how could he come to take such a wrong position?

Howie has taken an unusual position on an issue … quite out of step with most of the rest of us …

He’s supporting the US provision of weapons to Ukraine in order to counter Russian imperialism.

… and I’ve been trying to grapple with it, i.e.:

a) might he be right?
b) how did it happen that he arrived at his position?

After trying to think it through I’ve come to these conclusions:

a) He is not right. Our principle re: nonviolence leads us toward critiquing the military-industrial complex, advocating for radically reducing the US military budget. The idea that we should supply armaments to another country leads our own national policies in the wrong direction.

Nonviolence allows for self-defense. Obviously Russian aggression 6,000 miles away has nothing to do with US self-defense. But Howie says the Ukrainians deserve the chance to defend themselves and the only armaments supplier capable of making it possible is the US.

Howie, the US has all these armaments for a bad reason, a regrettable reason, a reason we abjure. We don’t want to encourage the US to keep playing the role of armaments supplier. We want the US to stop being a military power and start becoming a force for peace.

If violence begets violence, then we should strive to break the cycle. What does a force for peace and nonviolence do when a country is aggressing upon another country? Anything and everything other than violence: Suasion, sanction, injunction, ostracism, confinement. Organize a coalition of all other countries that will help bring to bear pressure against the aggressor. Etc.

Don’t supply armaments. It’s like pouring gasoline on the conflagration. It fosters the cycle of violence and counter-violence.

b) Howie’s thought process re: actively helping with the self-defense of Ukraine may be a function of his old-style leftism. His mentor, Murray Bookchin, was in synch with the old left’s romantic crusade to go fight with the Spanish anarchists and communists of 1936 (against Franco). One way the emergence of the Green worldview during the 1970s was distinguished from the culture of the old left was precisely in embracing a much more Gandhian orientation. The old left was all too prone toward picking up the gun and heading off to the barricades, full of revolutionary zeal, full of delusions. Might Howie relate to the Ukraine situation of 2023 as Murray related to the Spanish situation of 1936?

Howie is listening to Ukrainian leftists who want to fight. It’s understandable that they are incensed and motivated to battle the aggressor. Cooler heads from a distance ought to convey to them a more realistic and constructive perspective. Delusions on their part could lead toward self-tragedy rather than self-defense.