Parade of monsters 

Can you separate Sonoma from what is going on in Ukraine?

I can’t. That’s why this column, which was originally intended to be about promising solutions to the global crisis, has been about the war. There’s no solution to the war in Ukraine except to stop it,  that is because the neocons in the Biden administration refuse to end it. 

Sevm Dagalen, a Member of the Left Party in the German Parliament, speaking on Democracy Now January 25 did not mince words about what Europe is facing. “This decision, sending battle tanks to Ukraine, is a historic wrong decision.

Germany has just agreed to allow other European countries to also send tanks. “It is a red line, a line of escalation. “It’s not what the German people want, “but the pressure now was too heavy, too strong from the Biden administration.” She reminds us that the 31st of January is the 80th anniversary of the battle in Stalingrad. And every family in Russia lost loved ones in this battle. The prospect of German tanks across the landscape will surely trigger strong feelings in the hearts of Russians.

She expressed her concern about the possibility of nuclear war, saying that although we may be spared here, Europe will be decimated.   

But if Scott Ritter is correct, we are all going to feel it. Russia is not fooling around with small so-called tactical weapons; if attacked, its nuclear missiles will fly across the sea. “It will be the end of the world.” 

Scott Ritter, author of numerous books, is a former U. S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties. He and another military man are two of the clearest spokesmen on the war that I have encountered on the Internet. Both have said there is no way Ukraine can win it.

According to Col. Doug MacGregor, sending tanks will make no difference except to trigger a more monstrous response from Russia. Their military significance is slim. Tanks are not much use in the European terrain. They require expert maintenance which Ukrainians lack. “Ukraine is staring annihilation in the face,” he said in a recent interview with Judge Napolitano on his podcast. Ukraine is already suffering eight casualties for every single Russian. 

Some of these tanks are holdovers from the second world war, bearing Nazi insignias that are likely to inflame the Russians, who lack no tolerance whatsoever for Nazis.

The Russians fought bitterly against the Nazis in that war and defeated them. They know what fascism is about. It is far worse than Russian capitalism. Yet we have become collaborators with the neofascists now active in Ukraine, a sickening sight. You will find a full list of sources confirming the activities of Ukrainian Nazis, here.

The coming march of tanks across Europe to Ukraine is a parade of monsters. But they will not win the war. 

It’s looking very bad for t the future of the world. The evidence is clear. The war in Ukraine is peeling back the covers – at tremendous cost – that hide what we have been doing in Afghanistan, Iraq and so many other places. This time, we are not going to get away with it. America’s time as sole superpower has come to an end. Russia and China are rising, as they should. With other powers like India and as far as Brazil, reaching into an angry global south, they have developed a vision of a multipolar world. Why don’t we join them? It would be nice to have some help to face the vast threats we are all facing now, like climate change.  If we keep doing what we’re doing, the world will continue to suffer. Famine is at hand in Afghanistan and Somalia. The weather is changing. War is not the solution to any of those problems. It would not be hard for Biden to say, we have decided to change course, beginning in Ukraine. The world would breathe a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately Biden and Blinken and the rest are working according to an old male model of dominance. It is a model based on ego, competition and violence. It dd not work in the past and it is certainly not working now.

Let’s give it up, boys. Putin and Ping are not the demons we face. They are powerful men of considerable intelligence. We need their help. The demon at hand is our delusion of American hegemony. 

As Americans, we bear tremendous responsibility for the actions of our country. If we remain silent, as we seem to be doing today, if we remain preoccupied with our daily affairs, if we do not demand an immediate end to the war, then we are all culpable of committing war crimes. The behavior of our country is unacceptable. We must cry out.

The peace movement, though not yet an uprising of the populace, is gathering force, with a coalition of hundreds of peace groups.. A unique partnership between the Libertarian Party and “The People’s Party,” a new Progressive Party is currently planning a march on Washington on February 19, “Rage Against the War Machine.” Its ten demands are listed on its website, Rage Against the War Machine.”

What can we do, the little people of Sonoma?  We can do all the things movements do, writes lifelong anti-nuclear activist Frida Berrigan in an article at In These Times, “How to Avoid Nuclear Stand-offs that Threaten the Entire World.” We can fill the streets with our protests against the fate that awaits us all if the war becomes an outright battle of the US against Russia. 

“We did it once. We can again. We have to,” she concludes.

There will be protests all over the country this month. Will there be one in Sonoma? If 300 people can attend a rally for women’s right to choose, how many more will come out for the future of the world?
How about a Women’s March for an End to War on International Women’s Day, March 8. Will you join me? If interested in helping to organize that March, please contact me.

On Thanksgiving, a friend said to the diners at his table, “If women were in charge, there would be no war.”

Keb’ Mo’ has written a beautiful song, “Put a woman in charge.” Women do not like war. With few exceptions – Margaret Thatcher always comes to mind – our priority has always been a safe world for our children. If we were in charge, this would be a different world.

It’s time to prove it.

Let’s start here, in Sonoma, on March 8.