WHEREAS our Washington State Democratic Party Platform specifically calls for the peaceful resolution of ongoing conflicts (line 959) and opposes both regime change operations and the export of offensive weapons systems such as “depleted” uranium and weaponized drones (lines 1024, 1025); yet the U.S government launched disastrous, immensely expensive, and, for the most part, unjustified wars in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran, Serbia, Syria, Libya, Latin America, and elsewhere (note that Serbia, Syria, and Libya were Russian allies); and the U.S. is now in a proxy war with Russia;
WHEREAS the U.S. lied about all the earlier wars and is now misleading Americans when it claims that the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 was "unprovoked," because, contrary to multiple verbal promises given to Soviet leaders, the U.S. expanded NATO aggressively right up to Russia's borders, incited color revolutions in former Soviet bloc countries, helped overthrow the democratically-elected Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, allied with far-right groups in Ukraine that were attacking Russian-speakers in the east, unilaterally withdrew from multiple arms treaties, and armed multiple countries along Russia's borders;
WHEREAS senior U.S. diplomats and Secretaries of Defense -- including George Kennan, Soviet Ambassador Jack Matlock, Ambassador Thomas Graham, Ambassador Michael Gfoeller, James W. Carden, Henry Kissinger, Chas W. Freeman, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, and others -- opposed NATO expansion and warned that it would result in a Russian military response; furthermore, the RAND Corporation recommended arming Ukraine as a way to weaken Russia and also predicted a Russian military response;
WHEREAS, while Senator Blumenthal quipped that "Americans ... should be satisfied that we're getting our money's worth on our Ukraine investment," hundreds of thousands of lives have been sacrificed and hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent; our European allies are burdened by meeting the overwhelming needs of refugees, inflation, and disrupted energy supplies; and the war is having a significant impact on our society -- CNN reported that 55% now oppose more U.S. funding for the war in Ukraine -- as we suffer from lack of funding for healthcare, education, infrastructure, and climate mitigation;
WHEREAS even with immense funding and weapons supplied by NATO countries, Ukraine's 2023 counter-offensive has failed to significantly break through Russian defensive lines; yet, if Ukrainian forces, with the backing of NATO, were to make significant progress in winning control of the Donbas or Crimea (which voted overwhelmingly to align with Russia), or if Ukraine fires long-range missiles into Crimean or Russian territory, Russia will likely respond with further missile attacks on Ukraine, and the war may escalate to a nuclear exchange, as Russians view the war as an existential threat; the U.S. has had nuclear weapons stationed in Europe since 1954, and according to The Arms Control Center there are are about "100 U.S. owned nuclear weapons stored in five NATO member states across six bases"; in March of 2023 Russia announced that it placed nuclear weapons in Belarus as a warning to the United States; according to a report by Reuters, this is the first time for Russia to place nuclear weapons in Europe;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that, in order to prevent further deaths and destruction, and to lessen the risk of nuclear war, we call for the United States government to support a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine;BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we urge the United States government to desist from arming Ukraine with increasingly devastating weapons;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we request that U.S. leaders and media organizations stop falsely claiming that the war in Ukraine was "unprovoked";
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this resolution shall be sent to the offices of the Washington State Congressional delegation.
For documentation, please see
Prepared by Donald A. Smith, PhD, Sharon Abreu and Linda Boyd.