US policy experts urge diplomacy in Ukraine

RETIRED military officers, diplomats and scholars from the United States has circulated a petition calling on America to be a “force for peace in the world” by using its influence to stop the slaughter in Ukraine while also blaming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for its decades of “provoking” Russia that triggered its pre-emptive attack last year against Ukraine.

“As Americans and national security experts, we urge President Biden and Congress to use their full power to end the Russia-Ukraine War speedily through diplomacy, especially given the grave dangers of military escalation that could spiral out of control,” the petition reads, as it also described the ongoing conflict as an “unmitigated disaster.”

Spearheading the petition is the Eisenhower Media Network (EMN) represented by Dennis Fritz, Director, and former Command Chief Master Sergeant, US Air Force (retired) and Matthew Hoh, Associate Director and Former Marine Corps officer, and State and Defense official.

Other signatories include William J. Astore, Lieutenant Colonel, US Air Force (retired);

Karen Kwiatkowski, Lieutenant Colonel, US Air Force (retired); Dennis Laich, Major General, US Army (retired); Jack Matlock, U.S. Ambassador to the U.S.S.R., 1987-91; author of Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended; Todd E. Pierce, Major, Judge Advocate, U.S. Army (retired); Coleen Rowley, Special Agent, FBI (retired); Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University; Christian Sorensen, Former Arabic linguist, US Air Force; Chuck Spinney, Retired Engineer/Analyst, Office of Secretary of Defense; Winslow Wheeler, National security adviser to four Republican and Democratic US presidents; Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Colonel, US Army (retired); and, Ann Wright, Colonel, US Army (retired) and former US diplomat.

The EMN website describes the organization as “an organization of expert former military, intelligence, and civilian national security officials.”

“EMN seeks to reach broad, cross-partisan audiences in diverse media outlets and among the American people – who increasingly sense that U.S. foreign policy today is not making them, or the world, safer,” its website stated further.

The petition was immediately welcomed by Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of ‘CODEPINK,’ an influential anti-war and pro-human rights activist group in the US.

In her Twitter post on the same day, Benjamin was seen displaying the copy of the full-page advertisement that she said she plans to distribute to the members of the US Congress.

The petition stressed that the solution to the “shocking violence” now happening in Ukraine “is not more weapons or more war, with their guarantee of further death and destruction” but a return to diplomacy.

“We reject the idea that diplomats, seeking peace, must choose sides, in this case either Russia or Ukraine. In favoring diplomacy, we choose the side of sanity. Of humanity. Of peace.”

It also reminded the public of the warning made by assassinated president John F. Kennedy of forcing a nuclear power like Russia “to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war.” “To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy–or of a collective death-wish for the world.”

The signers also acknowledged that while the immediate cause of the war in Ukraine was Russia’s invasion last year, it was the plans and actions to expand NATO to Russia’s borders that served to provoke Russian fears.

“And Russian leaders made this point for 30 years. A failure of diplomacy led to war. Now diplomacy is urgently needed to end the Russia-Ukraine War before it destroys Ukraine and endangers humanity,” the petition said.

“NATO expansion, the statement said, has become the “key feature of a militarized U.S. foreign policy characterized by unilateralism featuring regime change and preemptive wars.”

“Failed wars, most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, have produced slaughter and further confrontation, a harsh reality of America’s own making,” it pointed further.

And for the first time, the petition also urged the public to see the conflict “through Russia’s eyes.”

“Since 2007, Russia has repeatedly warned that NATO’s armed forces on Russian borders were intolerable – just as Russian forces in Mexico or Canada would be intolerable to the U.S. now, or as Soviet missiles in Cuba were in 1962. Russia further singled out NATO expansion into Ukraine as especially provocative,” the statement said.

“Our attempt at understanding the Russian perspective on their war does not endorse the invasion and occupation, nor does it imply the Russians had no other option but this war.

“Yet, just as Russia had other options, so too did the U.S. and NATO leading up to this moment.

“The Russians made their red lines clear. In Georgia and Syria, they proved they would use force to defend those lines.

“In 2014, their immediate seizure of Crimea and their support of Donbas separatists demonstrated they were serious in their commitment to defending their interests.

“Why this was not understood by U.S. and NATO leadership is unclear; incompetence, arrogance, cynicism, or a treacherous mixture of all three are likely contributing factors.”

The petition also rejected President Joe Biden’s promise to back Ukraine for “as long it takes” in pursuit of “ill-defined and ultimately unachievable goals.”

“It could prove as catastrophic as President Putin’s decision last year to launch his criminal invasion and occupation. We cannot and will not endorse the strategy of fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian.

“We advocate for a meaningful and genuine commitment to diplomacy, specifically an immediate ceasefire and negotiations without any disqualifying or prohibitive preconditions. “Deliberate provocations delivered the Russia-Ukraine War. In the same manner, deliberate diplomacy can end it.”

The statement ended by stressing that while the present situation may not be “entirely of our own making, yet it may well be our undoing, unless we dedicate ourselves to forging a diplomatic settlement that stops the killing and defuses tensions.”