WHY WE SHOULD CARE ABOUT UKRAINE

Hola, Nuestro Amigos! – Every time you check out today’s news, you likely hear about Ukraine: the devastation, people being killed/injured/displaced, and the villainy of Putin.

Why should you care?

Not because the people being killed/injured/displaced are white. Though many are. People in conflicts in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia have suffered just as much (or more)!!

Not just because Russia violently invaded. The US has done similarly in so many places (in Central and South America, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and more), and has turned a blind eye toward –even enabled – other military aggression e.g., Saudis in Yemen.

The reason the war in Ukraine is so deeply concerning is that two of the mightiest military powers’ interests are involved: the US/NATO and Russia; and both sides have nuclear weapons!

The US and Russia together account for 90% of the existing nuclear weapons in the world. NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an intergovernmental military alliance) and Russia’s military spending together accounted for $1.3 Trillion of the $2 Trillion (about 2/3) of military spending worldwide in 2021. (The other two major military spenders are China and India, together 16% of world military spending.) The US military spending at $778 Billion in 2021, is 39% of total worldwide military spending, as much as the next 10 countries put together.

If you remember our January column on nuclear weapons – or even if you don’t! – you know nuclear war is an existential threat to life on this planet. Nuclear winter would pre-empt climate catastrophe: it would kill us off much faster.  Also, Ukraine depends on nuclear power. There are 15 – yes, 15 – nuclear power plants in Ukraine. Each one is a potential nuclear bomb. The biggest nuclear plant there already caught fire during the fighting, but thank God, people somehow managed to extinguish it quickly. An explosion there would be 10 times as bad as the Chornobyl (Ukraine) nuclear explosion, which was the worst nuclear explosion ever. (It is now a large “exclusion zone,” where people cannot live.)

Besides the nuclear dangers, as Rev. Dr. King said, the bombs over there are exploding over here. The resources we need for #PeopleAndPlanet are being squandered on war once again. (War profiteers Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, BAE Systems, and Northrup Grumman are sure to be cashing in though!!)

The US and NATO set the stage for Russia’s aggression by ignoring a 1992 promise not to expand NATO. Instead, NATO took in more members – 30 mostly small countries, formerly allied with Russia – causing severe Russian concern re its border security.

This war threatens to become World War III, something we cannot afford. We must go the opposite direction, using diplomacy and international law, IN TRUTH AND LOVE, or we are truly playing “Russian Roulette.” #AnotherWayIsPossible!!! We must communicate, negotiate, and offer all parties ways to save face!

Please call our President and representatives (info at wnypeace.org/wp/organizing-in-WNY) and urge them to USE DIPLOMACY!!

#NegotiationNotEscalation!! For #PeopleAndPlanet, Juntos – Si, se puede!!