By Reginald Johnson
(I recently read a nice summary in the Connecticut Examiner presenting statements by all the candidates running for Congress in Connecticut on where they stand on the Ukraine War. I would highly recommend that everybody take a look at this article if you’re concerned about this war and the need for peace. It is at https://ctexaminer.com/2022/10/26/connecticuts-candidates-for-congress-weigh-in-on-continued-aid-for-ukraine/)
If you’d like to see
the Ukraine War war brought to an end as I do, you’ll be distressed to learn that all the
Democratic Party incumbents in the state’s five congressional districts back
the war wholeheartedly.
They have no problems
with the vast sums of money being expended to allegedly defend Ukraine. And
they stand foursquare for continuing the conflict, despite the fact that if it
goes on much longer nuclear weapons could be used and that would be a possible
world-ending event. There’s no mention by any of them of the need for peace
talks to end the war and stop the slaughter.
One of the hawks is one-time
liberal Rosa DeLauro, the incumbent Congresswoman from the Third Congressional
District. DeLauro said she’s proud of chairing of the House Appropriations
Committee which steered $66 billion in “emergency funding” (much of that for lethal
weaponry) “to support the Ukrainian
people and defend global democracy in the wake of Russia’s unprovoked and
malicious attack.”
She added, “We will
continue demonstrating to the Ukrainian people that in the face of ongoing
Russian aggression we will not let them down.”
Jim Himes, the
incumbent congress member from the Fourth Congressional District, sounded a
similar theme. He said that as a member of the House Intelligence Committee he
and others met with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky and other top Ukrainian
officials “to reassure them of continued US military and nonmilitary aid.
Ukraine is fighting our and the world’s fight for democracy, the rule of law
and basic human decency.”
DeLauro and Himes
make it sound like the US involvement in Ukraine is based on the idea that
Russia is similar to Nazi Germany in 1939 and the Russians, if allowed to take
Ukraine, will sweep over Europe crushing all the democracies and then
ultimately threatening the United States.
This is patently
absurd. The fact of the matter is that Russia was in large part provoked into
launching the invasion of Ukraine because of the eastward advance of the
Western military alliance known as NATO, in violation of a pledge by US leaders
to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991 that that exact same thing would
never take place; by the violation of the Minsk peace accords by the present
Ukrainian regime which saw Ukrainian forces attack the ethnic Russian provinces
in the eastern part of Ukraine, states which were supposed to be given autonomy
and self-governance under the agreement; and the continued demand by the US
that Ukraine be allowed to join NATO, something which the Russians have opposed
--- and understandably so --- for years.
The Russians saw a
security threat developing in Ukraine and they took action to stop it --- just
the way the US took action 60 years ago when the Soviet Union put missiles into
Cuba only 90 miles from our shores.
The claims by the
incumbent House members that America is defending democracy in Ukraine are bogus. The Zelensky regime has shut down newspapers, locked up dissidents and
officially recognizes a holiday for a World War II Nazi collaborator who helped
the Germans carry out pogroms against Ukrainian Jews. Democracy??
The other Democrats
in Congress in Connecticut, Jahana Hayes in the Fifth District, John Larson in
the First District and Joe Courtney in the Second District also took hard-line
positions in supporting Ukraine.
Republican
challengers were hardly any better in their responses to the survey. One or two did take issue with the high cost of the war to the
United States --- not in human terms, of course --- but in terms of the high
dollar amounts.
The only candidates
in the Examiner survey that took progressive positions on the war were two Green
Party candidates, Mary Sanders, running in the First District against Larson
and Justin Pagliano, running in the Third District against DeLauro. Another
good anti-war candidate running is Dr. Amy Chai of New Haven who is challenging
DeLauro.
Sanders had the best
position of all. She said in part, “The US government has supported the
expansion of NATO east to the border of Russia, steering the region into war in
order to feed the military-industrial intelligence complex like they have done
so many times before.
“I would work for an
immediate cease-fire and relief for the victims while stopping the export of
arms to Ukraine. Humanitarian and economic development is needed not more
weapons! I support a UN Security Council guarantee of neutrality and security
for Ukraine and a UN mediated solution to the questions of the Donbass and
Crimea with its warm water port Sebastopol,” Sanders said.
While the Green Party
and independent candidates probably won’t get much support in the election,
they deserve a lot of credit for taking principled and humanitarian positions
on this disastrous war which has already cost so much and threatens to spark a
worldwide catastrophe.
Thank you to those candidates and shame on the
Democrats and Republicans for their belligerent and dangerous views.
