I am writing in response to Daniel Brown’s My Turn involving myths held by peace workers seeking negotiations between Ukraine and Russia [“Tyrannies don’t really negotiate,” March 20].
The writer’s mythology projected on peace workers was full of planted propaganda beliefs and then restated as facts. The easiest and quickest to notice propaganda brainwash is describing 120 million Russians as “Mr Vladimir Putin.” While President Putin polls at around an 80% approval rating, he does not decide what is best for millions of Russians alone, especially about war.
Russians have elected their last two presidents in a very thoughtful manner — they do not want to re-create the Soviet Empire. It is barely 30 years since Mother Russia kicked all the grown baby countries out of the nest. All the baby country Stans were grown and had become far too expensive; same for Ukraine.
Russians do not want to recreate the Soviet Empire and Putin cannot order them to do it. Russians can’t afford all the countries they babysat and liberated from fascist Nazis in World War II anyway. That’s why the baby countries were kicked out of the nest 30 years ago, a blink in Eurasian history.
Sadly, Nazis are still with us today and they need to be negotiated with, in Ukraine as well as Poland and Germany. Say yes to that and negotiations can begin. What are Western Nazis afraid of? Put it on the table.
Think a bit of what leads up to Russia’s more recent human history. Genghis Khan made his oldest son governor of the Moscow region. China built a giant wall to keep Genghis out. It took Kahn’s empire three generations to conquer the Korean peninsula. After Genghis, Tartar slave traders raided Russia until their slave safaris were eliminated or they became Russian. Russia has a border with China and Korea. It also set Mongolia on its own path when it reassigned guardianship of Genghis Kahn’s burial region in 1982.
Of course, all these countries have shared tendentious and war-based periods in history. Even so, the United States has succeeded in uniting them in a different way; today, even including Türkiye, which some people say dreams of recreating the Ottoman empire.
I mention yet avoid over-analysis of the weird idea Russian troops were abusing civilian women and children while they were hustling them to safety behind the raging front line of World War Three. A war that started as a civil war after the 2014 overthrow of Ukrainian democracy. Artillery barrages by U.S.-trained west Ukraine forces intensified in late 2021.
Part of a Russian soldier’s job is moving thousands of busloads of civilians to safety. Abusers will undoubtedly face severe punishment. Propaganda is mostly ridiculous; that’s another way to spot it.
President Xi says, if you want to know what the United States is up to, look at what they say we are doing.
The angelic rum running, whale killing slave traders of the northeastern U.S. dilly-dallied before the Civil War? I’m shocked! They almost lost out on the opium wars dividing up China for drug dealers. Which side are you on? Why won’t you give peace a chance?
Brown’s column tells legions of war resisters not to pretend demagogues are anything less than ruthless and dangerous. He ignores a ruthless militarized police state comes along next. It then wages internal war against theoretical internal enemies of the state’s national security.
War resisters promote negotiations before the Eurasian war against Russia, Iran and China develops a fourth front against American people. And all they are saying is give peace a chance.
I have no doubt that Pentagonians will lose this Eurasian war here at home far worse than they did to finally end the southeast Asian war centered on Vietnam. This time there will be chapters of clear-headed, able-bodied, knowledgeable and experienced war resisters roughly grouped by age and occupation.
The times are still changing. Perhaps Chinese, Brazilian and Mexican efforts supporting negotiations will prove helpful in popping the propaganda bubble U.S. policy makers have themselves come to believe. Let’s hope so.
Garrett Connelly lives in Greenfield.