UKRAINE THERE IS A BETTER WAY: A Europe Collective Security Alliance (ECSA)

There is a better way for PEACE in Ukraine

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There is a better way for PEACE in Ukraine 〰️

I am not an expert on Ukraine. I do know, however, that we cannot make peace with guns, rockets and nuclear bombs. The current US and NATO policies of filling Ukraine with weapons, will merely prolong the war and increase suffering.

THERE MUST BE A BETTER WAY!!

It does not matter whether you admire Putin (Trump, Orban, Le Pen) or hate Putin (Blincken, Johnson, Truss), there is the indisputable fact that Putin feels threatened or sidelined or otherwise diminished: otherwise he would not have gone to war. So peacemakers need to work out what Putin wants and what we must give him to stop killing people.

Here is a proposal for a PATH TO PEACE:

THERE IS A BETTER WAY: A Europe Collective Security Alliance (ECSA)

1. Immediate unconditional ceasefire

2. Establishing the European Collective Security Alliance (ECSA) providing safety to Ukraine, Sweden and Finland without NATO membership. Provide ECSA with immediate security guarantees by the EU Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) and the Treaty of Lisbon Mutual Defense Clause. Plan for evolving ECSA into an International Common Security platform based on the Palme Commission concept.

3. Deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission in the Donbass region while establishing security and stability.

4. Let Democracy Win. Public Referendum under international monitoring in Donbass and Crimea where the inhabitants vote on their future status and alliances.

5. End the economic warfare against Russia. Provide the Russian nation with full support and cooperation to participate in international forums and commerce.

The Internationally recognized father of peace studies as a scientific subject and who correctly predicted the fall of the Berlin wall, Prof. Johan Galtung said: “We seem to have come to the point that we ourselves, as the major cause of death and being wounded through violence and war, are our own worst enemies. It takes two to make war. And to make peace.”

From: https://www.transcend.org/tms/2022/04/easter-call-for-heroic-cease-fire/

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Anyone who reads my opinions knows that I blame NATO for provoking Russia since 1991, and for seeking confrontation. Neo-cons, generals and arms manufactures love conflict. Trump said about John Bolton, the Fox News commentator with the violent moustache and opinions, “John never saw a war he didn’t like.” And to Trump’s credit, he started no wars and he fired Bolton.

Kissinger said in 2015 that it was time for America to crush Russia, because neo-cons want to dominate the world by force. That is an appalling way to look at the world. Pax Americana means bullying and death to those who disagree.

Let’s run back the clock to the end of the last century, when there was talk of a New European Security Pact, including Russia and taking account of Russian fears. And let’s relaunch that idea. It would include the rehabilitation of the valuable role of BUFFER STATES, which are neutral spaces allowing citizens to trade across all their frontiers. Ukraine, Moldova and Finland would be top of my list as Buffer States in Europe: neutral Non-NATO States that protect Russian frontiers from direct contact with NATO frontiers.

Given the state of affairs today, the history of recent American interference in Ukraine (the 2014 coup d’état is one example) and the fact of Russian speakers being defended by Putin in the eastern borderlands of Ukraine (whether they seek his protection, or not), a new federal constitution for Ukraine would seem inevitable and desirable, giving considerable autonomy to the constituent parts of Ukraine.

WHAT WE SHOULD STOP, above all, is the constant repetition of NATO propaganda on the airwaves. Robert Wright, author of the very impressive Non-Zero Newsletter, offers this analysis of the typical BBC and NPR, CBS and CNN and Fox News expert commentators:

An article in the New York magazine Jacobin suggests that the next time you hear TV commentators pushing for military aid to Ukraine, you should do a little googling to see if they might stand to profit from their proposals. The commentators shown below are defense industry consultants, and that creates conflicts of interest that aren’t disclosed to viewers.

Both Leon Panetta and Jeremy Bash, for example, work for Beacon Global Strategies, which Bash co-founded and whose clients have included Raytheon. Raytheon makes Javelin anti-tank weapons (in collaboration with Lockheed Martin), and Bash, who worked in the Obama administration, had this to say about Javelins on NBC’s Meet the Press: “If the United States can train and equip the Ukrainians and, I think, engage in a second Charlie Wilson’s War, basically the sequel to the movie and the book, which is arming and training a determined force that will shoot Russian aircraft out of the sky, open up those tanks with can-openers, like the Javelins, and kill Russians, which is what our equipment is doing, I think this is a huge opportunity to hit Putin very hard.”

Panetta, for his part, told CNN’s audience that “the United States has to provide whatever weapons are necessary to the Ukrainians, so that they can hit back, and hit back now.” Panetta has come to the conclusion that “there is only one thing that Putin understands, and that’s force.”

There is only one foreign policy idea that American politicians seem to understand: the use of force. Show the might of American-made weaponry. Try a little diplomacy instead. Listen to your opponents – instead of listening to military lobbyists in Washington - and seek to understand the fears and concerns of the other side (in this case, Russia). Good diplomacy can work wonders.

But it will not happen as long as the Pentagon controls American foreign policy. The Pentagon exists only to create war.

Transcend member Thor Magnusson writes:

We need leadership of intellect and maturity to transform Europe from dwarfs of war to giants of peace. It would be a misguided journey for Sweden and Finland to crawl into the rabbit hole of NATO war machine. The greater good for humanity needs to be our beacon.

In less than two months, the assault on Ukraine has traumatized millions of civilians forcing them out of their homes. Hundreds killed. Servicemen on both sides also maimed and killed, many were forcefully sent to fight an absurd war against their neighbours and friends.

Email: thor@peace2000.org

Outside the Pentagon, the rest of us want peace and THERE IS A BETTER WAY: A Europe Collective Security Alliance (ECSA) offers stability to central Europe and recognition of Russia’s genuine and justified fears concerning the security of its frontiers.