The U.S. Must Begin Diplomatic Negotiations to End the Russia-Ukraine War

Biden Must Break the U.S. Pattern of Ultimatums Instead of Diplomatic Negotiations

Today’s Daily Action—Please email President Biden or call the White House comment line and advocate that Biden call for an immediate ceasefire and begin diplomatic negotiations—NOT ultimatums—to end the Russia-Ukraine War.

Call the White House Comment Line:

+1 (202) 456-1111

+1 (202) 456-1414

TTY (202) 456-6213

Email the White House:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Five days ago, 15 former U.S. national security officers called for diplomatic negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine War in an open letter published in a full-page ad in The New York Times on May 16, with the headline, “The U.S. Should Be a Force for Peace In the World.” Fifteen high-ranking retired military officials as well as national security experts, including Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the USSR participated in the letter organized by the Eisenhower Media Network, according to an article in Democracy Now. Democracy Now quotes the letter which described the war as an “unmitigated disaster.” The Eisenhower Media Network letter states that “A failure of diplomacy led to war.” The letter urgently calls for a ceasefire and diplomatic negotiation:

“We advocate for a meaningful and genuine commitment to diplomacy, specifically an immediate ceasefire and negotiations without any disqualifying or prohibitive conditions. Deliberate provocations delivered the Russia-Ukraine War. In the same manner, deliberate diplomacy can end it."

Democracy Now interviewed Dennis Fritz, who is the lead signer of the letter, director of the Eisenhower Media Network, and retired commander chief master sergeant of the U.S. Air Force, on May 17. He states that he has been in and out of the Pentagon for over 40 years—and never has he been this fearful as he is now of the current danger of nuclear escalation. He also stated that the longer the war goes on, the more death and destruction Ukraine will endure—and he emphasizes that Russia is capable of destroying every piece of Ukraine infrastructure.

War causes massive human, environmental, wildlife, infrastructure, and social destruction. Those who benefit from wars are primarily military and weapons corporations, fossil fuel corporations, and banks. Few things aggravate the climate crisis as much war, reports Global Citizen, which describes in detail how the Russia-Ukraine War has impacted the environment and our climate.

Small-scale nuclear weapons, tanks lined with bullet-proof dirty uranium and armor-piercing dirty uranium bullets scar landscapes with radioactivity that can cause cancers in humans and wildlife—and there is little research as to how long it takes to erase it from landscapes, or if that is even possible. It is implied in the Democracy Now article that small-scale nuclear “tactical” weapons are being used in Ukraine. Are DU tanks and bullets being used in Ukraine, supplied to Ukraine by the U.S. or used by Russia? —We are often not told this until after it happens—and then too often the dangers of DU weapons have been initially down-played right after war by the U.S. The U.S. used DU tanks and bullets in the Iraq War, and its severe and long-lasting health problems have finally been documented, according to a U.S. government health report: “Environmental pollution by depleted uranium in Iraq with special reference to Mosul and possible effects on cancer and birth defect rates,” by Riyad Abdullah Fathi ¹, Lilyan Yaqup Matti, Hana Said Al-Salih, Douglas Godbold. (I assume since this is a government report, I can quote it more extensively). They write:

“Iraq is suffering from depleted uranium (DU) pollution in many regions and the effects of this may harm public health through poisoning and increased incidence of various cancers and birth defects. DU is a known carcinogenic agent. About 1200 tonnes of ammunition were dropped on Iraq during the Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003. As a result, contamination occurred in more than 350 sites in Iraq. Currently, Iraqis are facing about 140,000 cases of cancer, with 7000 to 8000 new ones registered each year. In Baghdad cancer incidences per 100,000 population have increased, just as they have also increased in Basra. The overall incidence of breast and lung cancer, Leukaemia and Lymphoma, has doubled even tripled.”

Will inhabitants of Ukraine face a similar fate?

The writers of the Eisenhower Media Network letter urged President Biden and Congress to end the war immediately. Fritz stated that the Russia-Ukraine War is—in reality—a proxy war with Russia—to weaken Russia—while at the same time, massive death and destruction is occurring in Ukraine and to its people.

Fritz emphasized the importance of listening to understand Russia’s security needs—and the fact that the expansion of NATO, especially right on Russia’s borders where Ukraine is a NATO partner, but not a member—is a huge security concern for Russia—which Russia has been stating for 30 years, according to the Eisenhower Media Network letter. Medea Benjamin Co-Founder of Code Pink, a peace and social justice nonprofit, spoke to a Quaker Friends meeting in Atlanta in March 2023, where she also made a similar point—that NATO expansion into Ukraine right on Russia’s borders would violate the 1990 international agreement between the U.S. and Russia that NATO would not move eastward—at all. NATO has significantly expanded eastward to Russia with the addition of other countries into NATO since 1990. Fritz stated that it is only natural that Russia would feel backed into a corner and react to defend itself—and that certainly the U.S. would not tolerate it if Russia had a presence on our borders. In 1990, the U.S. and Russian President Gorbachev agreed on absolutely no more expansion of NATO eastward, to protect Russia’s security, notes Medea Benjamin. She points out that this agreement was violated by Presidents Clinton and Bush who have both incorporated additional countries into NATO since 1990. As a result, NATO began to surround Russia—and now most recently Ukraine has requested to join NATO—right on Russia’s border. The U.S. has repeatedly violated our 1990 agreement with Gorbachev and Russia. There are also areas of Ukraine where people speak Russian and are pro-Russia, Medea Benjamin stated.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now quotes a previous interview with Daniel Ellsberg, a world-famous whisteblower who released the Pentagon Papers to the press. He emphasized the dangers of small-scale nuclear “tactical” weapons. He also stated the urgent need for Biden to enter into diplomatic negotiations with Russia.

“I can only hope that Biden will be pressed by a large part of the public, pressed not to involve the U.S. directly in that war, and to be pursuing negotiations, which it is currently absolutely eschewing, is rejecting the idea of negotiations…”

Medea Benjamin also stated in March that U.S. diplomats had refused diplomatic negotiations with Russia.

Medea Benjamin gave a very helpful brief overview of the recent history of Ukraine, the actions of its recent presidents, and its relationships with the U.S., NATO, and Russia which is summarized by Gloria Tatum in Streets of Atlanta Blog, “War Is Not the Answer! Peace Talks Must Begin Now!” March 24, 2023 and is well worth reading. Benjamin and Fritz both state that there are numerous points that could and should be negotiated between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia.

Importantly, Medea Benjamin points out that in 2021, Russia ASKED the U.S. and NATO to negotiate a peace plan because of the escalation of tensions with Ukraine—but the U.S. and NATO refused negotiations.

This is MY point—this REFUSAL by U.S. presidents to use diplomatic negotiations to prevent wars is a LONG-STANDING PATTERN that has been going on for almost a century—and this pattern is only TRULY INTERRUPTED BY FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER who did use diplomatic negotiation to prevent conflicts and war. U.S. Presidents have a long history of issuing ultimatums instead of using diplomatic negotiation to prevent and end wars. It is imperative that President Biden interrupt this pattern of using ultimatums instead of diplomatic negotiation to end the Russia-Ukraine War that the U.S. and the U.K. are using as a proxy war to weaken Russia! The documentation for almost 100 years of U.S. presidential failures to use diplomatic negotiation can be found in my ebook, Conceiving a Peaceful World. The section in my ebook on U.S. presidential use of ultimatums instead of diplomatic negotiations is about 100 pages long and includes extensive footnotes. We are also the ONLY country in the world to use nuclear weapons against another country—and those nuclear bombs were dropped without using diplomatic negotiation—only ultimatums.

I wrote President Biden months ago that I believe that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is also an attempt to throw the world into an energy and fossil fuel crisis—just as the world is on the brink of fully embracing and investing in solar and wind energies. Much of Russia’s economy is based on oil and natural gas—because of that, the global incentives to move toward renewable energies and away from fossil fuels threatens a major source of Russia’s oil and gas GDP. The War in Ukraine has—predictably—created a global energy crisis that has been an enormous boon to the fossil fuel industry world-wide—an excuse to fall back on already developed oil and gas—but hopefully the delay it has caused in transitioning more rapidly into solar and wind is only temporary and appears to be waning.

Diplomatic negotiation remains crucial to ending this war.

I hope you will join me in urging President Biden to call for an immediate ceasefire and immediate initiation of diplomatic negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.