Search Results for: Russia

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By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, June 11, 2023

Yuval Noah Harari’s book, Homo Deus, has plenty of insights, plenty of worries that may prove justified, and a fair bit of silliness. But it’s hard to argue with his summary of the Our Boys Didn’t Die in Vain Syndrome:

“The narrating self is the star of Jorge Luis Borges’s story A Problem. The story deals with Don Quixote, the eponymous hero of Cervantes’s famous novel. Don Quixote creates for himself an imaginary world in which read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, May 24, 2023

Here’s a terrible “syllogism” from a wonderful person, Ray McGovern, longtime CIA employee, then longtime peace activist, and now year-long contender that Russia had no choice but to attack Ukraine.

“The Russians had other options to invading Ukraine.
They attacked Ukraine in a ‘war of choice’; also threaten NATO.
Ergo, the West must arm Ukraine to the teeth, risking wider war.”

This is supposedly an explanation of the thinking of we read more

Every major U.S. media outlet I’ve been on opposing war has banished me into the wilderness.

Every major Russian media outlet that I go on and denounce war — and I mean Russian warmaking as well as everybody else’s — has me back on again.

I usually do Russian media only live, to prevent them censoring me.

But here’s a radio show I did this week with Sputnik — have read more

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Scott brings on David Swanson to discuss the war in Ukraine. Scott and many of his guests have spent a lot of time explaining all the ways the U.S. and NATO unnecessarily backed Russia into a corner. But there are, in fact, plenty of things Moscow could have done to address the situation read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, June 29, 2022

It’s impossible for either side to see, but Russia and NATO depend on each other.

Whichever side you’re on, you

• agree with weapons-maker propaganda that the available actions in the world are (1) war, and (2) doing nothing;
• you ignore the historical record of nonviolent action succeeding more often than war;
• and you imagine militarism to be required completely independently from considering what the results will be.

It’s possible for some people to glimpse the stupidity and counterproductive nature of war as long as they look at old wars, and don’t apply any lessons learned to current wars. An author in Germany of a book about the stupidity of World War I is right now busy telling read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, March 15, 2022

The war-or-nothing disease has a firm grip. People literally can’t imagine anything else — people on both sides of the same war.

Every time I suggest that Russia might have done anything nonviolent to resist NATO expansion and the militarization of its border or that Ukraine might do anything nonviolent right now, my inbox fills up in almost exactly equal measure with rather angry missives denouncing the idea that there was or is anything that read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, March 7, 2022

Here were Russia’s demands for months starting in early December 2021:

• Article 1: the parties should not strengthen their security at the expense of Russia’s security;
• Article 2: the parties will use  multilateral consultations and the NATO-Russia Council to address points of conflict;
• Article 3: the parties reaffirm that they do not consider each other as adversaries and maintain a dialogue;
• Article 4: the parties shall not deploy military forces and weaponry on the territory of any of the other states in Europe in addition to any forces that were deployed as of May 27, 1997;
• Article 5: the parties shall not deploy land-based intermediate- and short-range missiles adjacent to the other parties;
• Article 6: all member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization commit themselves to refrain from any further enlargement of NATO, including the accession of Ukraine as well as other States;
• Article 7: the parties that are member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization shall not conduct any military activity on the territory of Ukraine as well as other States in the Eastern Europe, in the South Caucasus and in Central Asia; and
• Article 8: the agreement shall not be interpreted as affecting the primary responsibility of the Security Council of the United Nations for maintaining international peace and security.

These were perfectly reasonable, just what the U.S. demanded when Soviet missiles were in Cuba, just what the U.S. would demand now if Russian missiles were in Canada, and ought to have simply been met, or at the very least treated as serious points to be respectfully considered.

If we set aside items 1-3 and 8 above as less concrete and/or hopeless, we’re left with items 4-7 read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, February 27, 2022

War is fairly well known for killing, injuring, traumatizing, destroying, and rendering homeless. It’s somewhat well known for diverting massive resources from urgent needs, preventing global cooperation on pressing emergencies, damaging the environment, eroding civil liberties, justifying government secrecy, corroding culture, fueling bigotry, weakening the rule of law, and risking nuclear apocalypse. In a few corners it’s known read more