USA: Between war and the courage to negotiate

USA: Between war and the courage to negotiate

President Joe Biden’s recent decision to approve a $95 billion military aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan is very bad for the world because it assures us that conflicts and military escalation will continue, with undoubted consequences for everyone.

Before this presidential approval, DW News reported that the US House of Representatives had approved the military aid package, showing a representative speaking on the floor of the US Congress with a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, and Iran’s Ebrahim Raisol-Sadati on a lectern behind him.

The image more than eloquently symbolizes who the US wants to fight as its declared enemies and against whom the funds are being approved. Russia, China and Iran.

However, the image in question omits any image that could directly associate the Palestinian people, who are living a real genocide, with the US weapons that Israel continues to receive.

The military aid package is once again a belligerent, warlike decision that should concern the international community. Not only those who pull the trigger are responsible, but also those who provide the means for a crime.

In the case of the funds for Ukraine, more than two years of war continue to show that the military route will not solve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. However, not for the first time, the US prefers to see the actors in the conflict bleed to death and the countries break up.

In this case, unlike the former Yugoslavia or Iraq or Afghanistan, or Libya, countries that ended up divided and destroyed under the auspices of the US and NATO, it is highly likely that they will leave Ukraine even more divided and fail to defeat Russia, which objectively has greater military capabilities, experience and the pride of having defeated the Nazi German army.

However, there is still a risk of further escalation to a point of no return if the warpath continues, if the US and NATO continue to send ever more dangerous weapons if they continue to send “trainers” or troops to Ukraine, and if they continue to cross other red lines, nuclear war and what they have agreed to as “mutually assured destruction” is quite possible.

As in the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, where the US would not accept nuclear missiles within a few miles of its territory, it was logical to assume that the Russian government would not accept nuclear missiles in Ukraine, as President Zelensky wanted. Even Kissinger had warned against this. Considering experience, therefore, the only solution to the Ukrainian conflict lies in an understanding between the major players, such as the US and Russia. There is no doubt that Europe and Ukraine will do Washington’s bidding.

The lack of wisdom, maturity, and responsibility of the political and leadership class in Washington and NATO is therefore astonishing. Instead of engaging in diplomacy for the sake of international stability, they prefer to fuel a war that will bring not only death and destruction to Ukrainians and Russians but also global destabilization in a world where we need each other.

In Ukraine, they, led by Victoria Nuland, are responsible for the origins of the Ukrainian conflict, which has fractured the national unity of that country, starting with a series of events such as the US intervention in the 2004 elections; then by encouraging and supporting a coup d’état in 2014; by not enforcing the Minsk agreements; and by offering Ukraine NATO membership as a necessary step to installing nuclear weapons, as President Zelenski wanted.

They do not want to admit that the policy they have pursued in Ukraine, and which they want to repeat in Taiwan, where a US war with China is very likely, has been a resounding failure or, in the worst case, will lead to the collapse of human life.

Increased military spending

Not surprisingly, in this climate of open or ongoing war, new figures to be released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) will continue the upward trend.

“Global military spending reached $2.44 billion in 2023, an increase of 6.8 percent in real terms over 2022,” the Swedish organization said.

While the United States had a military expenditure of $916 billion in 2023, China spent $296 billion and the Russian Federation $109 billion.

Militarisation needs enemies, and the fact that Russia, China, and Iran are labeled as enemies by the United States is nothing new to anyone who has paid any attention to world events and the stories that have been repeated over and over again, from Hollywood films to foreign policy itself. Is it so difficult for the US to live in peace with other countries?

It is even more shocking that they are distancing themselves from the tragedy of the war in Ukraine and against Palestine, as US arms companies continue to increase their profits at the cost of the blood of other peoples.

A Washington Post columnist, Marc Thiessen, wrote positively about the approval of the new military aid package.

“Many Americans don’t realize that the vast majority of the military aid Congress approves for Ukraine stays here in the United States, replenishing American weapons stockpiles, strengthening our defense industrial base, and creating good manufacturing jobs for American workers.

Negotiations

The conflict in Ukraine could have been resolved within weeks of its start, as a draft agreement was ready to be signed at the negotiating table with Ukrainian and Russian representatives in Istanbul, Turkey, in March 2022. But the document was not signed. Subsequently, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett revealed that both the UK and the US were opposed to reaching an agreement with Russia and were focusing their efforts on continuing the war in Ukraine.

President Zelensky then signed a decree declaring it impossible to negotiate with Russia’s current president, Vladimir Putin.

The following reflections by Pope Francis on the war in Ukraine, made recently in an interview with Lorenzo Buccella, a journalist for Radio-television Switzerland (RSI), and published as a transcript in Vatican News, are worth reading:

– But shouldn’t we lose hope in trying to mediate?

“Let us look at history, the wars we have lived through, they all end with an agreement”.

– In Ukraine, some call for the courage to surrender, to raise the white flag. But others say that this would legitimize the strongest. What do you think?

“That is one interpretation. But I think the strongest is the one who sees the situation, thinks of the people, and dares to raise the white flag and negotiate. And today you can negotiate with the help of the international powers. They are there. The word negotiate is brave. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you dare to negotiate. And you are ashamed, but if you go on like this, how many deaths (will there be)? And it will end even worse. Negotiate in time, and find a country that can act as a mediator. Today, for example, with the war in Ukraine, many want to be mediators. Turkey, for example… Don’t be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse”.

In the same vein, Pope Francis has called for peace and a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine that guarantees the existence of both peoples.

“War is always a defeat in which those who gain the most are the arms manufacturers, please pray for peace,” the Pope said.

Peace conference

A new peace summit for Ukraine is due to take place in Switzerland in mid-June this year, and so far, the Russian Federation has not been invited.

This is a sign of failure. Peace cannot be achieved unless the two parties to a conflict can negotiate. Moreover, this conflict should not only bring Ukraine and Russia to the table, but also the US and NATO, and a common security agreement should be reached under the premises promoted by former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.

There is a lack of will, a lack of courage, especially on the part of the US, to move toward peace in Ukraine and to do the right thing to avoid war with China.

https://www.pressenza.com/2024/05/usa-between-war-and-the-courage-to-negotiate/