Appeal by US experts for peace-Zelensky got trapped

We call on the president and Congress to swiftly end the war in Ukraine with diplomacy, especially in the face of dangers that military escalation could spiral out of control. This is the summary of the important appeal, entitled "The United States should be a force for peace in the world", signed by 15 experts - analysts, teachers, former diplomats, former national security advisers and above all former high-ranking soldiers.

While in Ukraine the Russians adjust their fire on Kiev's anti-aircraft defenses and take out the Patriot system supplied by the Americans (which, however, the propaganda reports only "damaged") and while President Zelensky returns home with a game bag full of shot doves and promised of war, the New York Times (May 16) published an appeal for negotiations and peace in Ukraine launched by 15 US military, political and academic experts. This obviously goes almost unnoticed in Italy and is not appreciated even in the United States.

It would not be surprising if the publication in the prestigious newspaper had been possible for some "fee".

Freedom of expression has long been proportional to how much and which payment system is preferred. Even in Europe. No wonder that there are also high-level military personnel among the signatories. They know how to assess the situation and above all they understand the limits and risks of propaganda, especially if one ends up believing their own. And it is no wonder that Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies commented on the "manifesto" on the Codepink website.

The name of the famous association refers to the pink (pink) of feminism and the derogatory label given to American liberals and progressives (pink commies, precisely) as a challenge and code. The two applaud the initiative and point out how Western politics has "trapped Zelensky" between the need to boast successes in order to have other weapons and the "shocking" cost of human losses that he is sustaining. “Zelensky's predicament is certainly the fault of Russia's invasion, but also his April 2022 deal with the devil in the guise of then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who promised Zelensky that the UK and the 'collective West” would have supported him in the long run to recover all former Ukrainian territory, as long as Ukraine stopped negotiating with Russia”. Zelensky has since been desperate to get his Western backers to deliver on Johnson's overblown promise, "while Johnson himself," forced to step down as prime minister, has approved a Russian withdrawal only from the territories it invades in 2022.

Yet that compromise was exactly what he had made Zelensky refuse in 2022, when most of the war dead were still alive. For his part, President Biden and other US officials have acknowledged that the war must end with a diplomatic deal, but on Kiev's terms and have insisted they are arming Ukraine to put it "in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table." negotiations". A cliche now repeated until boredom by all or almost all European leaders and bureaucrats.

But, asks Codepink, “how can a new offensive with mixed results and higher losses put Ukraine in a stronger position at a currently non-existent negotiating table?”. That's what everyone is asking, except the European rulers who are adding fuel to the fire of war by pumping out the "Ukraine fights for us" rhetoric.

No European has ever needed someone else to defend his values. We have always defended our regimes alone, even iniquitous and oppressive ones; we have shed blood for dynastic and caste purposes for 2,000 years. The so-called Western values became our values when we were defeated and defeated, when a minimal part of our forces fought for Freedom and Democracy. After the Second World War we rediscovered European values not so much to oppose an ideology (born and developed in Europe) contrary to that of the victors, but to support their idea of democracy and freedom. And even in the opposition no one has ever threatened our "rediscovery". Indeed, precisely with the division of the blocks, no one has ever intervened militarily when the rights and aspirations of other countries were trampled on.