1,2,3,4, Stop The War, 2,4,6,8, It’s Not Too Late
A naval mutiny and internal revolt in Germany ended World War 1.
Millions of anti-war protesters in the US mobilised to end to the war in Vietnam.
The Second World War was fought to its bloody conclusion, with total victory of one side over the other.
Just as in the 1930s tensions between the world’s Super Powers are again at breaking point. There is a powder keg in the room, Vladimir Putin is the little boy in the corner playing with matches.
But what I do know, is that even on the brink of World War III Russia as the aggressor will not stop its expansionism until it is stopped, either by its rivals, or by internal revolt.
To avoid World War III, I am counting on the latter.
Pat O’Dea is a unionist and human rights activist.
The ruble is up!
If we in the West are going to take the position that the trouble in Ukraine is because “Putin is the little boy in the corner playing with matches”, rather than reflect on the true reasons that have led to this action , then WW111 is not just a possibility, it is a certainty.
World peace is only going to be preserved by listening to the other side and seriously considering their position. Not grossly misrepresenting it to propagandise the population into a state of readiness for violence.
D J S
Well said David.
yes well said DJS maybe stop manufacturing weapons and supplying ‘”lethal aid” a term which is in itself a war crime
That would also apply to the U.K.,France, Sweden,U.S.A.,Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium,Israel, etc etc etc and on and on it goes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_modern_armament_manufacturers
Hear hear. I’m glad some people are allowed to make this point.
What we need are experts in dispute resolution .
convince the actor zelinsky to take a bow ,,,,, and get him to run off to enjoy his looted wealth.
https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-reveal-offshore-holdings-of-ukrainian-president-and-his-inner-circle
“Zelensky capitalized on widespread public anger at corruption, but his 2019 campaign was dogged by doubts over his anti-graft bona fides, given that his campaign was boosted by media belonging to Kolomoisky — who is accused of stealing US$5.5 billion …”
” leaked documents prove that Zelensky and his inner circle have had their own network of offshore companies. Two belonging to the president’s partners were used to buy expensive property in London.’
“Zelensky managed to buy a villa in Miami for $34 million, as well as several sets of jewelry for $5.6 million.” https://eprimefeed.com/latest-news/zelensky-found-a-billion-dollars-and-a-villa-in-miami-2/20181/
It’s a scam ,,,, https://youtu.be/-hpeLazT0Zk?t=248
The US, UK and the EU and especially Berlin all need to be nuked first if that happens!
If WW3 starts it will be 100% due to USA provocation. Comrade Putin has clearly stated it many times.
Everybody knows this.
The first one will go bang 500m above the Whitehouse.
Sleepy Joe needs to keep his wardogs on a tight lease and accept Russia/China/India might well be the next hegemony.
2 years have gone by thanks to corona making every world leader into a calculating genius.
Everyone knows for the first time in eons that the leadership ain’t shit.
It seems that no one can dodge each other knowing that Chinese and American battle powers have increased dramatically. This is much more than light sparing.
It wouldn’t be far if America only tested themselves against poor 3rd world dirt/sand farmers.
Apparently Americans are big boy adults.
Yet somewhere far off is the rapidly expanding African continent. They do still owe the west for putting all there Negros through the plantations, then jail’s, now entertainment sports and University.
Hopefully that That will be enough to civilise the untapped potential of the negeo.
As momentum moves towards full World War Two The African Continent will explode for good reasons. Some mentioned already. But the result will be the proliferation of cheap technology everywhere.
So we must remember what we are fighting for as drastic change take hold and realise this is no longer a theoretical sparing match.
Sorta of speaking Africa has the potential to be stronger than China and we the west have zero right to deny any of that.
Putin is deranged.
He is prepared to knowingly, in full consciousness, set off a train of events that will potentially destroy all of life on earth. He is continuing to threaten to do that, as recently as yesterday.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/26/russia-ukraine-war-lavrov-warns-of-risk-of-nuclear-conflict
Here is a video from March ’22, showing how it could go down:
What happens to Earth
At about 2 minutes into the vid is a world map showing those countries that have nukes (a heck of a lot more than I had realised) – and how many each have, ready to fire.
David Swanson has spent his entire adult life trying to wake people up to the horror of war. He has for long run blogs such as War is a Crime, and World Beyond War. He has written hard-hitting books and has worked tirelessly, ceaselessly for decades, to try and bring about the needed change of consciousness.
Yet here we are, right on the precipice once again.
If his latest piece of writing is satire with a searingly bitter edge, that is understandable. https://davidswanson.org/idiot-anti-nukers-will-only-have-seconds-to-say-they-were-right/
Yesterday this article ran in the bbc:
Ukraine war: Could Russia use tactical nuclear weapons?
Excerpt:
The concern is that if Putin feels cornered and that his strategy in Ukraine is failing, he could use tactical nuclear weapons as a “game changer”, to break a stalemate or avoid defeat.
But the situation would likely have to get worse in Ukraine – or back in Russia – for him to consider this.
James Acton, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Pace in Washington DC, says: “I am legitimately worried that in that circumstance Putin might use a nuclear weapon, most likely on the ground in Ukraine to terrify everyone and get his way. We are not at that point yet.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-60664169
Al Jazeera page of infographics and maps:
Russia-Ukraine war by the numbers: Live Tracker
Eg, “Who controls what”, “Where people are fleeing to” and lots more info.
It includes Anti-war protests around the world, and this is happening in more cities than I can count (they are all named on the page).
As well, “Protests have taken place in at least 50 Russian cities, including Chelyabinsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Perm, Saint Petersburg, Samara, and Yekaterinburg.”
Massive amount of info on the page.
(Includes NATO expansion.)
Link for above – Infographics – Live Tracker
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/28/russia-ukraine-crisis-in-maps-and-charts-live-news-interactive
The missing link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/28/russia-ukraine-crisis-in-maps-and-charts-live-news-interactive
And NZ’s contribution is NOT to send humanitarian aid and take refugees but to send soldiers!
“When we talk about war crimes, we cannot forget that the worst of crimes is war itself.”
– UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/2022/04/28/un-chief-antonio-guterres-declares-ukraine-war-an-absurdity-on-kyiv-visit/
Guterres is now in Kyiv.
He has said that Russia’s invasion is a violation of the UN charter.
5:20
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine violates UN charter – Guterres
Speaking to the press in Kyiv, UN Secretary General António Guterres restates that Russia’s invasion is “a violation” of both Ukrainian territory and the UN charter.
Guterres says the UN continues to strive for a complete ceasefire.
He also says UN food aid has reached more than two million Ukrainians already.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-61252785
Finland applied to join NATO, earlier this month.
In January, Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin reiterated her country’s traditional stance, that it had no plans of joining the security alliance. But in early April, she noted that “everything had changed” since Russia attacked Ukraine.
“Finland should be prepared for all kinds of actions from Russia,” she told reporters during a visit to Sweden, adding that Helsinki would decide on NATO membership “within weeks”.
While public support for Finland’s NATO membership used to hover between 20 and 30 percent, recent polls have shown that since the war in Ukraine began, about 70 percent of the Finnish public want their country to join NATO. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/28/alexander-stubb-finland-more-nato-ready-than-current-members
Finland’s former PM, Alexander Stubb:
“I think the decision on Finnish NATO membership was taken on February 24, at five o’clock in the morning, when [Russian President Vladimir] Putin attacked Ukraine. That’s when the public opinion basically took a 180 degree turn.
“From 50 percent against and 20 percent in favour, to 50 percent in favour and 20 percent against. Currently, we are at 68 percent in favour and 12 percent against, and when our political leadership comes out with the application together with Sweden in mid-May, I predict that our figures will be over 80 percent in favour of NATO membership.
“The basic line of thought is that if Putin can slaughter his brothers, sisters and cousins in Ukraine, he can do that in Finland and Sweden, as well.” – Same link, above
Neutrality has served Finland well since, more or less, forever. The Ukranian invasion was clearly provoked, with the prospect of Ukrainne’s joining NATO being one of the provocations. Unless Finland is thinking of provoking Russia in some way why would they wish to join NATO. This change of heart on Finland’s part seems to be an irrational “gut” reaction.
Google ‘Winter War’.
I think that the concept that in NATO they will be protected from Russia’s attention being made much of by US and other members at the moment, as a reason for not getting overtly involved to help Ukraine will turn out to be a false sense of security . In fact I suspect they will be at more risk in than out.
I think that Russia’s submissions to the US and NATO in December should be taken as a guide to what is going to happen in Europe over the next few years.
They have said that the nuclear capable missile installations placed east of Berlin since 1991 should / must be removed and nations should not have such bases outside of their own country. Ukraine is just the first step to establishing the security arrangements outlined in that submission. They never expected an agreement or recognition of their security needs when they presented those submissions ,so they intended in bothering to make them that if they got the dismissive response they expected they were going to do something about it . Ukraine is the start. Once the Donetsk and Lugansk are secure independent republics ( hopefully after UN supervised referendums, I think the next move will be to onounce that the installations in Poland and Rumania need to be dismantled and returned to the US . Or Russia will dismantle them untidily . Then as that will be way beyond US political testosterone levels to accomodate they will in an allotted time be taken out by Russian missiles. Then we will see if being a member of NATO makes any difference to whether NATO intervenes. Not that I think Russia will do more than obliterate the missile bases unless they have to.
I don’t think you are correct in dismissing Putin as a madman. To fit the propaganda we are constantly fed he would need to be, but he is not. In fact he may be the sanest leader of any country at the moment. To dismiss him as a madman is in my opinion a very dangerous mistake.
Cheers D J S
I appreciate your thoughts and comments on this topic, David, even where I may disagree. This situation looks to be around for a while, so there will almost inevitably be more discussion in the future.