Ukraine

ACTIONS:

U.S. Representative, District 6, Jason Crow (term ending 2027, jasoncrowforcongress.com)

At the end of April 2022 Rep. Crow traveled to Kyiv with a congressional delegation and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Rep. Crow is a member of the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees.  He is a former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rep. Crow understood and agreed with the types of weapons Zelenskyy said his Ukrainian forces needed.  Ukraine is a major exporter of wheat, corn, sunflower oil which could not be shipped out.  “We could negotiate, set up a humanitarian shipment corridor, start getting food and agricultural shipments out of Ukraine, which would help alleviate hunger in Africa, the Middle East and so many places around the world,” Rep. Crow says.

“This is one example of how military aid, humanitarian relief, and sanctions are intertwined”, Rep. Crow says.

He also says, “It was clear that Ukraine has to win the war on the battlefield since Russian President Vladimir Putin is not going to withdraw voluntarily.”

“The message that we made very clear to Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians was: The United States is going to stand shoulder to shoulder with you. We are in this for the long haul to make sure you can be victorious on the field of battle and end this terrible crime.”

“We can continue to provide strategic and tactical intelligence, training on new weapon systems.”

Rep. Crow noted that Zelenskyy has no incentive to ask for things that won’t be useful in the fight against Russian forces. 

“This is a wartime leader who is fighting for his own survival and the survival of his country,” he said. “He had a mastery of tactics, of strategy, of the military battlefield as it exists, of weapon systems and what could be used.”

While the U.S. is not directly involved in combat, it has a substantial national security interest in seeing Russia defeated, Rep. Crow says.

Putin is trying to establish a new precedent, Rep. Crow says, that “if you are a nuclear-armed power, you can take by force your smaller, weaker neighbors, and nobody can stop you. That is not a precedent that I am willing to let be established, nor should we as a nation. So we have incredible and deep interests in helping Ukraine fight back.”

POSITIONS:

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (term ending Jan. 2027, coag.gov)

As a child of immigrants, I firmly believe that threats to democracy and justice anywhere in the world are a threat to Americans as well. I strongly support the Ukrainian people in their fight for their freedom from the Russian leaders and their unlawful and immoral invasion of Ukraine.

Gaza

POSITIONS:

State House of Representative, HD38 Gretchen Rydin (term ending Jan. 2027, gretchenforcolorado.com)

While complex foreign policy issues do not normally play a role in the issues before our state legislature, voters have a right to understand the values that any public servant uses in taking a position. My approach is basically parallel to the method I have used in my work and my career as a therapist and interfaith bridge builder. In the case of the Jewish people and their adversaries, the Palestinian Arab people, the appropriate place for seeking a resolution with justice begins with listening and compassion for two communities that have each suffered from deep trauma within the past century. Any solution, two states or otherwise, must begin with the recognition that there are two people who share the same homeland and deserve security and individual human rights as well as national rights of self-determination.

The "two sides" in the conflict are usually described as Israel and Palestine but I think that framing is wrong. The actual opposing sides are those who believe that one people should dominate or drive out the other vs. those who seek to resolve the conflict by acknowledging the humanity and the rights of both peoples. There are courageous Israeli Jews and Palestinian

Arabs working jointly and organizations working jointly for justice for both peoples such as the NGO's "Standing Together" and "A Land for All." They deserve our moral support and encouragement. My bottom line is that you can't be "pro-Israel" without being "pro-Palestine" and you can't be "pro-Palestine" without being "pro-Israel."

We have enough division in our society without Americans trying to force us to give up our compassion for all of God's children, especially those who have suffered in such painful ways in recent history. Similarly those who focus on bigotry against one particular American community do not understand the deep meaning of Dr. King’s eloquent and justifiably repeated words, “none of us is free, unless all of us are free.”