War overseas causes real concerns for Americans at home


Russian President Vladimir Putin has delivered his sales pitch for invading Ukraine. While some are speculating about his actual objectives, here’s a sales pitch against war – this one and any other.

If you believe that war is a natural expression or a necessity of humanity, then you have been indoctrinated to believe a false narrative. Wars are not required for human existence. They are bad and violent and chaotic, not a necessity, but they do happen.  

In this case, Putin sent his troops into Ukraine because he does not want Ukraine to become a member of NATO. He claims that would create a Western Alliance, a barrier to Russia which would endanger its citizens. As you might expect, that’s only part of the story.

You see Ukraine is actually rich, rich in minerals, rich in resources.

There’s always more than one calculation when a nation decides to go to war with another nation. They simply select what they sell everybody on.

Let’s be very clear.

Ukraine has a wide variety of natural resources. It can be divided into three main groups: energy, metal ores, and non metal ores. In many, they actually lead the entire planet. 0.8% of the Earth’s land surface and world’s population are in that region. However, approximately 5% of the world’s mineral resources are in that region as well. Over 20,000 deposits of 194 known minerals can be found in Ukraine. Ukraine has one of the leading reserves and extraction of iron, non metallic, raw material and more.

Remember also there’s this massive pipeline that Vladimir Putin has been itching to gain more control over. There’s always a different calculation.

On the home front, I have real concerns about how war impacts domestic policies, especially those that affect marginalized communities, specifically black and brown families.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said, war desensitizes Americans to domestic issues that should remain important to us. That’s why he opposed the Vietnam War. Because when America is involved in international conflict, the social policies that we’re fighting for, the economic policies that we’re fighting for, they take a back burner. Equity takes a back burner. Social justice takes a back burner, and I don’t want to see that happen.