their complete coldness toward their mass-murdered victims.
This type of guys don’t quit, or back off. They have to be removed.
MARIA ROSE, Indianapolis, Ind.
In February 2014, our government overthrew Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in a violent coup. Oliver Stone’s documentary “Ukraine on Fire” tells the story. Current Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland played a key role as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs in the Obama Administration.
In the many commentaries in the last several issues of TPP not one writer mentioned the 2014 coup. That omission is huge. [Editor’s Note: David Schmidt mentioned the 2014 “coup” in “Do we actually care about the victims of war? The selective nature of ‘Solidarity with Ukraine,’” 4/1/22 TPP.] The historical record also shows our government breaking the promises made at the end of the Cold War to not move NATO one inch to the east.
We can no more believe what our government and media present now than at any other time when the citizenry has been brainwashed to support war and threats of war. Remember Colin Powell holding a vial at the U.N. telling of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction? What about the tale of babies being thrown out of incubators that motivated support for the first “Gulf War”? Remember the Gulf of Tonkin incident that never occurred?
Glenn Greenwald is an example of a journalist who does not peddle propaganda. Progressive comedian/commentator Jimmy Dore presents truth with humor. The monolithic narrative in our media regarding Russia and Ukraine does not promote an objective understanding of events.
BERNARD DALSEY, Whitewater, Wis.
David Quintero [in his letter, “Wisdom Doesn’t Stop with Judeo-Christian Teachings” 4/1/22 TPP] is refuting what the Bible says in Proverbs 14: 16 and 20, to say that such wisdom is not unique to Christianity, but I’m not sure where he sees this. My King James Version (KJV) says: “A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil; but the fool rageth, and is confident. And verse 20, “The poor is hated even of his own neighbour, but the rich hath many friends.” And there is much more in all of Proverbs that could benefit everyone to know, especially in these days.
Yes, mankind has had many philosophers and philosophy. The Bible is about more than that. Proverbs is just the beginning. Man’s problem is who or what to believe, and so we have teh Bible to answer this problem. It’s up to each man to decide where the Truth lies, and one needs to know as much as one can. And Proverbs will be a good start for one’s quest. But I couldn’t quote all of it here.
CHERYL LOVELY, Presque Isle, Maine
To accept transgender children in our society should be considered as nothing more than common decency. (See “I’m a Christian mom and I love my trans daughter,” by Kimberly Shappley, 4/1/22 TPP.)
Most Americans profess to be Christian, and Mark 10:13-16 is a cherished passage in their holy scriptures in which Jesus says: “Let the little children come to me.”
Well, isn’t what he said very clear? Yes, Jesus welcomed all children. He didn’t exclude any child from his presence or deny them his love for any reason.
May I suggest that those who identify as Christians, but shun trans children, ask themselves: “Since my Savior loves all children (no exceptions) and allows them to be near Him, isn’t it my duty to imitate Him?”
DAVID QUINTERO, Monrovia, Calif.
Once again it is necessary to protest the bias of Juan Cole in his writings on Israel. Now he has the audacity to liken Israeli policy to that of the murderous Russian dictator Putin in Ukraine (3/15/22 TPP). It is one thing to criticize Israeli policy directed at Palestinian residents of the West Bank and aimed at thwarting their self-determination. It is entirely something else to liken Israeli policy to what Putin is doing to Ukraine. This hyperbole betrays unreasoning hatred. Cole also rewrites history in writing of Israel’s “launching” of the 1967 Six-Day War without even hinting that the preemptive strike was sparked by Egypt and Syria massing troops along Israel’s borders and openly stating their intention of annihilating its people.
Of course, Cole won’t acknowledge even earlier history, as where the UN General Assembly adopted a Palestine partition resolution in 1947, which was accepted by the Jewish community and rejected by the Arabs, and then admitted Israel to membership in 1949; the Arab states invaded Israel in 1948 with the specific aim of destroying it; and the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 242 in 1967 endorsing the right of all states in the region (including Israel) to live in peace amidst secure borders. To Cole, there is all right on one side and all wrong on the other. The Near and Middle East are far more complicated than that.
When critics of Israel are incapable of acknowledging or emphasizing the far more pervasive evils of authoritarian and/or aggressor regimes as in Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and North Korea, then more than mere anti-Zionism is at work. We should dare call it antisemitism. That may generally be a greater threat from the far Right, but it is more sinister and self-righteous when it comes from people on the Left like Cole, especially when they enjoy professorial status as he does. As the German Social Democrat August Bebel asserted many years ago, antisemitism is “the socialism of fools.”
I wish TPP would feature observers who have a bit more balanced view on Israel than your regular contributor Cole and openly support a two-state solution.
STEPHEN E. APPELL, Brooklyn, N.Y.
As the doomsday clock ticks even closer to midnight, it would be instructive to ask the man who saved the world his thoughts on our current “nuclear modernization.” Vasili Arkhipov, whose name should be universally recognized and honored, was the Soviet submarine officer who in 1962 refused the order to launch a nuclear-armed torpedo against a US destroyer at the height of the Cuban missile crisis. Arkhipov, whose visage should be carved onto Mount Rushmore and monuments worldwide, prevented the extinction of humanity by his refusal to follow the order to launch.
Arkhipov, the man who saved the world from nuclear annihilation would be consumed with horror by the United States trillion dollar “nuclear modernization” plan. Arkhipov would recoil at the reality of the US paying billions to a private corporation, Northrop-Grumman, to build first-strike hair-trigger nuclear weapons that insure planetary apocalypse. Arkhipov would advise us that there is no second chance here, there is no planet B. Arkhipov would point out the tragic folly of bankrupting ourselves financially, morally, intellectually while paying tragic fealty to weapons systems that will never allow again the possibility of courageous intervention that Vasili Arkhipov showcased when he saved the world. Humanity needs to globally commit to the elimination of all nuclear weapons. This is our only true pathway to survival.
JIM SAWYER, Edmonds, Wash.
If you still haven’t realized that the GOP is all in for destroying our democracy, then here’s the perfect lesson: the GOP has to condemn Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine, but they must prevent our government from accomplishing anything—anything at all.
LEE KNOHL, Evanston Ill.
From The Progressive Populist, May 1, 2022
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