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Reflections on the Ukraine War: Another Point of View

My response to Harry Targ and Peace Action of Wisconsin According to your article in the May-June 2023 Mobilizer , most accounts of the Ukraine “crisis” ignore “NATO expansion” of   the 1990s and the “2014 coup”. Well, first of all, it’s not a crisis — it’s a war. And second, far from being ignored, the talking points of “coup” and “NATO”   are repeated constantly, especially on the left. What has been ignored are the actual historical events that help to put the Ukraine War into context: The Ukraine referendum of 1991 after the fall of Soviet Union, in which an overwhelming majority voted for independence. The Budapest Memorandum of 1994, in which Ukraine voluntarily gave up its nukes in return for border security guarantees. Ukraine’s Orange Revolution of 2004, which overturned the fraudulent election of pro-Russian autocrat Viktor Yanukovych. The Maidan Revolution of Dignity of 2014, which again forced the ouster of Yanukovych after he backed out of an association agreemen...
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Rethinking Ukraine: An Open Letter to Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies

In a recent article for The Progressive, you repeat the claim that the US backed the violent overthrow of Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, thus justifying Russia’s subsequent annexation of Crimea and the Donbas, and setting the stage for its 2022 invasion. To back up your claim, you cite the Cato Institute, a right-wing libertarian think tank co-founded by Charles Koch, which accused the Obama administration of scheming to remove Yanukovych from power.  But on closer inspection, a different and more nuanced picture emerges. At issue is the leaked transcript of a phone conversation between US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador to Ukraine  Geoffrey  Pyatt.  In February 2014, when the call took place, the Maidan protests had been going on for three months. Tens of thousands filled Kyiv’s main square day after day, demanding an end to government corruption and police repression. Anxious for a peaceful settlement, the US evi...
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What Now?

At the State Capitol in Madison, the statues have been torn down and the windows are boarded up. Many of us have been in a mild state of shock, mourning the loss of a familiar world. It was a world in which protests are (mostly) peaceful, organized by coalitions of groups we recognize, with lead banners and legal observers, where speakers have prepared remarks, and the media are welcome. This is a world where the issues are well-defined and there is no moral ambiguity. If there is civil disobedience, people are trained in advance, and arrests usually go off without a hitch. But now all of a sudden (or so it seems to us), all bets are off. In the midst of a pandemic, with most of us sheltering at home, all hell has broken loose. The State Capitol, scene of so many organized protests over the years, now looks like a war zone. We’ve seen tear gas and police repression in our time. We came of age during the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. We decided way back then which side we w...
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