One radical approach to getting on with others!

20th anniversary, today of our so well-intentioned invasion of Iraq to bring peace and tranquility to Saddam's country.  Unfortunately, our own precious men, women and children were killed in revenge - even in our own UK.

Try nonviolent resistance, non collaboration and making/keeping friends rather than provocation and making enemies!

Simple - don't go to war because it breeds resentment and revenge in the losing side: eg in 1919 with Germany and in Russia in the 1990s at Russia's ending of the Cold War. Triumphanalism instead of magnanimity by the West - and much else.

Just do what Jesus says and did. Simple!!

UK started arming and training Ukrainian troops in 2014 ...

 ...but never bothered to press for talks to negotiate and end the war so that compromise with Russia was reached. NATO should have immediately, in March 2014, attempted a negotiated settlement so that both sides gained something and lost something.

The match to light the inferno was the coup and the disastrous ousting of a properly and fairly elected pro Russian President Yanukovych after years of American led NATO expansionism eastwards to leave Russia with nothing.  The final indignity was Obama calling Russia a regional power - a shocking and provocative insult.  And I bet he never withdrew it and apologised to Putrid.  Putrid may have thought, "Right.  I'll show him."

Certainly, our wonderful Revolution of Dignity was like a red rag to a bull - to Putrid. 

BBC TV 'Putin v The West'

Insensitive, no self-reflection, no insight from our leaders. No consideration for a superpower (dismissed as a regional power) as the real superpower expanded to become bigger and better by collecting, victoriously, the hangers-on of the former superpower!

Not one of our Western leaders had the courage or honesty to do a little self-examination as to whether any of their actions or sins of omissions may have contributed to the start of the war in Feb 2014.  And, the full-scale invasion 8 years later.

Over the eight years, what could they have done to be a little less expansionist and a little more magnanimous towards Putin and Russia?

Russia on the back foot says MP for Ludlow, Philip Dunne

The West and Russia have both contributed to the present impasse in this "war of dignity, this war of sovereignty" since the Revolution of Dignity in 2014.  Let none of them feel they have won or lost!

We are all to blame, all sides have to talk, to negotiate, to compromise, to quickly stop the killings, the destruction and the escalated ecocide.

But Archbishop Welby does not think so.  This top church leader says, we all have to show resilience, patience and understand it will go on for years.  By then more thousands killed, tens of thousands with war wounds and thousands of buildings flattened.  The crown of the Lord's creation is showing yet more self-destruction, ecocide and wipeout to make us humans His shortest-lived of all His millions of species on the planet.

Not lording it over but simply the PR man!

15 June 2022

Dear Bob

You stopped me when you thought that I was talking about transport on a retrofit Zoom.  Fair enough but this was what I wanted to say and I think it needs to be said as clarification and correction.  There was a discussion about the WMCC and the WMCA that I was responding to.

As you know, the WMCC councillors were elected and it was they who approved the Metro project in 1981.  At one time, if I remember correctly, it was for 200 Kms by the year 2000.  Not the WMCA but Andy Street is elected and it was he who published in Jan 2020 his £15 billion tram scheme of 8 lines and 150 miles.  He was re-elected with that intention in his manifesto.  With both the CC and the CA there has never been a single debate in any council chamber, although I cannot be 100% sure about that in the 1980s but, I very much doubt if there was any vote in the 80s.

Andy's powers, from what I have read, do not include lording it over the seven district council leaders but to be their mouthpiece and representative and public relations man.  Hence, there needs to be a fair process of discussion, then debate, followed by a vote to determine councillors' wishes. 

Tens of millions are now being spent on trams when that money could be used for retrofitting - urgently. Or, to help with fuel/food bills when many are suffering from inflation and the fuel and cost of living crises, especially those on UC.  Therefore, Metro is immoral, socially unjust and is the exact wrong thing to do to build an eco-socialist society!

Transport money is the key to accelerating retrofitting.  And free solar electricity from your roof, not solar farms, must be emphasised because it is so urgent to get electricity without using oil and gas from Russia that is our main weapon to punish them and, to try and reign them in.  Rather than using violence and certainly not to widen this disgraceful war.

One thing leads to another!

Best wishes

A fight to the death because neither side can afford to lose

Hi Mike

I have re-read this, just now and find it helpful and authoritative.  So thanks!

You wrote at the end, "In my view Russia took the more aggressive response to what was happening in the Ukraine than that of western states."  I did feel in Feb 2014, that it was understandable when Putrid took back Crimea in response to the overthrow of Yanukovich.  I thought that the authorities must have been of the same view because there was no response/sanctions/condemnation of Russia.  But that must have been the start of the war with 14,000 killed in the first 8 years?  Talks, negotiations, give and take over the 8 years went by the board.  A tragic oversight.  A missed opportunity.

Now Russia cannot afford to lose.  Now, the West cannot afford to lose.  Just a fight to the death of everyone with all being losers and ecocide smartly accelerated.

All the best.  Let's hope for the best!

For the best of all possible reasons, our side always feels it has to expand and dominate and promote its culture and democracy to Russia and China

For the best of all possible reasons, our side always feels it has to expand and dominate and promote its culture and democracy to, Russia and China, in particular!

Four regions of Ukraine annexed by Russia, this week (end Sept 2022).

All my life I considered Ukraine as being part of the USSR and had more in common with Moscow than Washington, London or Paris.  Especially, when Crimea was given to Ukraine by Kruschev in 1954, I think it was, when I was 6 years of age.

MOST UNFORTUNATE!

Our foolish crowing over winning the Cold War in 1991 when it was Gorbachev who magnanimously initiated its ending;

our failure to credit the Russian submarine commander who chose not to fire his nuclear missiles when he was being depth charged by the USAF in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis;

our failure to disband NATO when the Warsaw Pact disbanded;

our promotion to Moscow of the Chicago Boys and their right-wing, trickle down, the rich first and last, economics;

our warm embrace of the extremely wealthy Russian oligarchs to London;

yet, our failure to be generous, open and friendly with Russia after Yeltsin, when Putin came along;

our failure to welcome his offer of help after 9/11, 2001;

or to understand his strong right-wing, nationalistic and patriotic Russian feelings;

the idiocy of being unable to get into the mind of Putin in order to maintain good relations with him, when things had started out so promisingly;

the sheer stupidity of President Bush, in April 2008 in Bucharest, Romania in persuading his allies to open the door for both Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO, despite Putin's disgust ("an open-ended promise of membership one day ... Putin made his displeasure plain" - 'The World Tonight', Radio 4 on 29.11.22);

our view that conceding anything to Putin was wicked appeasement, so that our sphere of influence, our NATO and military exercises and nukes had to come right up to the Russian border;

our NATO "was founded in 1949 as a counterweight to the Soviet Union" and "any state in the alliance is effectively under US protection" but it led to the Warsaw Pact being formed in 1955 to counterbalance NATO but dissolved in 1991 after our mighty Cold War victory;

our subsequent subsuming of the former Warsaw Pact members into NATO;

our being shamelessly unapologetic (not even regretful) at our side overthrowing their fairly elected pro Russian president that initiated the disastrous war in February 2014 that ratcheted up a gear or two, eight years later - this year.

All this has contributed to the tragedy of the West siding with Ukraine and funding its war and training its troops, when it was not a member of NATO and, when we had not made it clear to Putrid that this is what we would do if he invaded Ukraine;

If I lived in one of the four regions annexed, I would not care a toss whether Zelensky or Putin ruled over me.  I would simply want my friends, my family, and myself to stay alive and earn a liveable income/pension to the natural end of my days.

The scale of the horror, the fear, the killings and destruction over where a national boundary line should be drawn on a map.  It is just not worth it, in my opinion.  But how we humans love to hate and kill one another to make a point - or a boundary line.  Our death wish to make us one of the most short-lived species in the history of the planet!!

Tim Weller    1 October 2022 (updated 30 Nov 2022)

I suppose this does, rather obviously, display my thoroughly jaundiced and agnostic and sceptical and dissident views!

Questions for Left Unity

Thanks for these emails that I have just re-read and appreciated.

What exactly are we saying about the cost of living crisis?

That the rich, like me, must pay more in taxes to level down so that those on only state pensions, benefits and other low incomes can level up?

Do we agree that the war between Russia and Ukraine (fueled by the West) must be quickly ended by talks, compromise, negotiations, settlement so that Russian oil and gas can be released once more to fund our lovely high fossil fuel lifestyle and to get energy prices down?

Do we support a windfall tax on the companies that have unexpectedly found themselves in the happy position of being cash cows?  Or, what are we saying on the financial bonanza that only shareholders and directors are benefitting from?

Do we want the energy price cap to be frozen, as Labour is saying, to knock hundreds of pounds off bills?  Paid for by a tax on energy company profits, according to Starmer writing today in the Sunday Mirror.

To help tackle the energy/cost of living crisis, does anyone out there join me in calling on the WMCA to make a public announcement that there will be no more Metro "bus on rails" tram extensions beyond Dudley bus station and beyond the current construction in Digbeth High Street?  Similarly, with no new contracts going out for more Sprint extensions.  The money saved to extend FFPT to the young and middle aged and to bring in more electric buses going directly on the roads without the very high GHG emitting railway tracks going on the roads (to bring cyclists like me crashing down when our wheels get stuck in the rut!)?

Could we discuss this last paragraph at our next meeting and then vote on it, perhaps?

I would be glad of some clarification and, even some help/support/agreement/encouragement (delete what is impossible!) would be quite magnificent, please!

To Brum Left Unity re a more successful endeavour

Trying to overthrow an oppressive, tyrannical and capitalist regime like Russia under President Putrid is not the task for eco-socialists like ourselves.  Our task is minimum collaboration with such an unsavoury state or, to get out altogether to a safer and more congenial country.  To fight the Russian invasion and aggression, minimise your use of gas and oil because some comes from them.

I would like my dear socialist comrades to get right behind me in this endeavour that has more chance of success:

COPY OF EMAIL TO ANDY STREET:

Dear Andy and Ashvir

I restrained myself, admirably in not putting my hand up in the meeting yesterday evening!  I had an enjoyable cycle ride from Halesowen.  Thanks for the chat after the meeting.  I had been a City Council social worker in the area in the 80s and 90s!

Since the 1990s, I believe I am correct in saying, High Plateau at Merry Hill Shopping Centre has been a valuable brownfield site, designated for residential, that has not been used.  It remains wasted.  PLAN, here:

 WBHE plan for Merry Hill.jpeg

This is a very serious oversight that may have partly arisen because of the Metro extension (WBHE) that is due to take a corner slice of this much needed site.  A site for low running costs, highly energy efficient, solar powered apartments, using only electricity for heating and cooking, for sale and rent from, preferably, the Combined Authority.  Metro trams must keep off and keep out of ALL of this site.

Metro trams must also keep off the only public open space at Merry Hill.  This is also the valuable, green space that is essential to continue to sequester CO2 thanks to the area of grassland, shrubs and trees that extends for 400 metres.  In addition, if you do as I advise, you will save £100 m.  This is the likely cost for the two double track tramway bridges over the Dudley No 1 Canal and for the massive, standard gauge, double track, concrete and steel tramway viaduct to obliterate the beautiful, nature rich canal embankment.  Add to the destruction, my landscape enhancement scheme to hide the rusty iron wall that holds up the High Plateau!  PHOTO of only a part that gets destroyed:

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

My own nature planting is off to the left of the photo and is not in view.  It also gets obliterated.

INSTEAD, keep the trams running on the "railway of national strategic significance" from the Cinder Bank roundabout on Duncan Edwards Way, through Brierley Hill and on to Stourbridge Jct station to connect with the national railway network.  Tram stops at the Waterfront, Brierley Hill and Withymoor on the railway route to Stourbridge.

Turning the UK's only mothballed, principal mainline railway of 120 Kms into a piddling little shuttle tramline over two short sections totalling 6.7 Kms is incompetent.  And the enormous cost of well over £500 m is immoral in the face of increasing poverty for those who are struggling both to eat and to heat their homes.  It is socially unjust and proves you are climate deniers, when you should be climate champions.

I hope you and the CA will act, urgently, Andy.

Very best wishes as you and the seven leaders act, in this way, to address the climate, nature, ecological, housing and cost of living crises.

Tim

"Nato has a lot to answer for."

I so agreed with you when you said, "Nato has a lot to answer for."  I fear, Nato/EU's totally unnecessary expansion eastwards to take over the USSR's former satellite states exploited Russia's generous glasnost and perestroika in the 80s and 90s that led to the USSR break up, was very foolish.  I think it was all about vanquish rather than magnanimity/restraint.  But it is easy for me to be wise after the event!  Is that right, do you think?

Pointless resistance when you have nasty, ruthless, right wing oppression

I don't care who governs me - whether its UK, EU or Russia/US.  This is Russia's colonial war to take back Ukraine under its governance and rule.  Under a right-wing, ruthless government I would simply keep my head down, stop dissenting and shut up.  Become anonymous.  Resisting, as the Ukraine government is doing, is killing more of their people than Russians.  Pointless.

All this murder and mayhem has its seeds in our victorious, vanquishing of Russia in the Cold War and dancing on their grave ever since with extending our 'empire' of EU/NATO to and over the former Soviet satellite states and confronting NATO's No 1 sworn enemy right up to their eastern border.  "Standing up to Putin" (Justin Webb on 'Today', today) ever since 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down, is extremely dangerous and foolish and lacking in magnanimity and justice/fairness in victory.

MY BRIEFING ON THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

 

MY BRIEFING ON THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR - but only the first two paragraphs are mine.  Written on:

 

Tuesday, 10 April 2018

The West is Best - or is it the Worst?

SELF: The West backing Westernisation of Ukraine was NOT a good idea!  Not a word of protest or objection or dismay was expressed by the American led West when, in February 2014, 50 civilians were killed in Kyiv and a fairly elected, pro Russian government was overthrown and a pro Western government installed.  That worked well for the West because our man was installed, only 50 people were killed and it was quickly over within the week.

SELF:  Overthrowing the Syrian government, however, has gone horribly wrong for the West over these last seven years.  In addition, Assad was an ophthalmologist in London for a time.  Was he given a state visit to London on one occasion?  Is this man another monster of our own making?  He came from the West, it seems.  Is the West a glowing, good and righteous example to the rest of the world in any respects at all?

"​Ukraine gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and has since veered between seeking closer integration with Western Europe and being drawn into the orbit of Russia, which sees its interests as threatened by a Western-leaning Ukraine.​"​    BBC News​

Take Crimea for instance.  More than half of its 2 million people are Russian, and Russia still maintains a naval base there. In fact, the region was part of Russia until 1954, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine as a present. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Crimea became part of an independent Ukraine.

Pro Russian Viktor Yanukovych overthrown in February 2014; Pro Western Petro Poroshenko installed.

Why Ukraine Is Such A Big Deal For Russia   February 21, 2014 11:52 AM ET

KRISHNADEV CALAMUR

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/02/21/280684831/why-ukraine-is-such-a-big-deal-for-russia

Gives:

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to stem his country's decline in global influence: Moscow's leverage in places like Ukraine is one way to preserve that influence. But there are other reasons why Ukraine is of deep interest to Russia — reasons that have more to do with history, faith, economics and culture.

A Special Relationship

Matthew Rojansky, director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, says the two countries "are joined at the hip": They share language; Russian media are popular in Ukraine; there are family ties; many Ukrainians work in Russia; and Russians have billions of dollars invested in Ukraine.

"Their relationship is like the U.S.-U.K. special relationship," Rojansky says.

Historically, those ties date back to before the Soviet Union — and even before the days of the Russian empire that began in the 18th century.

Many consider Ukraine to be the birthplace of the region's Orthodox Christianity. Ukraine then became part of the Russian empire, and later part of the Soviet Union, where Ukrainian men were pivotal in the Soviet defeat of the German army in World War II. (Ukraine was perhaps the most important Soviet republic after Russia).

Linguistic And Economic Ties

Linguistically, as we've told you before, most Ukrainians speak both Ukrainian and Russian. But it's the eastern and southern parts of the country where Russian speakers dominate, and where Russia still holds influence.

Take Crimea, for instance. More than half of its 2 million people are Russian, and Russia still maintains a naval base there. In fact, the region was part of Russia until 1954, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine as a present. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Crimea became part of an independent Ukraine.

Millions of Ukrainians work in Russia, and according to the EU-funded Migration Policy Centre, the Russia-Ukraine border is the second-largest migration corridor in the world. (The U.S.-Mexico border is the largest.) The center says that in 2011, more than one-third of all Ukrainian migration was to Russia.

Russian companies are one of the largest investors in Ukraine, accounting for 7 percent of total foreign investment in 2013, according to official Ukrainian statistics. And when Yanukovych walked away from the deal on closer economic and political ties with the EU, Russia said it would buy $15 billion worth of Ukrainian bonds, giving Kiev an economic lifeline. (But on Friday Moscow said it was taking a wait-and-see approach to the events unfolding across the border.)

Ukraine is also a key component of Russia's plans for a Eurasian customs union with some other former Soviet states. But as Steven Pifer, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told NPR's Robert Siegel, "for many Ukrainians, and I even think for President Yanukovych, that's not where they want to go."

Seeds Of Discord

The crisis in Ukraine is, in many ways, a conflict about the former Soviet republic's future direction: Should it look westward toward the EU or maintain close ties with Russia?

Until recently, this wasn't an either/or question, says Stephen Sestanovich, a professor of international diplomacy at Columbia University.

"For 20-odd years, it has been possible for the Ukrainians to kind of have it both ways," Sestanovich told NPR's Siegel. "What is now the troubling issue on the agenda is the perception of a lot of people that you do have to choose, and that is producing violence across Ukraine."

There are historical reasons for some of the antipathy — especially in the western part of Ukraine that borders Poland, where the protests against Yanukovych have been the loudest. This area was once part of Poland and Austro-Hungary, and became part of Ukraine only when World War II began.

Ukraine was the victim of the 1932-33 famine induced by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Later, it was among the Soviet republics that bore the brunt of the Chernobyl disaster.

Those events undoubtedly resonated in the public memory for years: Ukraine was one of the first Soviet republics to vote for independence from the USSR. It did so overwhelmingly in 1991. The Soviet Union fell apart soon after that.

The West Backed the Wrong Man in Ukraine - Bloomberg

gives:

"Poroshenko, who had briefly served as Ukraine's foreign minister, looked worldlier than his predecessor, the deposed Viktor Yanukovych, and spoke passable English. He and his first prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, knew what the U.S. State Department and Vice President Joe Biden, who acted as the Obama administration's point man on Ukraine, wanted to hear. So, as Ukraine emerged from the revolutionary chaos of January and February 2014, the U.S., and with it the EU, backed Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk as Ukraine's next leaders. Armed with this support, not least with promises of major technical aid and International Monetary Fund loans, they won elections, posing as Westernizers who would lead Ukraine into Europe. But their agendas turned out to be more self-serving."

Why War was Made for Us or, Warfare came so naturally to us, we just couldn't help it!

20 May 2015

We had to be the first to war in 1914

• We had to maintain the balance of power in our favour in Europe and in the world.
• As the world's biggest empire - lording it over a quarter to one third of the planet, it was our duty to step in and sort out the upstart Germany.
• When we stepped up to the mark, that automatically dragged in the countries of the empire.
• We remain part of today's dominating empire of NATO over Russia.
• We remain punching above our weight.
• We remain the police officer, jury and judge of the world alongside our partner America.
• Britannia continues to rule the waves as our Trident subs triumphantly sail the high seas ready to obliterate much of humanity at the push of a button (or, from a malfunction!).
• Warfare is as natural to us Brits and Americans as water is to fish.
• Yet, we have not been invaded for 1,000 years.
• The last century being the most destructive and ruinous in the history of humanity.

STOP THIS DESTRUCTION OF YOUR RAILWAY AND NATURE AT MERRY HILL

STOP THIS DESTRUCTION OF YOUR RAILWAY AND NATURE AT MERRY HILL

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

While pariah Putin and ruthless Russia enter their second week of death and destruction on Ukraine, we enter our fourth decade of destroying the 120 Kms Black Country (Bypass Brum) Mainline Railway.

• This Derby to Devon via Dudley principal mainline railway gets destroyed in Dudley and Sandwell.
• For over half a billion pounds, Nature, plus trees and my landscape enhancement scheme get destroyed at Merry Hill Shopping Centre.
• Destroyed by the tramline that could still be put on stilts above the canal, instead of on stilts above the grass embankment alongside the towpath for 230 metres.
• Three different kinds of trams are put on the railway "of national strategic significance"

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

but that still leaves 49 Kms out of the 56 Kms that is wasted but still available for commuter and regional TRAINS.

• Next month, my £50/mth energy bill gets doubled.  This should make it obvious that destroying Nature and the UK's last but wasted mainline railway will also rocket in price.

PHOTOS to be shocked over:

 M6 Toll banner 01.jpg

 M6 Toll 03.jpg

Half a billion pounds of Metro destroys the above half-finished 120 Kms Worcester to Derby railway and these trees, all for a stranded, 'shuttle' tramline on a former mainline railway that does not even connect with the two railway sections between Worcester and Derby, at either end.  It is needed for freight trains, anyway.  So what is the point of Metro?

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

Exactly where the mighty tram viaduct goes!

Tim Weller  28 Hunnington Cres  HALESOWEN  B63 3DJ

0791 380 4363

What put Putin on a collision route with the West if in the 2000s he went along with us and even seemed to like west?

FROM:

https://www.quora.com/What-put-Putin-on-a-collision-route-with-the-West-if-in-the-2000s-he-went-along-with-us-and-even-seemed-to-like-west

Dima Vorobiev, Former Soviet propaganda executive

Updated Jun 12, 2020

One of the considerations (not the main one, though) on the part of oligarchs who put Putin on the throne in 1999, was his image of a “KGB liberal”.

Putin came into politics as a fixer for the liberal mayor of St. Petersburg. He worked superbly with Western investors in the city. He spent some time in Europe. He was a known Germanofil and built a decent international business network in the 1990s. He had never been known for xenophobia or anti-Semitism. Besides, KGB traditionally had an image of people who know how to see eye-to-eye with Western bourgeois guys, when necessary.

Putin looked like a perfect man for building bridges from Russia westward.

Therefore, his explicit mandate included finding a way to get Western recognition for Russian oligarchical fortunes, irrespective of their provenance (Project Londongrad). Oligarchs held in the 1990s their part of the bargain, preventing Communists from re-taking power and aligning with the West on global issues. Now, they wanted the West to acknowledge their effort. They required an equal place at the G-8 table of global power.

This is where Putin’s inquiry about the NATO membership in 2000 came from, as well as several hints from his aides at joining the EU. This is also why he was the first to call Bush and offered him help after 9/11. This is also why he agreed to the NATO military logistics bases not only in Central Asia, but also in Ulyanovsk in Russia (“American military boots trampling the Russian soil!” was the line from our radical nationalists at the time).

Then, the following happened:

• NATO accepted the Baltics as new members
• USA withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and 'revealed an intent of deploying new ABM systems in Central Europe
• USA invaded Iraq, in spite of Putin’s vehement objections
• Pro-Western Rose revolution happened in Georgia in 2003
• Orange Revolution happened in Ukraine in 2005 and prevented a pro-Russian president from taking office
• Oil price skyrocketed and filled the Russian state budget to a degree unprecedented in our history, see the graph below

From which Putin made the following conclusions:

1. It doesn’t pay to be nice with the US and NATO
2. The US and NATO try to find a way to get rid of him
3. He needs to set up a watertight perimeter preventing outside forces from “color revolutions” against him
4. Everything is happening because no one cared to formalize the terms of the Soviet surrender in 1991. The good news is that it opens for renegotiating the outcome of the Cold war!
5. Russia has money to stand up against the West and push forward a revision of the Cold war’s outcome.
6. The West must accept a New Yalta deal with Putin—not in exchange for some new favors from Putin, but as compensation for Russia’s past favors in 1990–2005.

Ukraine and NATO v Russia

Thanks so much for these thoughts from Bob and Robert.

I don't think Bob's views are a minority in Left Unity.  Surely not.  There is, certainly, nothing there that I can disagree with.  It is so good to hear and to be reminded of Russian aggression.  I love to point out our own aggression, violence and lawlessness down the centuries, simply because we all in the West have a duty, first and foremost, to hold our own politicians and people to the very highest standards of conduct, starting with ourselves.  I can influence my own local and regional people in power but not in other countries, like Russia (unless I drop in on their London Embassy that Bob is challenging me to do).

I am trying to bend over backwards to understand the Russian/Putin point of view.  On yesterday's 'World at One', (interview starts at 15:42)Johnny Dymond interviewed Vyacheslav Nikonov (I think was the name) the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs and a grandson of Molotov, the Russian Foreign Minister in 1939, Dymond said.  He began with "Russia's intentions are the great mystery behind the military build-up around Ukraine."

Nikonov thought, "NATO is building up on our Russian borders ... British, American troops have come there" (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia). ... In the documents of that Alliance (NATO), Russia is enemy no 1 ... And for us, NATO pushing up against our borders is the same sort of challenge (as the West invading Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries). ... We do not want World War 2 to repeat."

Self-reflection and change is more desirable, I think, than pointing out the wickedness of the Russian Evil Empire (Reagan in 1983), as our politicians so love to provocatively denounce.  One friend told me the other day, "Putin looks evil".  In contrast to Lavrov, from what I have seen of him on TV, who looks more like a great huggable Russian bear!  Calling people evil is not great diplomacy for harmonious, peaceful co-existence!

It seems extraordinary that making any slight concession to Russia, even over suggesting to Ukraine that, for the benefit of avoiding war they might, just, possibly, drop their insistence that they join NATO, is called appeasement - like 1938.

Thanks again, Bob and Robert for your reflections.  By the way, Bob what are your reasons for being less than enamoured with Stop the War?

FROM BOB WHITEHEAD:

Stop the War began in opposition to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and played a very important role, I went to most of their demos and local meetings.
I cooled off after they failed to oppose the Russian backing of Assad during the Syrian revolution, but I am still close to them when it comes to Palestine, Nato etc.
The question to ask Stop the War today, is which war are you talking about? If it is all wars that makes it a pacifist outfit. So as I presume it is not a pacifist organisation, which war are we talking about?
Bob