An Anti-War Demonstration in DC A Year Into the Ukraine War, Twenty Years After the U.S.-Led Iraq Invasion.

In a week and a half, on March 18, a major anti-war demonstration is planned in Washington DC sponsored by, among others, the ANSWER Coalition. A large number of peace and left organizations will be involved including Code Pink, the Black Alliance for Peace, Veterans for Peace, the U.S. Peace Council, DSA International Committee and many smaller local peace, labor, environmental movement groups. Smaller, regional demonstrations will take place in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Springfield, MO. The main slogans around which the demonstrations are organized are:

Fund People’s Needs, Not the War Machine!
Peace in Ukraine – Say NO to Endless U.S. Wars!

It is a start, the beginning of a new peace movement and it is international in nature. In the same way that the Biden Administration and the mainstream media which echoes its politics have tried to black out Seymour Hersh’s recent expose of U.S. responsibility for blowing up the Nord Stream II pipeline, one can be pretty sure that these national actions will either be completely ignored, or, if covered, will find a way to discredit the action … par for the course.

Noticeably absent from participation – any part of the country’s Democratic Party, any of the more liberal members of Congress such as AOC, Ilhan Omar, Bernie Sanders, all of whom to one degree or another have marched in lockstep support of the Biden Administration’s global war-making. I am reminded how, these same  elements – or those in the past who were considered something of a liberal vanguard – at first supported the 2003 U.S. led invasion of Iraq and only joined peace efforts some five years later, following public opinion which had turned against the war, rather than leading it, and this they did tepidly, gingerly if at all.

I am reminded how, these same elements – or those in the past who were considered something of a liberal vanguard – at first supported the 2003 U.S. led invasion of Iraq and only joined peace efforts some five years later, following public opinion which had turned against the war, rather than leading it, and this they did tepidly, gingerly if at all.

Ukraine, a year later

It is now more than a year since Russia launched its Special Military Operation with its military forces directly intervening in Ukraine. It has turned into a punishing conflict – the worst military conflict in Europe since World War II – which has caused probably hundreds of thousands of deaths, destabilized the world and created millions of refugees. All Russian attempts to settle the Ukraine crisis through negotiation to address its security concerns over NATO expansion, the nazification of the Ukrainian military and security forces, and the policy of Ukrainian ethnic cleansing of its Russian-speaking population and those elements in Ukraine working for Ukrainian-Russian conciliation were rejected outright. Those who argue that Russia should have found a peaceful resolution to short of military intervention have, universally, failed to suggest what diplomatic options were open to Russia that could have prevented this military conflict.

The mainstream media in the U.S.A. and Europe treat Russia as solely responsible for the war, a war, they say which was “entirely unprovoked” (by them). In their hubris, there is not a hint of the how and the degree to which Washington/NATO provoked this conflict nor how Washington is committed to extending the war “to weaken Russia” as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has admitted.

By blowing up the Nord Stream II pipeline – nothing less than an act of war against  Russia – , by its huge military and economic support of the Ukrainian government in Kiev, it sabotaging of any negotiated settlement (Minsk II, Istanbul) the Biden Administration has made it clear that it intends to include Ukraine as a part of its sphere of influence on Russia’s borders; Using Ukraine as a bullwhip against Russia is a plan that has been developed and carefully nurtured since the collapse of the Soviet Union if not decades prior Without constant U.S./NATO escalation, the war could have ended long ago with peace talks and a new security arrangement that demilitarizes the region — something that would have also prevented the war in the first place.

As a recent statement marking the one year anniversary of the war notes. the Party of Socialism and Liberation notes: 

“The war appears to have, at least for now, settled into a grinding stalemate where neither side is able to make a major breakthrough. But the U.S. government insists on keeping the slaughter going. Their strategic doctrine is “great power competition” — that the two principal obstacles standing between the United States and world domination are Russia and China. If the war continuing means that there is a chance that they could achieve one of their two central goals by weakening or overthrowing the Russian government, then the number of lives lost and upended are of no consequence whatsoever to the Pentagon warmakers.”

While to my knowledge, there is no parallel event scheduled in Colorado, in early April, Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin will be visiting the state. Events are planned in Boulder, Denver, Ft. Collins. The main initiator of her visit is the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Boulder. For more information, contact Tom Mayer of the Center’s Global Peace Collective. thomas.mayer@colorado.edu