If anyone needs further proof that the Democrats are just as willing as the Republicans to recklessly push the world into crises, the letter from some Democratic congresspersons renouncing a previous, very weak plea delivered by them to President Biden provides plenty of evidence.
On Oct. 25, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Progressive Caucus of Congress, issued a withdrawal of a letter sent the previous day, which had asked President Joe Biden to concentrate more on negotiation rather than escalation of the war in Ukraine.
The letter, in addition to justifying the U.S. proxy war against Russia and Donbass, states that Democrats have “strongly and unanimously supported and voted for every package of military, strategic and economic assistance to the Ukrainian people …”
Up until this withdrawal was written, folks could still hold onto the illusion of the “progressive” Democrat. But, in spite of the stances some take on domestic issues, can they still be considered “progressive” if they are helping the Biden administration gamble with a nuclear nightmare and the next world war?
The destruction of World Wars I and II would pale in comparison to the devastation and death now possible with far greater weaponry and delivery systems than the atomic bomb and Boeing B-29 bomber that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.
Have these politicians forgotten that horrendous war crime by the U.S. government, which – after seeing the destruction and death it created in Hiroshima, which instantly killed 80,000 civilians, then 140,000 more in a tortuous and painful way – decided to do it again days later in Nagasaki?
Have they forgotten the many genocidal massacres the U.S. and NATO committed after being given free rein with the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact in 1990? Did they forget the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, targeting civilians, Chinese journalists, passenger trains and homes? Or Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, also using the U.S.-led NATO alliance – the most violent, belligerent and aggressive military alliance the world has ever witnessed?
Have they forgotten the blood of millions dripping from the overflowing coffers of military profiteers Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and others?
Support for endless war
In a further pledge of allegiance to this imperialist proxy war against Russia, the withdrawal letter states: “Every war ends with diplomacy, and this one will too after Ukrainian victory.” This statement damns all its signatories.
Not even the most optimistic imperialist observers think the Ukrainian military is capable of defeating Russia within a year or even longer – especially not with the over 6 million people who voted by over 96% to join the Russian Federation in the Donbass republics and in Kherson and Zaporozhye.
What the statement really means is that these so-called progressive Democrats are okay with extending this war with greater and greater weapons of mass destruction sent by the U.S., targeting those millions of people and the Russian soldiers protecting them, and indefinitely continuing a conflict that could spill into World War III.
The fact that these congresspeople immediately rescinded their original letter, which was in no way critical of this U.S. proxy war and even helped to justify the escalations, shows the extreme cowardice of these politicians, who are much more aware than most people about U.S. war and its aims.
Ukraine: a U.S. puppet state
But there’s more. That original letter sent on Oct. 24 states: “Your support for the self-defense of an independent, sovereign and democratic state has been supported by Congress, including through various appropriations of military, economic and humanitarian aid in furtherance of this cause.”
The fact is that Ukraine is no longer a sovereign state. That disappeared when the U.S.-orchestrated, -funded and -trained neo-Nazi organizations overthrew the democratically elected government of Ukraine in 2014 and replaced it with an anti-Russian, pro-NATO administration dominated by Washington.
In fact, leaked conversations after the coup by U.S. diplomat Victoria Nuland — now Biden’s Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs –exposed her discussions with other U.S. officials deciding who would be part of the new Ukrainian government.
After 2014, any real opposition to the coup government and growing neo-Nazi influence, especially the military and security forces of Ukraine, was eliminated, sometimes by fire – as in the burning alive of anti-fascists and workers in May 2014 at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa by neo-Nazi gangs.
Currently socialist and communist parties are banned in Ukraine, as are capitalist parties critical of the war. So is the use of the Russian language, which is spoken by a majority of people in the Donbass region and much of eastern Ukraine.
Any elections or activities of the Ukrainian state after February 2014 existed without any real democratic freedom. Guarantees were imposed to insure that any subsequent administrations would be anti-Russian and loyal to Western and U.S. imperialism.
Eight-year massacre of Donbass
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continued the massacre of the people of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in the Donbass region. Between the spring of 2014 and Russia’s intervention last February, over 14,000 people died because of Ukraine’s war on Donbass. The casualties continue to grow by the day, especially in the capital of Donetsk and surrounding areas.
Zelensky is now calling for a nuclear first strike against Russia, the country that, for the first time in eight years, was able to stop the genocide occurring in much of the Donbass region. The fact is that by Feb. 23 the Ukrainian military had at least 150,000 troops amassed at the border of the Donbass republics and had escalated the bombing of the region 20-fold in just the five days prior to Russia’s intervention.
A massacre of Donbass residents – whom the Ukrainian regime openly calls “subhuman” – was about to occur; a fact the Washington “progressives” refuse to admit, since they don’t even recognize the existence of the people of the Donbass region.
This is why they also aren’t willing to acknowledge the formal and legitimate request for assistance by the LPR and DPR for Russia’s military support on Feb. 23 to protect millions of people targeted for death by Kiev. The only thing that stopped an ensuing massacre was the Russian intervention, condemned so vehemently by the “progressive” congresspeople in their letters to Biden.
Why the 180-degree turn?
The original letter of the “progressives” also includes this passage, which quotes Biden: “It is imperative to avoid direct military conflict with Russia, which would lead to ‘World War III, something we must strive to prevent.’
“The risk of nuclear weapons being used has been estimated to be higher now than at any time since the height of the Cold War. Given the catastrophic possibilities of nuclear escalation and miscalculation, which only increase the longer this war continues, we agree with your goal of avoiding direct military conflict as an overriding national-security priority.”
The withdrawal letter actually does a 180-degree turn and advocates escalation towards World War III and extension of the war.
Did something change from one day to the next, negating that threat of nuclear disaster? No, it did not.
What did change is that the orders came down from the capitalist ruling class – the bankers, bosses and Big Oil barons – that the Democratic National Committee had to get their “progressive” wing in line before the midterm elections. No perceived opposition to the war, even this timid, could be allowed to stand.
And so they did get in line. The “progressives” proved themselves to be just as cowardly as the “moderate” Republicans who bowed to Trump and the ultra-right.
Since then, one thing has changed, but it aggravates rather than negates the threat of nuclear conflict. The Pentagon announced in November that U.S. boots on the ground were no longer limited to Kiev, creating further opportunities for “miscalculation” when U.S. troops get killed while they assist in targeting Russian soldiers.
If the U.S. remains on this most dangerous trajectory, it will destroy all of the good work some of these “progressive” politicians have done in the past, if only by giving lip service to genuinely progressive movements and causes.
These politicians are now enabling endless U.S. wars; increasing the possibility of World War III; and aiding the continuing rise of fascism and white supremacy supported by the U.S. in Ukraine and blowing back in places like Buffalo, New York, where a white supremacist inspired by the fascist Azov Battalion killed 10 Black people in a supermarket on May 14.
These politicians know better. Shame on them all!
The congressmembers who signed the two letters are: Pramila Jayapal, Earl Blumenauer, Cori Bush, Jesús “Chuy” García, Raúl M. Grijalva, Sara Jacobs, Ro Khanna, Barbara Lee, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Sheila Jackson Lee, Mark Pocan, Nydia M. Velázquez, Gwen S. Moore, Yvette D. Clarke, Henry C. “Hank” Johnson Jr., Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mondaire Jones, Peter A. DeFazio, Jamaal Bowman, Marie Newman, Alma S. Adams, Chellie Pingree, Jamie Raskin, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Mark Takano, André Carson, Donald M. Payne Jr. and Mark DeSaulnier.
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