In my May 4th blog post, "How the Left Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," I warned of the danger that cross-border attacks from Ukraine into Russia could lead to open war between the two countries. Yesterday, July 13th, the Guardian reported on just such an incident. The paper went on to quote "a source close to the Kremlin" as saying: "I think all it would take would be one day where, say, 300 people are killed in the east and Putin will be simply obliged to act."
As I indicated in my post of May 4th, if Russia counter-attacks Ukraine this is almost certain to provoke a military response from NATO. Should that happen, we will as good as have World War Three on our hands.
As I stated on May 4th, the planet has not been this close to nuclear annihilation since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 -- and as we have just seen, the peril is only increasing. And what has the response been from the New Democratic Party, to which right-thinking leftists have pledged fealty no matter what? Naturally it has joined in the international campaign of vilification that Washington has organized against Russia.
In a statement of May 29th (the most recent I could find), the NDP condemns "The unacceptable aggression by pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine, facilitated by Russian-made weapons." Even if it were true that the "aggression" was due solely to "pro-Russian militias" using (hint hint) "Russian-made weapons" -- and it decidedly is not -- a sane attempt to deal with the situation would, bearing in mind the very real possibility of a slide into nuclear war, assume a more balanced -- dare I say, diplomatic? -- approach.
What am I missing here? How can anyone -- still less any supposed socialist -- propose supporting a party that, for the sake of proving that it's serious about upholding the prerogatives of America's Thousand Year Reich, is willing to throw fuel in the direction of a thermo-nuclear conflagration?
glad to see someone else noticed the NDP's slide into mediocrity. they have been on the wrong side of "left" for quite a while, failing to stay informed and connected to on-the-ground news sources (aka reality). their attempt to play media-relevant opposition has left them reading only what the official sources (aka government and corporations) tells them and of course limiting their agenda. the result is a set of positions hardly distinguishable from Tony Blair's Labour party (i think they still aspire to that "new labour" brand) or from Obama and the Democrats. it would funny if it wasnt tragic, watching them all bend over backwards to appease right-wing demagogues.
to be specific, the NDP have failed to take a strong human rights centered approach on
heck, they dont even support labour rights anymore, or they would have defeated the liberals in ontario over the teachers issues
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