OPINION: Choose Restraint, Avoid World War III

from Massachusetts Peace Action

President Biden is under intense pressure from the United Kingdom, Ukrainian President Zelensky, his own State Department and much of the American press to lift present restrictions on the use of NATO long range missiles against targets deep inside Russia. These missiles would be launched from Ukraine but targeted and guided by NATO personnel and technical capabilities. Russia has declared that such missile strikes will mean that NATO itself is at war with Russia and that Russia would respond in some way directly against the assets of NATO countries.

Do we want to find out if Russia would follow through with such retaliation?

Thus far President Biden has fortunately refused to authorize such missile strikes. He needs the support of the American people to hold to that refusal.

Whatever one thinks of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, risking a nuclear war is not a sensible or moral policy. In such a conflict, of course, Ukraine would cease to exist, but neither would much of the United States or the world.

Now is the time to refuse to take the next steps down the path toward a world war with Russia. The time to prevent a possible World War III is before it begins. That time is now.

We call on President Biden to stand up to the clamor for escalation; continue to reject the use of NATO long range missiles deep into Russia; and pursue a diplomatic resolution to the war in Ukraine.

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Massachusetts Peace Action is the state affiliate of Peace Action, the nation’s largest peace organization, founded in 1957 as the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE). Peace Action works to abolish nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs, encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights, and support just and nonmilitary solutions to the conflicts in Palestine, Ukraine, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria.