Statement of the US Peace Council - Preventing War in Ukraine

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Once again the U.S. peace movement is silent in the face of another coup d’état that is being promoted as a democratic uprising. Troops are moving, war threats are being thrown.

Peace Organizations must urgently act to illuminate the travesty of justice that is taking place. We spoke together for negotiations with Iran. We must raise our voices now.

Ukraine’s democratically elected president has been forcibly removed with the financial and political support of the United States and European Union. There are now two governments in Ukraine and one is controlled by neo-Nazis.

We must not forget how protests have historically been instigated and/or used by the CIA for nefarious purposes. The CIA playbook has been repeated so many times - from Iran in 1953 to Chile in 1973 to Haiti 1991 and 2004, Yugoslavia in 1998, Honduras in 2009, Libya, Egypt and Syria, Venezuela, among many others. How can we forget the devastation these coups bring? Sometimes the government being deposed is democratically elected, sometimes not, but in either case a government is targeted because it shows independence from U.S. policy demands.

The CIA instigates "democratic" uprisings, pays thugs to carry out violence. The State Department assisted by the corporate media demonizes a government, its leaders and anyone who supports them, and decimates the country’s economy to encourage even more disruption and violence. The thugs attack government entities, private property and threaten, intimidate and attack at will. Six corporations own 90% of our U.S. media. They flood news communications with propaganda here and abroad that the “democratic” opponents just want to get rid of corrupt government, install democracy and save their economy. The issue is sovereignty of the country. We are not advocating for any government. It is the right of the people of that country to determine their own destiny without imperialist intervention. How can we accept such lies?

What the U.S. and Europe are doing to Ukraine is only slowly being exposed.
We must not be silent!

We know that neocon Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt were caught in a phone conversation plotting the coup here:

Several useful articles on the coup and aftermath may be found here; here; here
Ray McGovern: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/02-2
Robert Parry: http://consortiumnews.com/2014/02/23/neocons-and-the-ukraine-coup/
David Icke: http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/tag/victoria-nuland/,
(where you'll also find a wonderful clip from the movie Good Will Hunting that in a few seconds cuts to the chase on the actions of U.S. secret services).

NYU and Princeton Professor Stephen Cohen has also provided an alternative to the establishment’s narrative: here; here; here
The Nation: http://www.thenation.com/article/178344/distorting-russia
PBS: http://www.thenation.com/blog/178532/stephen-cohen-us-should-promote-sta...
John Batchelor Show: http://www.thenation.com/blog/177685/stephen-cohen-we-are-promoting-anti...

Despite denials by U.S. representatives of the Fascist character of the protesters, Ukrainian Chabad Chief Rabbi Reuven Azman has recommended that Jews leave the city and perhaps the country." See the Jewish Press:
"Ukrainian Jews Urged to Leave Kiev;"
And Israel has been asked to protect Ukraine’s Jewish population, from the Times of Israel.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/ukrainian-jews-urged-to-le...
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-urged-to-send-forces-to-guard-ukrain...

An atomized Ukraine is more susceptible to corporate exploitation, austerity and impoverishment of the population imposed from outside. NATO continues to move further east, rapidly encircling Russia with bases and “anti-missile” batteries, another step on the way to confronting Russia. Zbigniew Brzezinski calls for breaking up Russia, even as Ukraine is being divided, here:

The goal of the corporate monopolies is to steal first Ukraine’s sovereignty and then Russia’s vast resources. Divide and conquer. A long-term policy of the U.S., Britain and other imperial states.

These events exacerbate the danger of an explosive war, a conflagration that could envelope the planet. The Peace Movement is commemorating the tragedy of WWI. Today’s events are reminiscent of the imperial competitions that led to it.

Stephen Kinzer's book "The Brothers" details how the Dulles brothers, John Foster as Secretary of State and Allen heading the CIA, used extensive government resources starting in the 1950’s to destroy democracies such as Iran, Guatemala and Congo. Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine” shows how disasters, natural and human-made, are exploited to benefit the 1% at the expense of the majority and democracy.

What can we do? We can generate local demonstrations.
Let our elected officials know that we see through the fog. The people of the U.S. stopped Obama’s bombing of Syria. We must demand that the U.S. back away from more war, violent regime change and the imposition of austerity.

Then we must demand that Congress investigate another U.S. instigated coup to determine which laws, national or international, were violated.

We must mobilize!

Peace and Justice,

U.S. Peace Council

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