[pjw] INFO: Statement on War in Ukraine updated May 2023

[Peace and Justice Works]

Iraq AG supporters
We have updated the statement we issued last May regarding the war in 
Ukraine. Unfortunately, the main changes have to do with the escalation 
in terms of (a) expanding NATO and (b) spending a lot of US tax dollars on 
military equipment.

This statement is available on our website as a printably flyer at

https://pjw.info/ukraine_statement0523.pdf .

We will be handing out copies at today's Friday Rally.

dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group


UKRAINE: Calling for De-Escalation and a Peaceful Resolution of 
the Conflict
statement by Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group
May 19, 2023 (first issued May 20, 2022)

Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group calls for a ceasefire and true 
international efforts for diplomatic resolution in after Russia's invasion 
of Ukraine.

It is particularly concerning that the involvement of the United States 
and NATO could escalate the fighting to include use of nuclear weapons.

The expansion of NATO since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 has led to 
the current situation, as did the US support for a coup that overturned the 
elected government of Ukraine in 2014.

The Minsk Agreements of 2014-15 called upon the parties to de-escalate by 
creating semi-autonomous regions in eastern Ukraine, but fighting in the 
region continued up until the Russian incursion into Ukraine in February 
2022.

It is true that Russia attacked its neighbor country, but it is also true 
that the US ignored Russia's concerns about moving NATO so close to its 
borders.

The US attacked and invaded Iraq in 2003 without provocation, and led NATO 
to conduct a similar attack on Libya in 2011.

While it seems strange to those unfamiliar with the situation for 
Russia's President to accuse Ukraine, whose President is Jewish, of being 
Nazis, the Ukrainian military has absorbed the Azov Battalion, a well 
known neo-Nazi militia, into its ranks.

How can this conflict be brought to a peaceful end?

1- The parties need to agree to an immediate cease-fire.

2- Humanitarian aid needs to be brought in for those lacking food and 
medical attention.

3- There should be no more arms transfers to Ukraine, and in general, no 
further arming of the combatants.

4- Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine need to commence, including a 
plan for independence and security
of both nations.

5- In support of such a cease-fire and peace plan, sanctions should be 
lifted. Sanctions mostly harm the ordinary people and not the governments 
they are supposed to be directed toward, and are thus another form of war.

6- The US must stop making proclamations about "weakening Russia," 
name-calling its president, and hinting at regime change.

7- The US needs to renew diplomatic ties with Russia to continue 
downsizing nuclear and conventional arms stockpiles.

8-No further expansion of NATO. The addition of Finland and Sweden to NATO 
in early 2023, the proposal to add
Ukraine itself to NATO, and the opening of an office of NATO in Japan, a 
country that sits in the Pacific Ocean, to the North Atlantic Treaty 
Organization, are unnecessary escalations.

The US continues to conduct warfare in Syria and Somalia, and to support 
the Saudi side of the conflict in Yemen. The US has for years bombed those 
three countries by drone and conventional aircraft, as it has in Iraq, 
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya with no consequences and little media 
attention to whether US actions constitute war crimes.

More broadly:

-- Nations need to redirect their military spending to address the climate 
crisis and human needs, and all nuclear weapons need to be abolished. In 
the US, this means no more weapons contracts for arms merchants, and 
putting money into COVID relief, infrastructure, housing, education and 
more. As of January, 2023, the US had spent $46.6 billion on military 
support to Ukraine, 14 times more than the next highest recipient, Israel 
(Council on Foreign Relations, February 22, 2023). This is equivalent to 
17% of the US' bloated $817 billion military budget.

--The structure of the United Nations, which allows the five countries 
which won World War II to maintain
permanent seats and veto power in the Security Council, needs to be 
revised. While Russia can veto any
condemnation of their actions, the United States has the same authority 
and has been able to take actions which
might be considered war crimes.

--The US should join the International Criminal Court, which it signed 
onto under Bill Clinton but "un-signed"
under George W. Bush. Russia, which left in 2016 after its invasion of 
Crimea, should also rejoin.

The Iraq Affinity Group is in solidarity with all the people working for 
peace both in Russia and in Ukraine. We
can make a difference by demanding changes to our own government's 
policies.

This statement was created by the Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity 
Group
503-236-306 iraq at pjw.info www.pjw.info/Iraq.html
Influenced by the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center (Boulder, CO), 
Stop the War Coalition (UK), United National Antiwar Coalition (USA), and 
Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy (New York, NY).