During the Dec. 5 program on the new book War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, co-author Nicolas JS Davies showed a video on the book, then offered answers during a meaty Q&A. Ann Suellentrop, a leader in PeaceWorks Kansas City and Physicians for Social Responsibility, took short videos during the Q&A. The program was held at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in KC MO. In addition, two KKFI radio shows interviewed Davies and offer the podcasts. Check out the links below.
In this video you can hear Davies’ co-author, Medea Benjamin, a founder of CODEPINK, present key points from their book. Davies opened the Dec. 5 event with this video.
Here are Q&A videos by Ann Suellentrop.
Q. What are good “voices” concerning the conflict in Ukraine?
A. Catch CODEPINK’s weekly Congress call (available each week at CODEPINK.org), says Davies.
A-2. Democracy Now (locally on KKFI, 90.1 FM), CommonDreams.org, various writers; Davies adds, “It is really quite shameful the US so-called mainstream media have so uniformly parroted what amounts to propaganda.”
Q. What is “in it” for the US to provoke wars and upgrade its armaments? Is this led by the cold warriors? The military-industrial complex, including NATO?
A. “All of the above,” says Davies. “After the cold war, the peace dividend was trumped by the power dividend.”
Q. What has been the impact of the neo-cons dominating US foreign policy?
A. “We are not looking at the new American century as the neo-cons called it. We have been acting like a bull in a china shop in the belief nobody could stand in our way.”
Q. What happened after Trump came along, with Secretary of Defense James Mattis?
A. “In 2018, they published a new national strategy that the main focus of US military policy would be the great power competition with Russia and China. In other words, the war on terror has served its purpose, sending 300,000 missiles and bombs on 9 poor countries, killing millions.”
Q. What is our message to Congress?
A. “We have to get it through to our leaders that we want them to respect other people and, as the UN Charter requires, to not interfere with the internal politics in other countries.”
Q. What is the situation between Russia and Ukraine? Is negotiation possible?
A. “Ukraine could be a bridge between east and west. Right now, it’s a battlefield. The urgency right now is to get to a ceasefire that would hold because both sides have accepted it.”
For podcasts from KKFI (90.1 FM) Community Radio shows, go to the two sites below.
