The only positive outcome of year 1 in the Russo Ukraine war is that it did not ignite WWIII.
That was not for lack of trying. At the start, President Biden warned nuclear war would likely occur if the US became directly involved. Then he spent the entire first year of the war going right up to the line of direct involvement with ever increasing weapons, direct intelligence assistance, and announcements this weaponry and other military aid would continue for however long it takes.
Unlike the Cuban Missile Crisis of 60 years ago, when most US, Russian interactions were negotiations, the US did not engage in a single negotiation with Russia to end the war. Worse, the US torpedoed substantive negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, brokered by Turkey that could have ended the war in the first two months, saving hundreds of thousands of lives and large-scale destruction of Ukraine.
For obvious and now documented reasons, the US likely sabotaged the Russian Nord Stream Pipeline built to bring cheap energy to Germany. If so, that constituted a direct act of war on Russia that could have provoked a wider, possibly catastrophic war.
Former congressman Adam Kinzinger and others demanded we impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, likely triggering direct US Russia conflict.
Ukraine President Zelensky spent the entire first year demanding more weaponry to take the offensive inside Russia. He demolished a critical bridge to Crimea that could have triggered a Russian tactical nuclear response. His demanded direct NATO retaliation against Russia for an errant Ukraine missile that landed in NATO country Poland, killing two. He knew from the get-go the missile was Ukrainian, not Russian.
US mainstream media has devoted virtually all is news and editorial coverage to supporting ever increasing weapons till complete Ukraine victory. The possibility of nuclear war never enters their newsprint of digital pixels. When pro US involvement pundits weigh in on the war going nuclear, they simply reply, ‘We think it’s unlikely Russia will use nuclear weapons…keep our weapons coming.’
We in the peace community worry about the largely unreported destruction of Ukraine from a war the US could have easily prevented and easily ended early on. But that is secondary to our primary worry from Day One: The Russo Ukraine war, also a US proxy war against Russia, possibly moving the Doomsday Clock up 90 seconds to Midnight. At that point the discussion of how to end the war will become irrelevant
Walt Zlotow became involved in antiwar activities upon entering University of Chicago in 1963. He is current president of the West Suburban Peace Coalition based in the Chicago western suburbs. He blogs daily on antiwar and other issues at www.heartlandprogressive.blogspot.com.
The main purpose of nuclear weapons is deterrence. But the U.S., including but not at all limited to Biden, has not been deterred by Russia’s massive nuclear arsenal once the Soviet Union disbanded. You seriously have to be a psychopath to risk nuclear war for your mentally and spiritually unevolved BS like U.S. hegemony, resources, money, power, etc. — or for any reason really — but that’s what the U.S. has been doing for over 30 years. Russia isn’t exactly innocent either, but as usual the U.S. is by far the bigger problem here.