The guest writer is Kim Swift who said, “The stark reality of the possibility of nuclear war has motivated me to write the following.”  

The origin of the war in Ukraine is NATO's 78-day bombing of Serbia in 1999.  NATO did not negotiate in good faith at Rambouillet and instead presented terms to Serbia that no sovereign nation would agree to including NATO occupation of Serbia.  

With the failed negotiations, NATO's bombing campaign commenced in violation of the United Nations (UN) charter which requires UN Security Council authorization of a military attack on a country.  NATO also did not adhere to the Geneva Conventions that outlaw attacks on civilians.  NATO bombed civilian targets and civilian infrastructure including power plants.  

Former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark in the year 2000 conducted a trial of NATO leaders and convicted them of war crimes.  Russia watched NATO's bombing campaign in disbelief when NATO as a defensive alliance became an aggressor alliance.  Russia watched as NATO waged "total war" using cluster bombs and cruise missiles on civilian targets.  

We see that Russia learned well from NATO how to conduct war in the new millennium.  

-Attack with no UN Security Council authorization.  

-Attack using total war tactics against civilians and civilian infrastructure.  

-Use war instead of diplomatic negotiations to accomplish goals.  

Note that Ukraine had elected a pro-Russian President Yanukovych who fled office because of a West-backed coup In February 2014.  Also note that we are coming closer to a nuclear war as we continue to bolster Ukraine with billions of dollars of military aid to defeat Russia.  Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev recently warned Ukraine that if it attacks Crimea Russia may use "any weaponry" which includes tactical nuclear weapons.

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1-Continuous war is expensive in lives and money lost as evidenced by this article with over 1,300 references.