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...