Nuclear Resister #13 April 3, 2022 by Marion Pack
Should Ukraine Declare Neutrality?
I have wanted to write a Nuclear Resistor article ever since Russia invaded Ukraine, but if I wasn’t crying, I felt too numb and hopeless to write. What is happeningthere proves how worthless nuclear weapons are! They are even deadly when they are not used. Putin has backed the entire world into a corner. The world is afraid to stop Putin, for fear he will use his nuclear weapons.
For decades, the anti-nuclear community has cried out warnings against these weapons. The escalating events we find ourselves in now mirrors what we described in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. I feel I have become an actor in the movie “On the Beach.”Only this is for real!
When the invasion of Ukraine first started, I felt I had to do something. I made a sign “Neutrality for Ukraine” and took it with me to stand on the corner of Cortez and Gurley. Grandmothers for Peace have held a peace vigil on that corner each Friday for many years. When I got there with my sign, a couple of the other vigilors said they didn’t understand it. They thought it would be taken by passersby that we were calling for Ukraine to surrender, so I took my sign back to my car. And what are we hearing President Zelensky say now? As part of a peace agreement, he will declare neutrality! My sign seems is much more relevant now.
What triggered my thought to make a sign calling for neutrality was an article I had read in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Feb. 10th issue. The article was titled “Austria escapes crisis by declaring neutrality.”
A little history is in order. After World War II, four victorious powers occupied Austria: France, England, the U.S., and the Soviet Union—dividing the county into four zones. Its capital city, Vienna, was also divided into four zones. Austria might have remained a divided country like Germany. However,in 1955, after 10 years of occupation, Austria, along with the four occupying countries, signed“The Austrian State Treaty.”Austria declared neutrality and the four occupying powers had to leave.It was clear: Austria did not want ANY other countries’ military presencewithin their borders. Certainly, the circumstances are very different in Ukraine, but the end result of declaring neutrality would be the same: a declaration that they want peace and that they want no one’s weapons!
There is certainly NO justifying Putin’s invasion, but since the end of World War II NATO has continued to push west. When NATO was founded, there were twelve founding nations. Now thirty nations make up NATO. All of the new ones were former Soviet satellite countries. Now the only country between NATO and the Russian border is Ukraine. I can see why Putin wasn’t happy knowing that once Ukraine was part of NATO, Russia would have NATO’s bases and weapons right on his doorstep. As I remember the US wasn’t at all happy about the then Soviet Union putting nuclear weapons in Cuba, right on our doorstep! In fact, we almost had a nuclear war over it!
Of course, the entity who will benefit most from this war is the military industrial complex. Look at all the weapons we have supplied to Ukraine that will need to be replaced.The arms manufacturersare rubbing their hands together in glee!
I will close with a fitting quote from President Eisenhower. “Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these day’s governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”
I pray for that day!