We at About Face: Veterans Against the War are alarmed by the news that President Biden will be sending an additional 3,000 U.S. troops to Germany, Poland, and Romania amid heightened tensions with Russia over Ukraine. In recent weeks, the U.S. has escalated tensions with Russia through its aggressive rhetoric, by sending over 180 tons of weapons into Ukraine, and by putting 8,500 troops on “heightened alert” to prepare for a possible deployment to Russia’s borders.

As the world has seen in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere, there is nothing defensive about NATO’s actions. NATO’s very existence is to further U.S. imperialism around the world, leaving entire nations and peoples in total destruction while filling the pockets of war profiteers.

We vehemently reject the imposition of U.S. economic sanctions. Sanctions are a tool of war and create conditions that cause just as much death and destruction as bombs and bullets. Sanctions always disproportionately harm poor and working-class people and otherwise vulnerable communities. We are currently witnessing this in the U.S.-created humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan today. The World Health Organization has warned that up to 1 million Afghan children may die as a result of starvation and malnutrition. We have also seen the impact of past U.S. sanctions on Iraq where, according to some estimates, up to 1.5M Iraqis, primarily children, were killed as a direct result of these sanctions.

As veterans who participated in wars, invasions, and occupations initiated by the U.S. and supported by NATO, we categorically reject the clear escalation made by the U.S. in deploying personnel, funding, weapons, and other forms of military aid to Ukraine. We call on President Biden and his administration to proceed peacefully, diplomatically, and with respect to the sovereignty of other nations, as well as a respect for human life and dignity.