The US effort to support Ukraine against the Russian invasion has moved progressive Democrats to join almost all centrist and rightwing congresspeople to vote for tens of billions in war funding.  Yet there is no serious effort to restart negotiations to end the conflict, there is a real risk of escalation to nuclear war, and many observers including the White House see Ukraine’s relative success in defending itself as opening the door to a larger U.S. effort to destabilize Russia and to tighten the noose around China.  Massachusetts Peace Action will ask two close observers of the peace movement’s political campaigns how they understand the collapse of many formerly pro-peace Democrats into a pro-war position and what it will make to put diplomacy back on the agenda.

Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at Institute for Policy Studies, focusing on Middle East, U.S. wars and UN issues. She is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. In 2001 she helped found the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and now serves on the national board of Jewish Voice for Peace and on the advisory board of Peace Action.  She evaluated the prospects for peace talks in a March 17 interview on Democracy Now!

Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death and Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State.   Read his article “Russia’s war is an inexcusable crime — but the U.S. is not a credible force for peace”.