[Do we really want to go into an election supporting two major
foreign wars and asking American taxpayers to pay for them –
indefinitely?]
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THREE REQUESTS FOR YOU, BERNIE SANDERS  
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Tom Gallagher
November 19, 2023
Stansbury Forum
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_ Do we really want to go into an election supporting two major
foreign wars and asking American taxpayers to pay for them –
indefinitely? _

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FIRST – Join the call for a Gaza ceasefire. 

This one actually should be easy; you’ve got the wording down
already. On May 16, 2021, in response to an earlier outbreak of the
conflict between Israel and Hamas, you posted this on what was then
called Twitter:

“The devastation in Gaza is unconscionable. We must urge an
immediate ceasefire. The killing of Palestinians and Israelis must
end. We must also take a hard look at nearly $4 billion a year in
military aid to Israel. It is illegal for U.S. aid to support human
rights violations.” 

I’m not the first one asking and I’m not asking for the first
time. I’ve already signed a petition of your past convention
delegates asking you to do so, and I see that 400 of your former
campaign staffers have drawn up one of their own.  Speaking for
myself, I’m puzzled. In your November 1, 2023 Guardian opinion
piece, _“Gaza needs a humanitarian pause. Then we need a vision of
where we go from here,” you wrote that_ “A stop to the bombing is
critical to save innocent lives and secure the safe return of the
hostages.” This seemed an important statement on the war at that
time, so it was a bit surprising to some of us when you distinguished
your position from those calling for a ceasefire today. Further, four
days later you told CNN that while Israel has the right to defend
itself, “What Israel does not, in my view, have a right to do is to
kill thousands of thousands of innocent men, women and children who
had nothing to do with that attack.”

So it’s not clear to me what the hang-up is. The atrocities involved
in Hamas’s attacks on civilians that precipitated Israel’s current
devastating bombing campaign have understandably hardened attitudes of
many Israelis as well as those who support Israel in various ways and
to varying degrees. Yet your recent statements show that they
haven’t blinded you to the need to find a long term solution that
ends the ongoing conflict, nor caused you to lose hope that one will
be found.

You’ve said that “I don’t know how you can have a ceasefire, a
permanent ceasefire, with an organization like Hamas, which is
dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the State of Israel.”
At the same time, you surely know as well as anyone that even if
Israel should actually succeed in extirpating Hamas, each day of
continued bombing of Gaza increases the numbers of Palestinians who
will join whatever organization inevitably succeeds Hamas in taking up
the fight against Israel. In fact, you also told CNN that in regard to
a proposed aid package to Israel, “It’s terribly important that,
as we debate that, to say to Israel, ‘You want this money, you got
to change your military strategy.”

Nothing lasts forever, including ceasefires. Perhaps one will stick,
perhaps it won’t. You have been a supporter of an independent
Palestine for some time. It seems to me that you’re getting hung on
wording at the expense of conveying the continuity and importance of
your position. I’m suggesting that you need to find a way past this
because we very much need your voice at this time.

SECOND – Speak out for seeking an alternative to endless war in
Ukraine.

One of the major roadblocks to mustering a Ukraine peace effort in
Congress is the argument that it’s not “our war.” So while the
U.S. is the major funder and supplier of Ukraine’s defense against
Russia’s attack, it is up to Ukraine, and Ukraine only, to suggest
any possibility of negotiations. And this argument is not necessarily
just a dodge. In the end, there will be negotiations only if and when
Ukraine (and Russia) agrees to them. But it is indeed a fact that the
Ukrainian war effort is significantly and expensively dependent on
American assistance, hence is ultimately dependent upon the support of
the American people.

For better or worse, it has been obvious for some time now that both
sides’ maximal goals are probably out of reach: Russia will not
likely overrun Ukraine, and Ukraine will not likely regain Crimea by
military means.  And when Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Commander-in Chief of
Ukraine’s armed forces, states that “Just like in the First World
War we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a
stalemate,” and that there “will most likely be no deep and
beautiful breakthrough,” the American public will eventually ask
whether and why we are simply funding World War I trench-style warfare
with no end in sight.

There is also history here that needs to be considered but, in no
small part due to Russia’s unprovoked invasion, is largely ignored.
The November 1 New York Times touched upon it in an article
entitled, _“Some Ukrainians Helped the Russians. Their Neighbors
Sought Revenge.” _“In 2014,” the article read, “Russia was
able to seize Crimea and back an insurgency in the Donbas region of
eastern Ukraine in part because many Ukrainians in those places helped
it do so. There is mounting evidence that something comparable took
place last year in Kherson: Russian troops overran most of the region
in just a few weeks.” 

Many Russian and Ukrainians living today remember when they were part
of one country. And within living memory, Crimea was even part of
Soviet Russia, before it was part of Soviet Ukraine. So what may be
treason to a Ukrainian loyalist may simply be a return to the good old
days for a Russian loyalist. 

I’m not suggesting you advocate simply pulling the plug on Ukraine,
Bernie, but someone in Congress has got to raise the question of
whether they might be something to talk about here as an alternative
to endless grinding warfare.

THIRD – Run, Bernie, Run!

As we all know, the polls are lately treating our most recent
ex-president very kindly and while we might consider the prospect of a
second Trump administration even more absurd – and more dangerous
than the first, we now know better than to dismiss it as
impossible. As someone who has maintained his independent status, you
know better than most that both of our major parties are quite capable
of waxing anti-war – when they can hang the blame for the war on the
other party –  particularly if it isn’t going all that well.

Our concern should go deeper than garden variety opportunism, though,
in that we need to stop and take a hard look at where we are. Do we
really want to go into an election supporting two major foreign wars
and asking American taxpayers to pay for them – indefinitely? A lot
of people who were with you three and seven years ago are not going to
stick around for a ride like that. A lot of people who were with Biden
last time won’t either.

The world is burning up and we’re going to keep pouring money down
the gullets of the armaments industries, without even suggesting an
alternative? This is the hand we’re going to play in the 2024
election? I don’t like the reality, the message, or the odds. I know
that you decided not to run again if Biden sought a second term. I
know that it is ridiculously late in the game. But maybe not
impossibly late.  And, unfortunately, I’m pretty sure Joe Biden
isn’t going to change between now and Election Day. 

Bernie, if not you, who?

(Tom Gallagher was a 2016 Sanders delegate.)

_This piece originally appeared on OpEdNews.com
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_Tom Gallagher – native of Hunts Point section of the Bronx – but
a lifelong Dodger fan, which he can explain if he chooses to! Anti-war
activist and community organizer in Boston. He represented Allston
Brighton neighborhood of Boston in the Massachusetts House of
Representatives. First socialist state representative since the Sacco
and Vanzetti era in Massachusetts. In 1986 he ran in the Democratic
primary in a very crowded field to succeed Tip O’Neil. Subsequently
chaired the Boston chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Later relocated to SF where he lives on Bernal Heights, is a
substitute teacher in SFUSD and has written about his experiences in a
book called Sub. Elected as a Bernie Sanders delegate to the 2016
Democratic Presidential Nominating Convention. (Also served in same
capacity for George McGovern in 1984.) He is a member of the Bernal
Heights Democratic Club, the Progressive Democrats of America, and the
Democratic Socialists of America._

* Gaza
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* Ukraine
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* presidential elections
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* Biden
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