"Invasion" read the headlines in our newspapers.
19 years ago in March 2002, it was the US invading Iraq.
Today it’s Russia invading Ukraine. The stupidity of it all.
When you heard President Biden today, February 24, 2022, speaking about Russia invading Ukraine, you could’ve substituted the words US and Iraq.
It’s the same stupidity.
Here we are 19 years later and Russia does not care about international outrage of their invasion of Ukraine just as the United States did not care about millions of people all over the world walking, marching and protesting against the US war on Iraq.
The world is faced with government leaders who still don’t care that war does not resolve the issues of concern and are willing to sacrifice the lives of young men and women in their military as well as the lives of young and old men and women and tens of thousands of children in the countries they invade.
These leaders are willing to endure years of "insurgencies" (Afghanistan, Iraq) in the countries they invade. They are willing to see cities destroyed (Fallujah). They are willing to use assassin drones, bunker busters, Mother of all Bombs, hypersonic missiles and crow about how proud they are that these weapons are "selective" and kill very few civilians.
The leaders just don’t care and feed off the “successes” of others that commit illegal wars and get away with it.
In Russia protesters against the war are already being arrested and hauled off to jail and threatened with criminal records. In the first day of the invasion of Ukraine, over 1600 Russians have been arrested.
19 years ago men and women, protested the U.S. war on Iraq in cities around the United States and were arrested, thrown into jails and warehouses and left for days.
19 years ago I resigned as a US diplomat from the US government in opposition to the US war on Iraq. I imagine there probably some diplomats in Russia that are considering resignation.
I believed that the Bush administration‘s rationale of war was to secure alleged weapons of mass destruction was wrong. In the United Nations, countries refused to authorize the US war on Iraq.
I’m sure many of the Russian diplomats recognize that Russian recognition of the provinces of Ukraine as independent regions is opposed by many governments as expressed in United Nations debates.
The citizens of the United States and citizens of Russia don’t want war.
However we keep having leaders that seem to think they can get away with war and they do!
What do we as citizens do to stop this war madness?
Be careful of whom we elect as our leader.
Push back against political demonization of other countries.
Voice our outrage in the media, if you can get a platform.
Hit the streets with signs and banner with our concern so leaders and media see visible opposition to war.
Do not accept war as the answer to any dispute.
Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was also a US diplomat and served in US embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan, and Mongolia. She resigned from the U.S. government in 2003 in opposition to President Bush’s war on Iraq. She is the co-author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience.
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It is chilling…. It certainly does not look like a buffer zone but more like a significant buildup. If I were in any of these countries in the build-up area I would be extremely nervous…
“In Russia protesters against the war are already being arrested and hauled off to jail and threatened with criminal records. In the first day of the invasion of Ukraine, over 1600 Russians have been arrested.”
Supposedly a lot of these are Navalni supporters. Also keep in mind that Russia has what The Saker calls “5th and 6th Columnists”, also called “Atlanticists” who want Russia tied to Europe and oppose Russian nationalism. It’s likely most of the protesters are from that faction.
Polls indicate 60% of Russians approve Putin’s handling of Ukraine.
Opinion: Putin’s popularity with Russians has been rising ahead of Ukraine invasion — but that’s unlikely to last
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/putins-popularity-with-russians-has-been-rising-ahead-of-ukraine-invasion-but-thats-unlikely-to-last-11645727255
In any event, as in the US, public opinion is irrelevant. It usually is to states.
Unless one has some advice as to how Russia could have resolved this situation with Ukraine (and the US and NATO, because they were behind it all) without doing this, yelling about how “war is not the answer”…is not an answer.
Especially since the electorate, especially in oligarchies like the US, have zero control of their electoral process. And all the attempts at “third parties” in the US are doomed to fail.
Huge difference. US went half way around the world to attack Iraq, a country which never threateded it. Russia just attacked Ukraine which has increasingly become a NATO puppet threatening Russia and committing all sorts of atrocities for the past 8 years.
Nobody elects our leaders, they are appointed by a cabal of international criminals (we are merely informed of who we are told that we elected by our wonderful televisions).
The government in Kyiv has been commiting violence and murder against the population of Ukraine for eight years.
The Russians are tired of it, and they are putting a stop to it.
It is absolutely nothing like Iraq.
I didn’t know Iraq was on our border and any missiles that might be placed there could hit Washington in 7 minutes. So yeah, exactly the same.
NO DIFFERENCE !!
Except that Russia can never compete with the World’s most active Meddler and Warmonger, the USA.
Vietnam, Laos, Panama, Cuba, Grenada, the Caribbic, Central America, Chile, Argentina, Kuwait, Lybia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine and soon Iran, Russia, China etc ???