Ukraine and Nuclear War: A Brief Essay on Preventing Armageddon

George Ochsenfeld
4 min readOct 26, 2022
Photo by Chuko Cribb on Unsplash

Give Peace a Chance

Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has been largely beaten back. Now is the time to negotiate a settlement. Continued escalation means more death, maiming, trauma, dislocation, and destruction. And the ever-increasing likelihood that hostilities will spiral out of control into a nuclear apocalypse. We will never know if negotiations can succeed unless they are tried.

Yes, it’s great to see an underdog like Ukraine kicking the ass of a bully like Russia. But this is not a Hollywood movie. Many thousands of real people are dying. And the fate of the world is at stake.

Most people are ill-informed about the history and possible solutions to this conflict. They hear only pro-war cheerleading from a corporate media that profits from sensationalism and functions — wittingly or unwittingly — as the propaganda arm of the military/industrial complex.

Even so-called liberal outlets, like CNN and MSNBC, produce a steady stream of pro-war talking heads — ex-generals, think-tank military experts, and ex-government officials, many of them on the payroll of the defense industry.

Where are the voices of dissent, of peace, of sanity? Where are Noam Chomsky, Medea Benjamin, Norm Solomon, Chris Hedges, and Caitlin

--

--

George Ochsenfeld

Secret agent inciting spiritual revolution. Likes meditation, Jung, countercultures, 12 Step recovery. Retired addictions counselor, university faculty.