On Friday, March 25, in Brussels, President Biden announced a “deal” with the European Union to “end the bloc’s dependence on Russia’s energy exports.” He committed the United States and its “international partners'' to selling vast quantities of liquefied natural gas to the EU starting this year. US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm stated The Biden administration is urging the U.S. oil and gas industry to ramp up production to meet demand and to help lower prices for working families everywhere.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned “We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe… countries could become so consumed by the immediate fossil fuel supply gap that they neglect or knee-cap policies to cut fossil fuel use. This is madness," he said, adding that addiction to fossil fuels is mutually assured destruction.

Unlike sports, wars are not won by beating your opponent, but by negotiating an end to the conflict.

Our ability to understand this war suffers from a resurgence of McCarthyism in the USA. Censorship is spreading. Tolerance for varied points of view is waning. Hostility to complex thinking is increasing. The tragedy of closing the door to alternative points of view is that we close the door to possible solutions. We are entering very dangerous territory at a very dangerous time.

Addressing the ongoing tragedy, the Green-Rainbow Party is the only party with fundamental values that provide direction for peace. Of our 10 Key Values, the most salient to today's crisis is Non-Violence. To be truly committed to Non-violence is not easy. Peace is not merely the absence of war, just as violence is not the only explicit act of war. Sanctions, threats, covert regime change efforts, propaganda, financing and arming of dissident groups, refusal to consider the security needs of others, cyber attacks on infrastructure, are all contrary to non-violence and detrimental to human advancement. With Non-violence as a guiding principle, we can clarify some directions. For example:

1. Negotiate an end to violence immediately.

2. There should be no implementation of a "no fly zone" over Ukraine. ( Even the US DOD opposes such an intervention.The threat of nuclear confrontation with Russia is too great)

3. Immediate third party mediation/negotiations should begin. Third party peacekeeping forces brought in as needed.

4. All foreign troops, mercenaries, clandestine operators, weapons and weapon systems must be withdrawn from Ukraine

Our, USA, political leadership has projected only one scenario: Putin is bad!Period! Only America’s interpretation of events is valid. There is no history, no legitimate Russian concerns. Those with a different view are labeled “Putin Apologist'' or worse.

Yes, Putin’s invasion was both wrong and illegal! But, have we not learned from the past? Are we now blindly heading down another 20 year Afgan highway? Have millions not suffered and died over the past six decades due to America's “intervention” in other lands? Have Americans not suffered enough due to the political leadership’s preoccupation with ill conceived, illegal wars? What has happened to our educational system, health care, infrastructure and overall standard of living? We are hollowing out our domestic life for the sake of foreign conquest. All become losers, other than the few who benefit and profit.

Our own congressional delegation has joined ranks with the endless war scenarios. In the House of Representatives, only James McGovern and Ayanna Pressely voted against further weapons to Ukraine. The emphasis must be on diplomacy.

The US-Russian competition has been ongoing for a long time. The fuse has slowly burned and the bomb has finally exploded. In 2008, William Burns, now Director of the CIA, and then Ambassador to Russia, wrote to his boss, Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of State, “Ukraine and Georgia's NATO aspirations not only touch a raw nerve in Russia, they engender serious concerns about the consequences for stability in the region.”[citation]

Burns added with great prescience:

"Not only does Russia perceive encirclement, and efforts to undermine Russia's influence in the region, but it also fears unpredictable and uncontrolled consequences which would seriously affect Russian security interests. Experts tell us that Russia is particularly worried that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to face."

Nor was Ambassador Burns alone in his warning. Other leading American diplomats, including George Keenan and Jack Matlock had all clearly articulated the negative consequences and likely harm of NATO expansion.

Burns has further commented:

“Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin). In more than 2½ years of conversations with key Russian players, from knuckle-draggers in the dark recesses of the Kremlin to Putin’s sharpest liberal critics, I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests.”

The genie is now out of the bottle. The way forward is for the voice and the will of the people to be heard and acted upon. The Russians do not want war. The Ukrainians do not want war. The American people do not want war. There are fringe elements on all sides who profit from war and strive to control. They stand in stark opposition to the needs of the people.

Our national party has developed a statement on this war. We recommend all read it, discuss it and, with it, promote the cause of peace.

Green Party Calls for Ceasefire and Diplomatic Solution to Ukraine Crisis

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