Last Saturday evening, I was reading the news before I went to bed. I read where the US had deployed the 101st Airborne Division to the northern border of Romania, about three miles from the border of Ukraine. Brigadier General John Lubas stated that the 101st, “The Screaming Eagles,” were not deployed in a training mission but in a combat-ready mission. He stated they were ready to go into Ukraine should the conflict escalate or if a NATO country was attacked. The 101st Airborne has not been deployed to Europe since our entry into World War II eighty years ago.
As I thought about this fact, I thought to myself, “We’re getting ready for a ground war.” I then checked the stats. Before the war started in Ukraine, the US had 60,000 troops stationed in Europe; now there are 100,000 soldiers there at the ready. What bothers me most about these statistics is that at the moment there is not a serious effort to get the parties involved in peace negotiations.
The US could press the Ukrainians to the peace table but it is not being done. The fact that it would take so little for the US to get involved in a ground war in Ukraine should give us all pause. Just think what would happen if one errant missile landed in a Romanian or a Polish village. Would that be the pretext for NATO getting involved in the current war? Wars have been started in the past with less than that as a provocation.
There was a line in a chorus that protesters sang during the 1970’s while the Vietnam War was going on. It went like this, “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” Over and over we sang this line. Just give peace a chance. And now, is anyone seriously pursuing peace in the Ukrainian conflict? Not that I can see. Anyone who mentions pursuing peace is shouted down and pressured to stop talking. I want to know when did peace become a dirty word?
If you feel like I do, let’s do something. I know we can make a difference. We can write our representatives in Washington and let them know we want them to slow down this rush to war. They are holding the purse strings that are allowing this war to continue. And of course, we can pray. We must pray that people will wake up and quit blindly marching to war. We can pray that the Russians will not make a mistake that will draw all of Europe and the US into a ground war. And finally we can pray that men on all sides of the conflict will be open to negotiations and give peace a chance.
Image by Engin Akyurt. Courtesy of Pixabay
Valerie Cullers 
Oh, no, this is not good news at all.
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I agree! 💖
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Peace is always better than war. The problem currently is that Russia (meaning Putin) refuses anything other than all out surrender of all territories and annexation of Ukrainian territory. At this point the only peace that Putin will accept is victory for his war. That is not a negotiation anyone is willing to enter into. Consider if Russia were to decide that Alaska is really theirs (we did purchase it from them originally) and sent forces and attacked Juneau and Anchorage – destroying infrastructure and killing and torturing the US citizens living there (even taking children back to Russia). The terms for peace were giving Russia most of Alaska back (along with the people living there) and those peace negotiations were being brokered by England. Would you think it a friendly action by an ally? Would you feel it was right and just to accept peace and give up a US state? Yes we should pray for peace and still more to pray for justice…
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My concern is that by funding the war in Ukraine, we are actually fighting a Proxy War with Russia. Sooner or later that could lead to a real war and none of us wants to be in a war with Russia because of Ukraine. If it does come to that, God help us all. Europe will be involved and it could all go nuclear. Putin does not seem to be thinking clearly from the outset of this war. Zelensky doesn’t want to go to the peace table because he says he will fight for every square inch of Ukraine, even Crimea which has been in Russian hands for over a decade. We didn’t do a darn thing for the Ukrainians when Russia invaded the Crimea except send them blankets, no offensive weapons were sent. That was when Obama was president. You’ve got about 181,000 Ethnic Russians living in Crimea and about 65,00 Ukrainians. There are also Tatars and Belarusians living there. I can’t see Ukraine making us pay for their fight in the Crimea. It has to stop somewhere and since we’re funding the bill and supplying them with arms, I say we insist they negotiate with the Russians for Crimea and Russia needs to get out of the rest of Ukraine.
To your second point on Alaska, there is a town in Russia with signs that say “Alaska is Ours.”
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And we can vote in the coming days for wise and Godly leaders who represent “we the people” in all matters. By the way, now I have that song in me head and it won’t go away!!! So, all I’m saying is… ha! Thanks for this post, Valerie!
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You’re so welcome! I needed to write it. It’s been in my head for days since I read about the 101st. 💖
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I agree that peace is best, but I also think there is something bigger going on here that we don’t see. I don’t know if Russia/Ukraine was God’s plans or ‘man’s’, but there is a battle for good and evil always going on behind the scenes.
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You’re right there! 💖
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I think if women ruled the world, it would be a better place..
May peace prevail soon..
Keep giving dear friend 🌷
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I agree…hopefully we wouldn’t want to take other peoples land. It’s usually all about the land! 😪
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I would have thought by now with all of mankind’s developments people would have that war doesn’t solve any problems or determine who is right or wrong.
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Yes, you would hope, wouldn’t you? So agree!
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You are exactly right. Peace negotiations should be pursued at all costs. Too many lives have already been destroyed in this war!
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Amen!
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If only man would give peace a chance – great Lenon song). But, war means lots of money for the elite and the rich get richer on the war machine. Why would they stop…
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Thank you Valerie. Rarely does anyone call for peace anymore. Jesus calls us to live radically different from the society of which we are a part. People argue that his words don’t really apply because they are the ideal – maybe why non-violence is lacking in the polls. We are praying for peace in a war-torn world and you are correct in saying we need to pressure our leaders to take another look at how this situation is handled. Thank you for speaking up.
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I hate war and this one was especially unnecessary. It is incomprehensible what man is willing to do to other men, women and children for what they consider gain. It is a sad commentary on humanity for sure.
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Do any of these countries really want peace or more power?
My concern is that the true goal for these other countries are to take over the US.
Latesly China and Russia are showing signs of banding together. And I believe they talked about this on Newsmax as well concerning Iran and another county which I cant think of at the moment.
This one world order business.
Keeping the prayers for peace going!
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So true!! The Bible knows what will ultimately happen but in the meantime we watch this political drama play out!
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