Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict (Ukraine) - a Review

 Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies provide a far, far from normative vision in:  WAR IN UKRAINE: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict.   Their perspective is made clear on the first page of the book where they say:

Yes, Russia’s aggression was reckless and ultimately indefensible.  But the West’s reneging on promises to halt eastward expansion of NATO in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union played a major part in prompting Putin to act.   So did the U.S. involvement in the 2014 Ukraine coup and Ukraine’s failure to implement the Minsk peace agreements.

The common story we hear from all major news sources including NPR is a tale of U.S. and NATO benevolence and of a brutal dictator Putin and an aggressive Russia.

U.S. media ignore the buildup of USian empire and how NATO is politicized to carry out aggression, while doing little to prevent warfare.   We aren’t exposed substantively to the profits to be made by many large corporations and the corresponding costs to both our people, and those of other nations.

We are missing much in our “profit oriented” media!   We don’t hear the voices that suggest the nuances of the push towards war, and how Ukrainian leadership continues to exploit its people, who are the most real victims of both their own leadership, as well as how Russian people are victimized similarly by the leadership of both Russia and Ukraine.

The world is changing greatly, and the leadership of Joe Biden is missing the boat, just as his predecessor did.  The words are more moderate, frequently, but the results are often similar.

These authors stress the dangers of escalation into a nuclear war, which would threaten the survival of much of the world’s population, even if limited to “tactical” nuclear weapons.

In reading this book, one must in the end choose between a vision of trust of Biden and the Democratic Party, or being “radical” and seeing a very, very different world pushing into our faces and future.  In that world, the power of the U.S. is weakening, as China and other countries fill the void left by the U.S. leadership’s ignoring the warning signs of experts who know a lot.   Such experts include at least one former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, and others with much valuable experience.

Moving towards negotiating a lasting peace will be very challenging with serious U.S. efforts, together with our NATO allies.   It is impossible, given the current demands of Russian surrender and immediate withdrawal of forces.   While the Russian leadership is clearly “wrong”, this, in no way shows that the Ukrainian leadership and the U.S. pushing its own agenda upon Ukraine is right.

This effort is putting a huge strain on the U.S. economy, as well as threatening a nuclear holocaust.   It is time that we wake up - and speak out against this travesty!    We need to seek peace and cooperation!   War - is Not The Answer!