Why does it refuse to end? The Ukraine war, with Medea Benjamin

“On the Barricades” s06e23

As the great critic of American imperialism, Michael Parenti put it, “trying to make sense of things is what makes us truly human”. What’s senseless about the war in Ukraine is how it looked like it could have come to a stop, or been prevented through negotiations, at so many points. Medea Benjamin, the American peace and social justice activist and author of over a dozen books, took on the task of explaining the Ukraine war in a balanced way, in her latest book “War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict,” co-authored with Nicholas J.S. Davis. The book does not shy away from blaming Russia’s criminal invasion and the provocations of Western states in explaining the conflict, providing a balanced account of what set the stage for the conflict, and why it wasn’t avoided.

Maria Cernat wrote a review of the book (https://thebarricade.online/the-war-in-ukraine-a-balanced-perspective/) and with Boyan Stanislavski, invited her to this week’s release of “On the Barricades.” Benjamin shares her journey to making sense of the conflict and provides some insights on the question of how peace negotiations might be reached. What would one side or the other declaring victory look like and mean, at this point– and is such a victory around the corner? What is the perspective on the risk of Putin’s using nuclear weapons? In the US, where over some 100 billion dollars have been funneled into the war, Trump and some far-right Republicans are the only ones talking about peace, while the Democrats and “progressives” have fallen in line with the pro-war position. Biden is afraid to even mention negotiations, let alone the blank cheque, while the base of Americans are starting to be more questioning– how do we explain this?