The Peace Press — Wednesday, January 18, 2023 edition
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s critique of American militarism more than 50 years ago predicted the rise of US global adventurism.”
“King understood that the roots of the warfare state run deep, driven by the “giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.”
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/01/15/mlks-anti-war-views-are-more-relevant-than-ever/
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“In April 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an eloquent and stirring denunciation of the Vietnam war and US militarism. The speech titled “Beyond Vietnam” is relevant to today’s war in Ukraine.”
https://original.antiwar.com/Rick_Sterling/2023/01/15/beyond-vietnam-to-ukraine/
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“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, “This is not just.” It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say, “This is not just.” The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war, “This way of settling differences is not just.” This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
https://original.antiwar.com/martin_luther_king/2017/01/15/why-i-am-opposed-to-the-war-in-vietnam/
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“King called himself a democratic socialist. He believed that America needed a “radical redistribution of economic and political power.””
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/martin-luther-king-jr-radical
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“The guest preacher last Sunday at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta — the spiritual home of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — praised King as “a nonviolent warrior for justice.” That preacher was President Joe Biden, a warrior, period.
“We come to contemplate his moral wisdom and commit ourselves to his path,” said Biden in his sermon in honor of the celebrated minister, assassinated in 1968. But King’s path was nonviolent, which does not describe the President (as we will see below).”
https://original.antiwar.com/Paul_Lovinger/2023/01/17/rev-m-l-king-preached-nonviolence-to-observe-birthday-his-church-hosts-guest-sermon-by-our-violent-president/
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“The Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy Drives Record Military Spending”
“Here, for instance, are a few of the things you’ll never see mentioned in this NDS:
Any suggestion that the Pentagon budget might be reduced. Ever.
Any suggestion that the US military’s mission or “footprint” should be downsized in any way at all.
Any acknowledgment that the US and its allies spend far more on their militaries than “pacing challengers” like China or “acute threats” like Russia.
Any acknowledgment that the Pentagon’s budget is based not on deterrence but on dominance.
Any acknowledgment that the US military has been far less than dominant despite endless decades of massive military spending that produced lost or stalemated wars from Korea and Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Any suggestion that skilled diplomacy and common security could lead to greater cooperation or decreased tensions.
Any serious talk of peace.”
~William Hartung
https://original.antiwar.com/William_Astore/2023/01/15/imperial-dominance-disguised-as-democratic-deterrence/
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“The US empire’s proxy war in Ukraine has had many jaw-dropping instances of imperialist sociopathy, propagandistic audacity and brazen journalistic malpractice that we’ve discussed in this space many times, but one of the most cringeworthy and degrading aspects of the globe-spanning narrative control campaign surrounding this war has been the way the nation’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has been turned into an ever-present corporate mascot for the most aggressive ad campaign ever devised. The way the most powerful institutions in the western world have been throwing their puppet in everyone’s face to sell the empire’s proxy warfare puts Ronald McDonald to shame.”
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/top-20-most-cringeworthy-zelensky?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=96672708&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
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“Ukraine has turned into a “lab” for Western arms as the war has given the US and its allies an opportunity to see how their weapons fare in a conflict with a major military power like Russia, CNN reported on Monday.”
https://news.antiwar.com/2023/01/16/cnn-ukraine-has-become-a-weapons-lab-for-western-arms/
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Douglas MacGregor offers his thoughts.
Will Ukrainian soldiers rebel to escape the US/Zelensky imposed meat grinder?
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZS8k9LPeW/
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“This week, the United Kingdom and Poland announced that they intend to send main battle tanks to fight Russia in Ukraine, opening the way for Germany and the United States to make similar announcements.
For the first time since Operation Barbarossa 80 years ago, German-made tanks will cross the Polish border to take part in a shooting war against Russia. This is, without a doubt, the most reckless and escalatory measure taken by the US and NATO to date.”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/01/14/hfqa-j14.html
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“Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told BBC on Friday that Ukraine is a “de facto” NATO member since it’s equipped with so many of the alliance’s weapons and dismissed the idea that his comments were controversial.”
https://news.antiwar.com/2023/01/15/ukraine-dm-says-its-a-fact-that-kyiv-is-a-de-facto-nato-member/
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“Talking about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without also talking about the ways the US empire provoked and benefits from this war is the same as lying.
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One of the main differences between myself and other commentators who talk about an elite conspiracy to implement a totalitarian dystopia is that the others warn that we are being pushed toward this dystopia, while I insist that we’re already there and have been for generations.
When I say we’re in a totalitarian dystopia a lot of people assume I mean things like vaccine mandates or gun laws or paying taxes, but I actually mean something far, far bigger than that. I mean we’re all in a psychological prison built by the powerful to control how we are.
The Orwellian dystopia isn’t some danger that exists in the future; it’s here presently. It just doesn’t look like what Orwell imagined. Our rulers are getting everything they want out of the current dystopia, just as much as they would in societies envisioned by dystopian novelists. “
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/a-prison-where-the-prisoners-dont?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=96864270&isFreemail=true&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxODg5OTQwNCwicG9zdF9pZCI6OTY4NjQyNzAsImlhdCI6MTY3Mzc5MDAyNCwiZXhwIjoxNjc2MzgyMDI0LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItODIxMjQiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.pUTdTuBmzYaO5Un_4C64V37fNy2YQ_lAJ2bWhq3IeNI&utm_medium=email
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“Peace activist and author Medea Benjamin joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the history of Ukraine as explained in her new book, War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, co-authored with Nicholas Davies.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fTxHIVUjRc
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“Stop the War Coalition have announced a National Demonstration on Saturday 25th February to call for an end to the war in Ukraine and demand that all sides engage in peace talks immediately.”
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/stop-the-war-call-a-national-demonstration-for-peace-talks-now-in-ukraine
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“Yet a review of the public record and many dozens of diplomatic cables made publicly available via WikiLeaks shows that US officials were aware, or were directly told over the span of years, that expanding NATO was viewed by Russian officials well beyond Putin as a major threat and provocation, that expanding it to Ukraine was a particularly bright red line for Moscow, that it would inflame and empower hawkish, nationalist parts of the Russian political spectrum, and that it could ultimately lead to war. “
https://usrussiaaccord.org/acura-viewpoint-guest-post-by-branko-marcetic-diplomatic-cables-show-russia-saw-nato-expansion-as-a-red-line/
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“Joe Biden and his administration officials continually play dumb at the notion they could end the war, or they feign offense at the suggestion that the decision isn’t one entirely up to the Ukrainians, a decision the Biden administration cannot and should not in any way influence — it was the Ukrainians, after all, who elected Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a war platform.
Except, of course, that he was voted in on a peace platform.”
https://mises.org/wire/just-say-no-new-forever-war
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“If U.S. Congress is going to form a special subcommittee looking at government overreach and illegality, then it should do exactly that.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/01/17/john-kiriakou-gop-has-not-created-a-new-church-committee/
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“Once the midterms were over, all mention of holding MBS accountable disappeared, and in fact Biden now seems to be catering to him.”
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/01/09/turns-out-rethink-was-a-threat-not-a-promise-in-us-saudi-spat/
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“With each new release of the “Twitter Files” we learn more and more about the deep corruption in Washington. We sensed during Covid that something was really wrong — for example the bizarre denial of natural immunity. But thanks to Elon Musk’s decision to open the books, our worst fears have been proven true. Each new release seems to show something even more criminal inside America’s rotten ruling class.
In the latest release, thanks to the excellent reporting of independent journalist Matt Taibbi, we see outgoing Chair of the House Intelligence Community, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), continuously pressuring Twitter to validate his fantasies of “Russian bots” manipulating US politics.”
https://original.antiwar.com/paul/2023/01/16/how-adam-schiff-put-the-us-and-russia-on-the-brink-of-wwiii/
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“An interview with Matt Taibbi on how Democratic operatives and US intelligence officials pressured Twitter to validate Russiagate and censor dissenting voices.”
https://mate.substack.com/p/matt-taibbi-on-the-twitter-files?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=100118&post_id=96927312&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
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“A former diplomat recently answered my question by suggesting that there is tight control on information getting out of Ukraine and solidarity in the mainstream media about how to report it. A journalist told me of his frustration that if you go to Ukraine, you won’t get access to the truth, and when you return to the US you won’t be allowed to report it. For the public who rely on the media, it is like listening to a baseball game on the radio when the play-by-play commentator can’t actually see the game. We have no idea what is really happening on the diamond.
In its reporting on the war, the Western media shuns reporting on causes, dutifully never mentioning the war without including the adjective “unprovoked.” Previously respected and trusted voices whom the media once relied upon find themselves banished when they provide the historical context and causes. It is an act of Orwellian rewriting of the past that has the effect about which Orwell warned: those who control the present control the past; those who control the past, control the future. Our consent to foreign policy decisions to go to war are secured by forging our understanding of the past in order to shape our understanding of the future.”
https://original.antiwar.com/Ted_Snider/2023/01/16/escaping-from-the-dark-why-we-need-antiwar-com-now/
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“Today’s Ukraine is a corrupt and increasingly authoritarian state. It is not a democracy even by the most generous definition of that term. Unfortunately, Kiev’s supporters in the West continue to ignore, minimize, or even justify the Zelensky regime’s repressive behavior.
Genuine democracies do not ban multiple opposition parties or close opposition media outlets. Nor do they rigorously censor (and put under strict government control) media outlets that they allow to remain open. Genuine democracies do not outlaw churches that advocate policies the government dislikes. They do not imprison regime opponents, let alone without meaningful due process, much less tolerate the torture of political prisoners. Genuine democracies do not publish “blacklists” of domestic and foreign critics, thereby putting a target on their backs. Yet the Ukrainian government has committed not just one or two, but all of those abuses.”
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/false-democracy/
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Former UN weapons inspector and US Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter speaks at the Community Church of Boston, about the conflict in Ukraine, US-Russia relations, and his most recent book Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika: Arms Control and the End of the Soviet Union.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkLU0vFAUQs
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“Like other authorizations for the use of military force — or AUMFs — it would be an unnecessary, unwise expansion of executive power."
https://reason.com/2023/01/10/this-congressman-wants-the-u-s-to-use-military-force-against-mexican-cartels/
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“In a remarkably frank interview with the Financial Times yesterday, the top US Marine general in Japan declared that US-NATO successes against Russia in Ukraine were a product of advance planning and preparations — “setting the theatre” for war in military jargon. That was exactly what the Pentagon was doing in Japan and Asia, he explained, in preparing for conflict against China over Taiwan.”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/01/10/fads-j10.html
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“Recalling CNN’s Fraudulent “Interview” With A Seven Year-Old Syrian Girl”
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/recalling-cnns-fraudulent-interview?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=96991401&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
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“As Julian Assange awaits a decision by the High Court in London whether it will accept his appeal against the home secretary’s decision to extradite him to the United States, the focus of the story has shifted here to his native Australia, where the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said for the first time that he has discussed with the United States bringing Assange’s ordeal to a close.
A prominent television journalist here, John Lyons, of the Australian Broadcasting Corp., shortly afterward said he understood that Assange would be back home in Australia within two months.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/01/16/watch-cn-live-saving-assange-saving-us-face/
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Who is the genuine aggressor and who is the genuine victim here?
Israel as a victim is nothing but a bad joke, folks.
https://news.antiwar.com/2023/01/15/israels-outgoing-army-chief-says-israel-has-three-plans-to-attack-iran/
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“Over 100,000 marched in Tel Aviv against the government, in one of the biggest protests in Israel in many years”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israelis-protest-netanyahu
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Boycott, divest and sanction — — who care if it offends the mainstream since most of the Israeli mainstream since most are racist oppressors anyhow. Besides, when pro-settler policies are funded by Israeli taxpayers, then every Israeli is responsible for and should be held accountable for the Occcupation and the actions of the settlers.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-jewish-believe-more-rights-non-jews-survey
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“The Biden administration’s recent elevation of Israel to a “full military partner” sets a dangerous precedent and works against U.S. interests.”
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/01/the-biden-administrations-dangerous-move-to-deepen-military-ties-with-israel/
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“Harvard’s Kennedy School’s denial of a fellowship to Kenneth Roth, the former head of Human Rights Watch, because of his criticism of Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza is only the latest example of the corporate role played by Harvard’s most prestigious think tank on public policy. Roth, who has spent the last three decades at HRW defending human rights around the world, was offered a senior fellowship at the School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. It was quickly withdrawn.
The school’s dean, Douglas Elmendorf, blocked the appointment following pressure from donors and supporters of Israel and its apartheid policies. Hundreds of Harvard affiliates have now called on Elmendorf to resign as Dean. The critics of Elmendorf include former Harvard president Lawrence Summers.”
