Over 20 years ago I was present in that same building listening to something, I can't remember what.  I recalled the vastness of the chamber, and it was certainly disconcerting on Friday to be on a big screen that reminded me of this scene in V for Vendetta.  My husband told me afterwards I should have thrown away my papers, and told the body what I really think!

Below is the video of what I did say to them. It is also what I really think, of course.  The rest of the meeting was eye opening.  For what it is worth:

Madam President, thank you for allowing me to speak.  I am a retired Air Force Lt Col, who began to question the government I served in 2002 as I watched my organization within the Pentagon manipulate information to sell an unnecessary and unjustified war, in that case, the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

I want to make 3 points concerning how Western supplies to Ukraine have been, and remain, a barrier to peace.

First, Western aid and support has enabled war, and opposed peace.  It is not sent there for Ukrainians, but for a government in Kiev initially chosen via a State Department and CIA influenced coup in 2014, to militarily confront Russia. This proxy embraced a kind of Ukrainian nationalism that relied heavily on Ukrainian Nazi ideology.  Nazism is publicly rare and always condemned.  But in Ukraine, it unified the kind of people who would do what the US and NATO desired.  Therefore, history was forgotten, truth ignored, and Ukrainian culture denigrated – because a proxy war to weaken Russia, politically and economically, was desired by some in the west.   US Senators and NATO leadership continue to celebrate this "good investment."

Western assistance in weapons, surveillance and intelligence, as well as diplomatic "help" enabled 8 years of Kiev's assault on the Donbass. The Russian military response —  no doubt violent, deadly, and in violation of international law — reminds me of several US military operations I supported when in uniform – except when the US invaded, we discovered later that we were not really there to stop a war, to liberate anyone, to increase their freedom, or ensure their prosperity.