U.S. Russia at war...neither will admit it

The U.S. and Russia, possessing over 13,000 nukes between them, are at war. By imposing economic sanctions designed to collapse the Russian economy, and funneling billions in weaponry into Ukraine to combat the Russian invasion, the U.S. has taken sides, aiding Ukraine’s efforts to fend off the criminal Russian invasion. That represents de facto war with Russia.

But neither the U.S. nor Russia will admit such a war exists between them. To do so puts every weapon at their disposal to defeat the other side. That includes those 13,000 nuclear weapons, only a few hundred of which could end life on earth.

In recognition of this, Russia has ignored America’s crushing economic sanctions and American made weaponry killing invading Russian soldiers. America, in turn, has turned down repeated requests from besieged Ukrainian president Zelensky and many in the U.S. to establish a ‘no fly’ zone over Ukraine. Why? That would quickly result in U.S. pilots shooting down Russian war planes, ripping off the façade that no war exists between them. That is also the reason the U.S. refused to be a middleman in funneling Polish war planes to the under equipped Ukrainian air force.

Putin and Biden are both walking a precarious tightrope. Putin seeks to subdue Ukraine quickly to forestall more deadly U.S. action against his aggression. Biden seeks to go right up to the line of open conflict with Russia without eliciting a Russian military response to NATO countries or the U.S. itself.

That is why many of us in the peace community do not support pumping billions of weaponry into a war zone. It will not only increase casualties on both sides, but it could also bring the world closer to a larger war of horrifying destruction. Outside of the U.S. and NATO, few countries are pouring arms into Ukraine.

What is needed more than ever is diplomacy to bring the fighting to an end. So far there have been 4 sessions between Russia and Ukraine, the last brokered by NATO member Turkey. Israel has also urged negotiations and compromise by both sides to end warfare.

Virtually every war ends with diplomacy, not unconditional surrender.

Why isn’t the U.S. getting involved with diplomacy instead of going right up to the edge of acknowledged war with Russia? One reason is the U.S. has never, and so far will never, acknowledge and deal with Russian security concerns that influenced their criminal invasion in Ukraine, the flashpoint for U.S/NATO, Russia tensions that should never have occurred. Had the U.S. taken that stance with North Vietnam, we might still be fighting the Vietnam war.

These are inconvenient truths neither the U.S. government nor U.S. media will allow discussed. That must end. Better to acknowledge there is a place for diplomacy rather than trip over the line of all out war with Russia.

Let's not move the Doomsday Clock up a hundred seconds to... Doomsday.

Walt Zlotow

West Suburban Peace Coalition

U.S. war sanctions won’t end war; simply accelerate U.S. inflation

U.S., NATO encroachment eastward toward Russia goaded Russia into criminal war against Ukraine. Not wanting to fight Russia on Ukraine’s behalf, least it unleash WWIII, the U.S. employed its ‘go to’ response of economic sanctions to influence a rival’s behavior.

When even those severe sanctions effecting all segments of Russia’s economy failed to halt the carnage, President Biden took the dramatic step of halting oil imports from Russia.

Big mistake. The 4 million barrels we import daily from Russia, represents two thirds of the 6 million barrels Russia exports daily. A million and a half go to China, with the remaining half million to African and other Asian nations.

Guess who will pick up the slack in Russian exports? Russia’s new best friend in countering U.S. unipolar hegemony over the world, China. Guess where that will send U.S. pump prices? Can you say $5, $6, $7 a gallon?

Instead of funneling endless weapons of war to a nation with no chance of defeating Russia, and imposing sanctions that will make February’s inflation look wonderful by comparison, the U.S. should be embracing and encouraging peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

They already had 3 negotiating sessions, with a fourth scheduled for tomorrow in NATO member Turkey. The U.S. has ruled out encouraging these talks and itself getting involved in a diplomatic solution.

That is also a big mistake. U.S. refusal to negotiate Russian security concerns was a big factor in Russia’s march to criminal war. Refusal to negotiate now out of fear of recognizing such concerns, will simply keep the war going on and killing without end.

And the sanctions will simply keep driving American pump prices and other commodities upward without end.

Random thoughts on reaching 77

77 has a nice ring to it. Double 7 means double luck. Don’t I wish?

Woke up this morn at floor 77 on the escalator of life. The escalator goes all the way up to floor 122 but that’s not a wise floor to shoot for. Not much going on up there. A few more, possibly even a decade or so close to the quality of the first 77, will suit me just fine.

First winter for Mary and I in 49 years down south in Florida. Walking the scenic harbor every day and evening we ponder, “What took us so long.”

Onward to 78.

U.S., NATO ignored the beehive principle of diplomacy in Ukraine

Once Russia launched its illegal, criminal war on Ukraine, mainstream media spoon fed us one version for the war. Putin decided to re-establish the old Soviet Empire, starting with Ukraine. Additionally, he’s likely a delusional madman in the vein of Stalin and Hitler, who will never be satisfied with one conquest.

That plays well with both our government, seeking to hide its colossal blunders leading to war, and the American people, susceptible to any propaganda whitewashing U.S. foreign policy mistakes.

The U.S. has been poking at the beehive of Russian military strength since 1997 with the extension of NATO up to Russia’s borders. That represents 25 years of provocations that Russia has opposed from Day One. Two years later the U.S. led an offensive NATO war against Russian ally Serbia, bombing it for 78 days to sever Kosovo from Serbia. Where was the Western media pushback against that illegal war to change a country’s borders?

But tensions escalated in 2008 when the 20th NATO Summit proposed eventual NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine. That prompted Russia to issue its first red line against further NATO expansion, including placement of troops and missile launchers near Russia’s borders, minutes from Moscow.

But the U.S. really began poking the Russian beehive in 2014 when the Obama administration greenlighted a U.S. inspired and promoted coup against the Russian leaning Ukraine president. Why? Simply to prevent him from signing an economic agreement with Russia that was better than the one offered by the EU. The West would not allow Ukraine to tack East, even if it meant violent coup. Worse, it set off a civil war with Russian leaning Ukraine provinces in the Donbass being brutalized by Ukraine neo-Nazis employed by the new Ukraine government for that venture. For the past eight years the now pro Western Ukraine government has been shelling and killing thousands of those breakaway provinces, in part using weapons the U.S. funneled to Ukraine by the Trump administration.

The final poke at the Russian beehive came last November 10, when the U.S. and Ukraine signed a Charter on Strategic Partnership, which asserted America’s support for Kyiv’s right to pursue membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That was a poke too far for Putin’s Russia which unleased the bees of criminal war just a hundred days later.

As Hardy would say to Laurel after Stan blundered into another jam for the duo, “This is another a fine kettle of fish you’ve got us into.”

Now, 13 days later, the U.S. NATO beekeeper is powerless to stop the slaughter in Ukraine without possibly plunging the world into nuclear winter.

While too late for Ukraine, let’s hope the U.S. policymakers finally learn the lesson of the diplomatic beehive. Poke it endlessly at your own risk.

Don’t make Tsarnaev 4th Boston Marathon murder victim

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did a real bad thing. The teenager helped his older brother set off a bomb at the 2013 Boston Marathon that killed 3 and wounded hundreds.

His brother was killed in the pursuit of both. Dzhokhar was captured and sentenced to death. The U.S. Court of Appeals overturned his death sentence on technical evidentiary grounds. Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated his death sentence, overturning the Appeals Court decision.

That may not be a Constitutional mistake but it was certainly a moral mistake. The death penalty does nothing to promote justice. It's simply state sponsored murder. It is bloodlust revenge, springing from the same moral decay that motivates individuals to commit murder in the first place. Except capital punishment is moral decay in the state. Nations and U.S. states that shed the moral decay of execution deserve our thanks and support.

Even tho Dzhokhar is back on death row, his execution is on indefinite hold due to a federal review of the death penalty ordered by Attorney General Merrick Garland last July. It’s possible that review will spare Dzhokhar.

In a bitter irony from the Supreme Court decision, all 6 prolife conservative justices voted pro death. Pro lifer Trump resumed federal executions during his term, authorizing 13 of the 50 federal executions since 1927.

Hopefully, Garland’s federal review will spare Dzhokhar and the other 41 persons on federal death row before, Republicans return to power to power up the federal death machine.