Margaret Flowers and Joe Lombardo of the United National Antiwar Coalition host a conversation with Scott Ritter regarding the situation in Ukraine and its broader implications for the realignment of global power, security and economic structures. Ritter discusses the provocations that led Russia to launch a military operation, the humanitarian situation, including what happened in Bucha, how Russia is winning, and the propaganda being used to build popular support for war.
Scott Ritter was the UN weapons inspector who, during the Iraq War told the truth that we found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He became outspoken about this, which undercut the main reason the US used to invade and occupy Iraq. As with the Iraq War, Scott Ritter is outspoken about the present war in Ukraine, in which we are again hearing US lies about the reasons for, and the events happening in the Ukraine War. His vast experience and knowledge working in the military and with various international agencies helps expose the truth about what is happening in Ukraine.
Read the UNAC Statement on Ukraine:
The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) remains steadfast in its opposition to the United States/NATO imperialist project. The people of Ukraine are now suffering in a war zone because of the actions of the United States, beginning with the 2014 coup which violently ousted an elected president. The goal then as now was to use Ukraine as a weapon to target Russia militarily. We point out that the current conflict is not the first for Ukraine. More than 14,000 people living in the eastern Donbas region have died in an eight-year long war because they refused to accept the coup government imposed by the U.S.
There have been many opportunities to peacefully resolve this conflict. The US could have announced that Ukraine would not be admitted into NATO, but it would not. The MinskII Agreement signed in 2015 by Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France was unanimously approved by the United Nations Security Council. MinskII called for the end of hostilities between Ukraine and the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in Donbas. Ukraine was required to engage in negotiations and provide constitutional recognition for this region. But far right forces prevented implementation and three American presidents saw an advantage in not implementing the agreement.
The result was a continuation of bloodshed and the strengthening of right wing and neo-Nazi forces. Ukraine is now a haven for white supremacist groups and has invited mercenaries from across Europe, the United States, and other nations. This capture by the right wing is by design and is yet another means of maintaining a dangerous status quo. It is both naive and dangerous to deny the existence of these far-right forces and to ignore the hold they have on Ukrainian politics. They will not only unleash violence in Ukraine, but they will inevitably bring racist violence back to their home countries.
The Biden administration sends weapons and prolongs the conflict. The U.S. further enriches the military industrial complex with its actions with money that should be used for the good of the people. The promised Build Back Better bill is in limbo and the monies promised for renewing the Child Tax Credit and providing covid relief instead are used to stoke the conflict in Ukraine.
UNAC calls on the antiwar community to join in opposing NATO plans to expand further eastward. Not only should NATO cease integrating new members, but it should be dismantled altogether. It is not the defensive force that it claims to be and has wrought destruction from Ukraine to Libya to Afghanistan. NATO is the expression of U.S. global dominance and can only do great harm around the world.
Congress and the Biden administration approved $15 billion to fund militarism in Ukraine in the same week that providers of free covid testing, vaccination, and treatment for the uninsured were informed their services would no longer be reimbursed. The military industrial complex gets billions of dollars while the people’s needs go unmet. The uninsured and unhoused go without help while the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion gets money with the blessings of Congress.
The calls for a so-called “no-fly zone” would in fact create an air war that would heighten the risk of nuclear conflict. Sanctions are war by other means and should be universally condemned by all in the antiwar movement.
The displacement of millions of people in Ukraine is a repeat of what the US and NATO have wrought elsewhere. UNAC appeals to antiwar forces in this country to join in making consistent demands for peace in Ukraine, an end to the NATO imperialist structure, and a system which meets public needs and not those of defense contractors.
We demand:
US/NATO hands off Ukraine: No weapons, No military “advisors,” No Mercenaries, No “Volunteers.”
Humanitarian aid to Ukraine and resettlement of all refugees and displaced persons
Keep Ukraine out of NATO
Expulsion of all foreign white supremacist and neo-Nazi forces from Ukraine
Reparations to civilians in Ukraine and the Donbas independent regions
Dismantle NATO and establish a military neutral zone from Western Russia through Ukraine and Baltic states
U.S. government renounce doctrine of Full Spectrum Dominance