Ukraine War: Dangers and Costs Are Immense
Editor’s note: Below are excerpts from some recent statements on the Ukraine war – from a U.S. veterans group, from media outlets on cluster bombs, from an anti-nuclear weapons organization, from peaceinukraine.org, and from Public Citizen on “Military Spending is Out of Control,” which includes statistics that are not well known on the cost of war and its negative impact on social spending. The danger of the expansion of the Ukraine war is immense in terms of threats to humanity and from the huge sums of money diverted into military spending and away from spending on human needs. Only the people can stop war — and insure that the vast resources of the country and world are spent on peace and insuring that all people have their basic needs met. It is urgent today that millions join the fight for peace.
From Veterans for Peace Facebook page:
“In May, a full-page ad in the New York Times called for President Biden and Congress to push for a speedy diplomatic end to the Ukraine war, citing the ‘grave dangers of military escalation that could spiral out of control.’ The statement, signed by 14 national security experts, was drafted by Matthew Hoh of the Eisenhower Media Network, a former Marine Corps officer and State and Defense Department official, stating that ‘The present war in Ukraine has opened a new arena of confrontation and slaughter. This reality is not entirely of our own making, yet it may well be our undoing, unless we dedicate ourselves to forging a diplomatic settlement that stops the killing and defuses tensions.’” From eisenhowermedianetwork.org.
From media on President Biden sending cluster bombs to Ukraine:
“U.S.-made cluster munitions have been used around the world for decades—including during Washington’s wars on Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—unleashing widespread destruction and littering landscapes with unexploded ordnance that still endangers unsuspecting civilians and hinders socioeconomic development generations later. HRW has documented how U.S.-made cluster bombs continue to cause grievous harm in various countries, including Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen.” Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams
“Twenty-thousand Laotians, almost half of them children, have been killed or injured by unexploded ordnance since the Vietnam war ended. It is half a century since the US stopped bombing Laos, having dropped more than 2m tons of cluster munitions; decades on, people then unborn are still paying the price. On one estimate, it will take another 100 years to fully clear the country. This is the true cost of cluster munitions. They are not only indiscriminate in showering dozens or hundreds of bomblets over a large area, but also have a lethal legacy because so many fail to explode, only to later be trodden on or picked up – often by curious children. For these reasons, more than 120 countries have signed the convention prohibiting their use, production, transfer and stockpiling….” The Guardian
From: ICAN on What Happens If Nuclear Weapons are Used
“Casualties from a major nuclear war between the US and Russia would reach hundreds of millions.” See https://bit.ly/3JPMNXp
From Public Citizen:
“A bill in Congress would set the Pentagon’s budget at $886 billion for the coming year.
And the House of Representatives could vote on the bill later this week [week of July 10].
“$886 billion is $28 billion more than the Pentagon got this year. Meanwhile, almost all other federal spending is frozen for the next two years as a result of the . . . debt ceiling [agreement].
“That $28 billion increase alone is double the entire budget of the Environmental Protection Agency. Never mind that climate disruption threatens not only national security but human civilization as we know it.
“The Pentagon . . . will get more money than the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, State, and Transportation combined.
“We already spend more on our military than the next nine countries combined spend on theirs — including China and Russia.
“Our nation’s choice to spend so much on the military is equally a choice not to provide health care, invest in early education, address climate chaos, and more.
“Representatives Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan have introduced an amendment to the Pentagon spending bill that would cut $100 billion from weapons and waste and instead redirect that money to priority human needs.
“Tell Congress: Pass the Lee/Pocan amendment to cut $100 billion from the Pentagon’s massively bloated budget.”
From peaceinukraine.org:
“We call on civil society in all countries to join us in a week of global mobilization (Saturday 30th September – Sunday 8th October 2023) for an immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations to end this war.” Vienna, June 11, 2023
Albert Einstein:
“We must all do our share, that we may be equal to the task of peace.”
