Ceasefire in Ukraine, NOW!
This is the script for the speech given on August 6th at the Clocktower in downtown Santa Cruz.
My name is Sean Dougherty and I’m running for Congress on a platform of Peace, Justice, and Climate Action.
I’m here today because we need a ceasefire in Ukraine. War cannot solve the situation. War can only kill more Ukrainians and Russians. Hundreds of thousands of people have died already.
Even with the support of NATO, Ukraine’s military can’t push back Russia’s forces. The much-hyped counteroffensive has failed. The best Ukraine can hope for is a WWI-style stalemate, with a brutal, steady stream of dead soldiers.
To continue this war now is to treat the lives of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers as disposable. We must never forget that the soldiers on both sides of this war are human beings. They have parents and children, siblings and friends. Many of them have no choice whether to fight.
The US has a history of continuing wars for years after knowing they are lost. We learned this from both the Vietnam and Afghanistan wars. We have reason to believe that Ukraine will be the same. For example, the recent decision by the Biden administration to send cluster munitions to Ukraine is an act of desperation; rather than admit that this war is not winnable, our leaders have chosen to cross a bright red line and resort to a category of weapon that has been banned by most nations.
Jimmy Panetta, the incumbent I’m challenging, recently had the opportunity to vote against sending cluster munitions to Ukraine, but he instead voted to approve their use. When a volunteer from my campaign asked Panetta about his position on the use of cluster munitions, Panetta said that they are necessary in Ukraine because we’re running low on ammo and it’s impossible to negotiate with Putin. In other words, he argues that we must do whatever it takes to achieve military victory. This is the logic of war. Previously unthinkable acts are committed, and one red line after another is crossed.
Panetta is a man who has no limits on war. When he had a chance last month to vote for reduction of our nuclear arsenal, he voted instead to maintain or increase it. We already have the capacity to blow up our entire world many times over. A man who supports such insanity cannot be trusted to take a rational course of action in Ukraine.
This war doesn’t only cost lives. It has cost Americans over $130 billion so far. What could that money have been used for instead? It could have paid for housing vouchers for all homeless Americans as well as tuition-free college for an entire year. Imagine a Santa Cruz in which nobody lives in a tent and anyone who wants to can take college classes without a loan. We have the money to make that a reality but these wars and our massive military budget rob our people of a dignified life.
This war has also made a catastrophic contribution to the climate crisis. The destruction of the Nord Stream Pipeline, a critical event in the war, was the biggest man-made greenhouse gas emitting event in history. It’s not just this war that’s the problem, though. Our military is the largest greenhouse gas emitting organization in the world, consuming more fossil fuels than most countries combined.
Why do we waste our money on war and empire, killing millions and destroying our planet? Profits. Profits for defense contractors, who buy our politicians — politicians like Jimmy Panetta. There’s a simple solution to this problem: nationalize the military industrial complex and take the profit out of war. We can spend the savings on our people and our planet.
This is a David vs Goliath fight, but it is possible for us to win. I need your help to get this message out. Please share my website seanforpeace.org, sign up for our newsletter and offer to volunteer or endorse.
Together, let’s Wage Peace!