As we all know by now, Friday, February 24th, marked the one year anniversary of the war in Ukraine following the Russian invasion. On this occasion, there were peace rallies around the US and the world, demonstrations for a diplomatic off-ramp beginning with a ceasefire and an end to the killing in Ukraine.
The US/NATO proxy war in Ukraine is a disaster not only for the people of Ukraine, but an existential threat for all humanity, pushing the planet to the brink of nuclear war with each new escalation, and moving the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds to midnight.
Guest writer and Bellingham, Washington antiwar activist Dianne Foster penned an editorial for our local Cascadia Daily promoting February 24’s global Day of Action Against Nukes and for Diplomacy, but the editor opted for high school basketball and swim team competition instead of publicizing a community rally for peace.
Her message remains time critical.
Dear Editor Cascadia Daily,
I would like to submit the following guest editorial, given my concern about the recent update to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock … per the BAS’s own words of 1/24/23, “This year, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward, largely (though not exclusively) because of the mounting dangers of the war in Ukraine. The Clock now stands at 90 seconds to midnight – the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been, since it’s founding by Albert Einstein in 1947.”
thebulletin.org
Yet the same “leaders” in Washington, D.C. who spent $500,000 on a Sidewinder missile to shoot down a weather balloon and 3 other “UFO’s”, have their hands on the Big Bomb. They refuse to sign the TPNW, Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or commit to No First Use. As Caitlin Johnstone bemoans, “God help us all.”
I recall a large group of us going into Democratic Congressman Rick Larsen’s office in April of 2014 asking what the hell we were doing overthrowing the government in Kiev and installing a bunch of neo-Nazi's, the Svoboda and Right Sektor parties, along with the Azov Battalion. We were from Occupy Bellingham, Veterans For Peace, Whatcom Peace and Justice, and we were concerned that the blow back from this coup would fall primarily on Ukrainians, and potentially start a nuclear war. Larsen was underwhelmed.
Teteria Sonnna from Obukhiv wikipedia
The event that ignited this outrage was the overthrow of elected President Victor Yanukovich to be replaced by chocolate billionaire Petro Poroshenko. U.S. neocon and Dick Cheney- appointee Victoria Nuland, famously told then-Ambassador Geoffrey Piatt to “f...k the E.U.”, as they didn’t want to participate. She called Obama and requested him to “send Biden over to midwife this thing”. Since Biden and her husband Robert Kagan had been co-architects of the Iraq war, she was certain of his fealty to the cause. They even passed out cookies to the fascists in the Maiden Square, while McCain and Biden looked on. Poroshenko then committed atrocities on the eastern sections of Ukraine, especially the Russian-speaking Donbas, and was ousted in the 2018 election by Zelensky. The latter, who is Russian-speaking, ran on a peace platform that was endorsed by 73% of the vote. Whether Zelensky was lying, or was pressured by the far right into submission, is subject to debate. Fiona Hill reported that Ukrainians and Russians came to a peace agreement in April that was foiled by Boris Johnson, presumably at the behest of the Pentagon, and now validated by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
This war was preventable, if the powers that be had listened to the people, as represented by the Veterans For Peace and 40th LD Democrats’ resolutions at the time. Instead, Nuland has been promoted to Assistant Secretary of State, thousands of people have died, and we are heading into a possible Armegeddon. We need to rekindle the anti-war movement, with everyone of every political persuasion on-board. Join us next Friday, February 24th, at the regular peace vigil on Magnolia and Cornwall, for the “Day of Action Against Nukes”, 4-5PM.
Yours,
Dianne Foster, B.A. International Relations, University of Washington Member, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Dianne and I call on everyone who opposes this war to take to the streets in your communities - with or without the help of your local media - in constant displays of global opposition to the war and the warmongers.
