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This op-ed is aresponse to A Progressive Response to Ukraine, published by In These Times on March14.

On March 14, In These Times publisher Joel Bleifuss published an editorial headlined, A Progressive Response to Ukraine, in which he mischaracterizes what the two of us have written about this crisis and fails to acknowledge the positive contributions that many progressive groups are making to both explain the crisis and work towards asolution.

Bleifuss cites our articles in his assertion that certain elements of the Left rationalized Russias actions and preemptively blamed the United States for any forthcoming militaryoperations.

In our writings since last November, we certainly described U.S. provocations: the Wests broken promises on NATO expansion; NATOs ill-advised promise of membership to Ukraine; the U.S. role in the 2014 overthrow of the Yanukovych government, which we argue was acoup; the Trump administrations support for President Zelenskys failure to deliver on the Minsk II agreement; and the Biden administrations refusal to negotiate seriously with Russia over its security concerns after 30years of expansionist U.S. and NATO policy inEurope.

We did not use these to justify the Russian invasion but to explain our governments role in stoking tensions. Once the invasion happened, we immediately condemned it as an unjustified, brutal, illegal act ofaggression.

Bleifuss insists that progressives should not fixate on NATO, and says that NATO is only relevant because Putin uses it to cynically stir up Russian resentment. But if NATO had disbanded as the Warsaw Pact did in 1991, or if it had not expanded to Russias border, we doubt that Russia would have invadedUkraine.

If anything, progressives should fixate more on NATO, an aggressive military alliance that has ahistory of illegally invading sovereign states, such as Afghanistan and Libya. It promotes avicious cycle of militarism by insisting that all 30 members spend 2% of their GDP on preparations for war instead of on the real needs of people and the planet. It is an alliance in constant search of new enemies to justify itsexistence.

Regrettably, the Ukraine crisis has given NATO an enormous boost. Right now, our call should be for no NATO expansion. But as soon as this crisis is over, we should join with our progressives colleagues in Europe and elsewhere to call for the disbanding ofNATO.

Bleifuss main point that progressives should be able to criticize the U.S. empire without denying that other bad state actors exist is precisely what most anti-war groups have beendoing.

On February 24, the very day of the Russian invasion, RootsAction, aprogressive group, condemned Russia and said that the world desperately needs asingle standard of accountability to prevent the crime of wara crime that the Russian government is now committing in Ukraine and the U.S. government continues to commit elsewhere as part of the ongoing war onterror.

Veterans for Peace, an anti-war organization, put out an excellent statement that begins: Just as Veterans For Peace condemned U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, we strongly condemn Russias invasion of Ukraine and grieve for all those who have lost their lives in this horrific war. Numerous other progressive groups put out similar statements condemning both the Russian invasion and U.S.policies.

Right now, progressives should put their efforts into opposing the no-fly zone that Zelensky has been calling for. We must help people understand that this would trigger adirect U.S. confrontation with Russia and the real possibility of another world war, as well as anuclear confrontation. We should be pushing the White House and Congress to hold fast on their rejection of this request, and push them to give full support to the ongoing negotiations between Russia andUkraine.

This crisis should also make it crystal clear to progressives that we must get serious about building amassive global movement to support the UN Treaty to ban nuclearweapons.

Without condoning or excusing Putin, who bears the direct and immediate responsibility for the invasion of Ukraine, progressives need to push our government to stop fueling the war, and instead do everything it can to bring the war to anend.

And rather than fueling divisions among progressives, In These Times should be rallying progressives to do everything they canget out into the streets, make congressional calls, write op-eds, hold teach-insto end this war and to lay the foundations for amuch stronger and more effective U.S. anti-warmovement.

See the original post:
A More Progressive Response to the Ukraine Crisis - In These Times