The Peace Press — Saturday, December 18, 2021 edition

Yet another annual example below of how the U.S. military screws the United States of America — — — — -the troops really do very little good for this nation contrary to popular belief and mass state propaganda. There is an indirect ratio between the perpetual wars the U.S. fights and our diminishing freedoms and liberties at home. In reality, the troops and the wars they fight make us less free and less safe as it condemns millions to die abroad engendering hatred toward the U.S. Wars are waged for the corporate profits of the war profiteers and to extend and preserve U.S. global Imperialism. For that reason, there is no reason to thank the troops. In fact, the act of joining the military is one assured way to escape the poverty endemic in rural areas and the inner city so let us be truly honest about why most troops join the military — — -it is out of selfish self-interest and not from a place of selfless sacrifice. That their needless deaths are often characterized as selfless sacrifice is but war-justifying propaganda of the State masked in sentiments designed to assuage the emotional pain of loss.

Have you ever noticed how much glorifying rhetoric is paid to those who die in vain yet nary a word or a character profile is offered by the media of any of the millions of innocent victims of our murderous foreign policy? How come we only hear about American victims of our murderous global imperialist policy? I mean if all persons are created equal then shouldn’t character profiles be sketched of the victims our our international aggression? Again, another example of propaganda by omission — — propaganda is not always about what is said, sometimes it is about what is left unsaid Just as crime pays, so does joining the military. Murdering masses of people abroad may not be a crime for members of the military but it is a crime against humanity nonetheless. Again, after the fiascos in Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, the question must be asked — — what value, if any, does the military actually provide this nation? How much harm does it do to this nation by diverting crucial resources from programs of social uplift and social safety nets?

“After a disastrous war on terror costing upwards of $8 trillion, isn’t it finally time to begin to downsize America’s global imperial presence? Honestly, for its “defense,” does the U.S. military need 750 overseas bases in 80 countries on every continent but Antarctica, maintained at a cost somewhere north of $100 billion annually? Why, for example, is that military expanding its bases on the Pacific island of Guam at the expense of the environment and despite the protests of many of the indigenous people there? One word: China! Isn’t it amazing how the ever-inflating threat of China empowers a Pentagon whose insatiable budgetary demands might be in some trouble without a self-defined “near-peer” adversary? It’s almost as if, in some twisted sense, the Pentagon budget itself were now being “Made in China.””

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/12/17/7-unasked-questions-about-us-military-spending/
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“”Don’t tell me we can’t afford to fight poverty, cancel student debt, pass paid leave, and defeat the climate crisis,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal after senators approved the $786 billion military spending bill.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/15/senate-slammed-passing-bloated-ndaa-delaying-build-back-better-act
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“We propose that half of the resources freed up by this agreement are allocated to a global fund, under U.N. supervision, to address humanity’s grave common problems: pandemics, climate change, and extreme poverty.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/15/demanding-global-peace-dividend-nobel-laureates-call-2-cut-worlds-military-spending
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“Whether Russia and China have a formal defense alliance or something short of that became largely moot today when Chinese President Xi Jinping stated that “this relationship even exceeds an alliance in its closeness and effectiveness.”

The New York Times is insisting (and is technically correct as far as we know) that “the two countries do not have a formal alliance.” But as tension grows along Russia’s western border and along China’s Pacific frontier, prudent statesmen would conclude that the exact nature of the China-Russia strategic partnership has become a distinction without much difference.

Moreover, this was not just President Xi blowing smoke after his virtual one-on-one with Putin Wednesday. According to the Times, the news of Xi’s startling assertion regarding a China-Russia relationship (“exceeding an alliance”) came from a briefing by Yuri Ushakov, a top national security aide to President Putin.”

https://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2021/12/15/xi-to-putin-our-relationship-exceeds-an-alliance/
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Another year, another trillion dollars for a military that does very little for this country while needed priorities get left undone. Another year, another shameful waste of money on needless military bullshit.

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/12/15/senate-passes-massive-778-billion-ndaa/
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“Western policymakers have ignored Russian complaints about NATO expansion and NATO involvement in neighboring countries for decades, and that has helped to create the conditions for the crisis we are seeing today. The Western refusal to take Russian security concerns seriously has been a dangerous mistake. NATO is obviously an anti-Russian alliance, and it has arguably become more anti-Russian in the last 15 years, so it is reasonable that Russia views its continued expansion towards them as a security threat. Putting a stop to talk of further expansion is a cost-free way to reduce tensions and avert possible conflict.”

https://original.antiwar.com/Daniel_Larison/2021/12/14/neutrality-for-ukraine-is-the-right-answer/
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“Saakashvili thought Washington had his back, but just like today, the hawks made promises that cooler heads wouldn’t back up.”

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/12/15/the-ghost-of-georgia-2008-should-be-haunting-kiev-right-now/
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“U.S. tensions with China enter truly dangerous territory when they move into the arena of values, writes Branko Milanovic. Washington is trying to divide the world.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/12/15/first-summit-for-democracy-should-be-the-last/
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“In developing its policy, US policymakers should think clearly. To start, their highest duty is to the American people. The government’s responsibility is to protect the latter and their lives, territory, constitutional order, and economic prosperity. US foreign policy should advance US interests in ways consistent with fundamental moral principles but should not become captive to claimed moral crusades.”

https://original.antiwar.com/doug-bandow/2021/12/14/the-us-not-ukraine-decides-whether-america-defends-ukraine/
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“The U.S. doesn’t need another Cold War, much less World War III. What we need is to mind our own business.”

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/we-shouldnt-go-to-war-over-taiwan/
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“In reporting on Russia and Ukraine, media forgo objectivity”

https://original.antiwar.com/Paul_Lovinger/2021/12/14/meet-the-one-sided-press/
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“US sanctions have naturally drawn China and Russia to work on building a more robust trade relationship”

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/12/16/china-russia-pledge-to-reduce-reliance-on-us-led-financial-system/
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“I have lived and taught history for extended stays in both China and Russia. I can assure readers that masses of people in these great countries both admire and resent the United States. They acknowledge American achievements but decry its arrogance and tiresome assertions of exceptionalism.

The urgent need for cooperation on disease control, combating climate change, and a host of other issues is more important than homing in on the human rights policies, however objectionable, in China and Russia. Moreover, it is hypocritical to single out Russia and China for human rights and free speech transgressions as the United States succors repressive regimes in Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, among many other countries. “

https://original.antiwar.com/Walter_Hixson/2021/12/16/realism-and-cooperation-not-confrontation-needed-with-russia-and-china/
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“Of course, it is conventional wisdom in western capitals that Vladimir Putin is an imperial monster, and he is always ready to brutalize his neighbors with military force. But what if conventional wisdom is wrong? What if Eastern Ukraine and Crimea are legitimate spheres of influence for the Russian nation, with deep cultural, language, and religious ties going back to the 10th century when Ukraine converted to the Eastern Orthodox religion? What if NATO and the West are the imperialists, attempting to bully Russia from involving itself in a nation whose historical ties to Russia are far deeper than the United States’ ties to Canada? “

https://lawliberty.org/the-wests-dangerous-gambit-in-ukraine/
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“The war party is not prepared to admit Washington’s own miscalculations, including the fundamental one that occurred on April 30, 1998. On that day the US Senate voted to expand NATO by accepting Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary as members.

President Bill Clinton, who pushed for the expansion, also claimed to be the best friend of Russia‘s then-President Boris Yeltsin and even helped his pal to win the 1996 elections. Clinton’s fellow Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan was one of 19 senators who voted against expanding NATO, saying explicitly that “This is the road to nuclear war.” However, he did not convince 80 other senators who voted in favor of the expansion bill.

Former US ambassador to Moscow George Kennan, by no means a friend of Russia and one of the authors of the policy of containing the USSR, called the process of NATO expansion a tragic mistake”

https://original.antiwar.com/Edward_Lozansky/2021/12/16/the-day-of-reckoning-postponed-for-now/
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“If anything, Washington’s neoconservatives have an unerring instinct for survival. Having brought about multiple disasters in the two decades since 9/11 — from the Iraq War to the twin debacles in Libya and Syria — the neoconservatives seem to have perfected the art of failing up.

Harvard University’s Stephen Walt once quipped that “Being a Neocon Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry.” And in this regard, the story of the Kagan family is instructive. Robert Kagan, a contributing columnist for the Washington Post, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and author of pseudohistories such as The Jungle Grows Back, has for years been a leading advocate of American militarism."

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/17/how-do-we-stop-the-neocons-from-starting-another-disaster-in-ukraine/
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“The argument over ICBMs shows how nuclear derangement is normalized by national policymaking, says Norman Solomon. Neither side sees the profound need to eliminate them entirely.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/12/16/the-quarrel-over-fine-tuning-the-doomsday-machinery/
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“When we wage war, we dehumanize — then kill — a specific segment of humanity. In the process, we “fray” our own humanity."

‘https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/12/16/many-ways-war-poisoning-us
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“The democracy summit demonstrates that Washington’s alleged commitment to freedom and democratic values as a key feature of U.S. foreign policy is as inconsistent and hypocritical as ever.”

https://www.cato.org/commentary/truth-bidens-fraudulent-democracy-summit#
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“By hounding, persecuting, prosecuting, extraditing, incarcerating, torturing, and maybe even killing Assange, U.S. officials are telling the American people that they need not be concerned about learning about any more dark-side activities in the future. The message is: “Our bargain will continue. Things will go on as they have for the past 75 years of America as a national-security state — where we — the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA — will continue to wield omnipotent, dark-side powers in the name of keeping you safe from the communists, terrorists, drug dealers, Muslims, illegal immigrants, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Russia, China, Syria, and other official enemies, opponents, rivals, and competitors. Your consciences will not be troubled because we will continue to keep our dark-side activity secret from you.”

The American people need to rescind that evil bargain. But even that’s not enough. They also need to rid our federal governmental system of this evil institution known as the national-security state and restore our nation’s founding constitutional system of a limited-government republic.”

https://www.fff.org/2021/12/14/using-assange-to-send-a-three-part-message/
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“In a patently political decision, the U.K. High Court reversed the British lower court’s denial of extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States on a narrow ground, despite the recent revelations of a CIA plot to kidnap and assassinate him.”

https://truthout.org/articles/british-court-trusts-us-to-protect-assange-even-though-cia-plotted-to-kill-him/
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“More than a dozen groups say the economic penalties wind up hurting vulnerable populations more than their intended targets.”

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/12/10/faith-leaders-call-on-biden-to-end-broad-sanctions/.
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“Nothing good can come for Tel Aviv if it carries out an attack, or threatens and never does.”

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/12/06/on-bombing-iran-israel-needs-to-cool-its-threats/
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Kudos to Rand Paul for shutting down spending on Iron Dome. Let Israel purchase its own system itself.

“Republican Senator Rand Paul blocked a fourth consecutive request by Democrats Wednesday to pass legislation granting $1 billion in supplemental funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

As he has argued the previous time he blocked the unanimous consent measure in the past two months, Paul insisted that the funding come out of the $6 billion in proposed US assistance to Afghanistan.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-4th-time-republican-senator-blocks-passage-of-iron-dome-funding-bill/
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“In what seems to be a talking point in the script handed to all the players, the US has accused Iran of not being serious at the reopening of the JCPOA nuclear talks in Vienna. “What we’ve seen in the last couple of days is that Iran right now does not seem to be serious,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “The Iranians have not been taking the negotiations seriously at this point,” said CIA Director William Burns.

That’s a pretty funny accusation to make in a discussion of negotiations in which the US has already informed Iran that they refuse to guarantee that they will honor the agreement and its commitments as binding even for the duration of the term of the president who puts his signature on it. It’s pretty hard to act seriously when your interlocutor is acting like a clown.

It’s even funnier that the US is criticizing Iran when Blinken, asked during an interview about his pessimism about Iran taking the talks seriously admitted that it is the US’s fault that Iran even has to be back in these talks since “the decision to pull out of the agreement was a disastrous mistake.””

https://original.antiwar.com/Ted_Snider/2021/12/15/the-us-foreign-policy-comedy/