Patrick Murphy’s column ( the Irish News) –‘Pope’s comments may help avert global conflict’ (June 18) – are courageous and challenging. Courageous in that Ireland (and most of Europe) are caught up in Russia-phobia and war propaganda being peddled by our mainstream media and military industrial complex. Mr. Murphy quoted Pope Francis as saying that the war was “perhaps somehow either provoked or not prevented.”
I think this statement hints towards the elephant in the room (NATO/U.S. endless expansion). The U.S. Peace Council of May 12 describes the Ukraine as a U.S.-manufactured conflict and says, “Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine could have been avoided if the U.S. had not relentlessly provoked it.”
NATO – the U.S.-dominated global war machine – whose policy is “full dominance spectrum,” contrary to its claims it is not a defensive organization. Its purpose has been to act as an instrument for U.S. world domination and to prevent all challenges to U.S. hegemony. It should have been disbanded in l99l after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, but instead expanded into 15 new countries and breaking its promise to President Gorbachev that it would not expand east. This relentless eastward expansion of NATO during the past decade has been an existential threat to a nuclear-armed Russia and the main cause of the present military conflict in Ukraine. Russia’s military intervention into Ukraine should never have happened and the suffering inflicted upon the Ukrainian people (and Russian) has been horrific and it is right all those who have suffered so much should be helped. However, sending arms into Ukraine only adds fuel to the fire. There are vested interests from Western powers hard at work, and much money to be made. As it stands the West is bankrolling the war with arms and billions in dollars/euros, for their own agenda. These people will not shed a tear for the young dead of Ukraine. Their aim is for a weakened Russia (through sanctions), more military spending and a more divided and economically weak Europe, and as long as we continue not to question their role in Ukraine, they will succeed. There seems to be only one winner in this, and they are not in Europe.
Now is the time for dialogue and those Western political leaders who stoke the fire of fear, division and hate in Ukraine, instead of calling for ceasefire and negotiation, must consider the misery brought upon the poor people that most live with the horrors of war.
Ireland needs to protect its neutrality and play a positive role of peace and reconciliation on the Security Council. Opening Ireland increasingly to hosting arms manufacturers leaves its people vulnerable to becoming involved in war instead of peace.
MAIREAD MAGUIRE
Peace People, Belfast
