The Peace Press — Wednesday, June 9, 2021 edition

An article from the past very relevant to today — — — kudos to activist leaders in Germany and elsewhere leading the politicians (followers) to a new way of thinking — — — -Detente and Diplomacy with Russia and not war or entangling alliances like the braindead, useless, Cold-War relic known NATO that depends on perpetual war to survive, to remain relevant at a time in history where it has become completely irrelevant. Did you know that every nation that joins NATO is obligated to spend a certain percentage of its budget purchasing only U.S. armaments? If there was ever an organization dedicated to U.S.-American Imperialism, warmongering and perpetual war, it is NATO. For the sake of peace and stability, Abolish NATO now!!!!

“Civic and religious leaders in Germany are spearheading a new initiative to avoid war between Russia and the West.”

By Gilbert Doctorow, Ute Finckh-Krämer, Ludger Volmer, Rolf Ekéus and Noam Chomsky

“A transatlantic appeal for a new policy of détente with Russia has been launched. The declaration’s authors invite the general public to join leading political figures and social activists who have publicly rallied to support the call.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/detente-now-a-new-call-for-peace-security-and-cooperation/
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“In recent years, the relationship between the West and Russia has seriously deteriorated. Mutual trust is at a post -Cold War low point. Thinking in enemy images and zero-sum logic is increasing. A search for a way out of this dead end is necessary.

With this in mind, we need to learn from the experience with Detente that lasted from the 60s to the 80s.It has to be understood that a policy of Détente is not one of friendship. The aim of Detente is to understand ones opponents, their thoughts and actions, to prevent violence, and to find commonly acceptable solutions, irrespective of whether Russia’s leader is Brezhnev or Putin.”

https://neue-entspannungspolitik.berlin/about-us/?lang=en
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“A series of U.S. administrations, starting with Bill Clinton in the 1990s, are primarily responsible for the tension between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine. Clinton’s process of NATO enlargement was a betrayal of U.S. guarantees in 1990–1991 that it would not “leapfrog” over a reunited Germany to gain influence in the East European countries that were once part of the Warsaw Pact.

The arms control issue is more complicated, but holds the promise of significant rewards. Disarmament, after all, was the key to the detente between Washington and Moscow that brought an end to Cold War posturing between the so-called superpowers. But Trump withdrew from both the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Open Skies Treaty. As a presidential candidate, Biden criticized Trump for leaving the Open Skies Treaty and for “doubling down on his short-sighted policy of going it alone and abandoning American leadership.” As president, however, Biden quickly decided that the United States would not return to the Open Skies Treaty.

Strategic discussions over arms control offer the best opportunity to stop the worsening of Russian-American relations, which has reached Cold War proportions.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/06/07/the-biden-putin-summit-a-time-of-testing/
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“Gareth Porter reports on a previously censored account that Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg has published in full out of concern for the growing threat of U.S. war with China over Taiwan.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/06/07/eisenhower-rejected-military-demands-for-nuclear-war-on-china/
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“In what is begging to be described as a perfect example of projection, the bill accuses the Chinese government of increasingly interfering in the Chinese economy. While this is obviously the case, what is this so-called Strategic Competition Act but an equally blatant interference in the US economy? An economy which, by the way, the bill’s language insists is free and open, despite the years of government activity proving exactly the opposite.

After the bill finishes accusing the government of China of pursuing policies very similar to those the United States thought were solely its to pursue in the world, the authors provide a list of policies and practices designed to ensure Washington’s continued role as the only super-imperialist power in the world. Not surprisingly, this list sounds quite similar to the very policies and practices the earlier language accuses the Peoples Republic of China of pursuing in its efforts to enhance its economy. Naturally, the language in the list of prescriptions for the United States is framed in language extolling the free market, international norms, collaboration, and the private sector. However, when this language is distilled and reframed in more objective terms, it describes the same actions China is accused of by the writers of the legislation.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/06/08/204284/
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“Most virologists still believe that COVID-19 is far more likely to have originated naturally, but US espionage and disinformation agencies disagree.

“The World Health Organization should be permitted to finish its work without political interference.”

“In addition, tests of waste water in Spain , Italy and Brazil indicate that the virus may have existed outside of China before it was observed there in December 2019. The evidence from Spain dates back to March 2019. These reports show the complexity of a true medical mystery. Any evidence of a Wuhan lab leak is circumstantial at best and most scientists have not changed their hypothesis of a natural origin.”

https://www.blackagendareport.com/freedom-rider-lab-leak-theory-and-anti-china-mania
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Return of the Lab Leak Conspiracy Shows Biden is a Democrat with Trumpian Characteristics on China

“Biden’s approach to China has built upon Trump’s hostile posture in every respect. Biden has increased sanctions on China’s tech sector and his representatives at the State Department have shown an outright disrespect for Chinese diplomats. Biden has further committed to maintaining the U.S military’s presence in the Asia-Pacific while declaring that the 21st century will be a U.S. battle for “democracy” against China’s “autocracy.””

https://www.blackagendareport.com/return-lab-leak-conspiracy-shows-biden-democrat-trumpian-characteristics-china
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The military and the Empire is the greatest threat to us today, not China or Russia. The military is the single largest institutional contributor to climate change and global warming and it does this in service to the United States Global Empire. China is not your enemy. Russia is not your enemy.
The American Empire and its global polluting ways is your enemy.

“My fears are only growing that the world we’re leaving our children and grandchildren could be a hell on earth. The worst part, of course, is that it doesn’t have to be this way.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/us-china-climate/
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“Human rights defenders on Wednesday accused the Biden administration of joining its predecessors in undercounting the number of civilians killed during US wars, as the latest annual Pentagon report on noncombatants killed by American bombs and bullets was blasted as “grossly inadequate” by a leading ACLU official.”

https://original.antiwar.com/Brett_Wilkins/2021/06/04/biden-joins-long-line-of-presidents-to-woefully-undercount-civilians-killed-in-us-wars/
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“US troops leaving Afghanistan was meant to mark the end of the war in Afghanistan. As it stands, however, it seems that the administration is going through any hoops possible that might keep the war going and the US deeply invested in it.

The latest sign of the Afghan War to come was envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and a delegation committing the US to $3.3 billion annually in direct funding to the Afghan military. This is just one aspect of all the US aid to Afghanistan still being negotiated.”

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/06/06/troops-leaving-but-us-commits-billions-to-fund-afghan-fighting/
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“Even as U.S. troops come home, ongoing operations could allow a covert conflict to continue.”

“On Tuesday, Defense Department Press Secretary John Kirby announced that the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is almost half complete. Though President Joe Biden set a September 11 exit deadline, military officials now estimate that U.S. and NATO troops will be out of Afghanistan by early to mid-July.

Twenty years on, the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan has become increasingly difficult to justify, and Kirby’s announcement is a welcome milestone. But Biden’s withdrawal plan is rife with unanswered questions and it is far from clear that the U.S. is truly exiting the conflict.”

https://reason.com/2021/06/02/u-s-troop-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-almost-halfway-done-but-full-exit-isnt-assured/
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Yet another example of how U.S. policy does not change no matter who is elected — — — Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden — — — — — -all peas of the same Imperialist pod.

“And it’s a head-scratcher, since his campaign once called Trump’s withdrawal of the Cold War agreement ‘short-sighted.’”

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/06/03/bidens-grounding-of-open-skies-treaty-is-folly-amid-russian-tensions/
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“Every few years the public gets to choose between two reliable lackeys of the oligarchic empire, and then all of the evils of that empire get pinned upon the winner. The public then directs their rage at the lackey rather than the actual power structure which has been oppressing them, after which they have another election to rid themselves of the scoundrel once and for all. They hug, they cry, they celebrate, and the oppression machine continues completely uninterrupted.

As Gore Vidal once said:

“It doesn’t actually make any difference whether the President is Republican or Democrat. The genius of the American ruling class is that it has been able to make the people think that they have had something to do with the electing of presidents for 200 years when they’ve had absolutely nothing to say about the candidates or the policies or the way the country is run. A very small group controls just about everything.””

“That small group is the plutocratic class whose legalized bribery and propaganda machine has immense influence over U.S. politics, as well as the imperial war machine and special interest groups with whom the plutocratic class is allied. It is necessary to form coalitions of support within that power cluster if one wants to become president in the managed democracy that is the United States, and no part of that power cluster is going to support a president who won’t reliably advance the interests of the oligarchic empire.”

“The door to meaningful change in America via electoral politics has been closed, locked, bolted, welded shut, and barricaded with a metric ton of solid steel. The only thing that can cause an end to the oppression and exploitation is an end to the oligarchic empire, and the only thing that can cause the end of the oligarchic empire is direct action by the American people: mass-scale activism, general strikes, and civil disobedience the likes of which the nation has never before seen, in sufficient numbers to bring down the plutocratic institutions which maintain the status quo.

The problem is that this will never happen as long as Americans are being successfully propagandized into being content with their fake decoy revolutions. There is a zero percent chance of electoral politics leading to an end of the empire, but a concerted effort to spread awareness by those who understand what’s going on just might.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/06/08/mainstream-us-politics-pretend-revolutions/
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“Russia has been routinely accused (without evidence) of malign conduct and interference in internal US affairs, but it turns out that the country actually doing the spying and meddling was the US all along — and against its own allies!

Surely this irony is not lost on Putin.”

https://original.antiwar.com/paul/2021/06/07/the-coming-biden-putin-train-wreck-summit/
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Proving yet again that Biden’s policy is not so different than Trump’s policy, the U.S. has still not rejoined the JCPOA. When are you going to be courageous and rejoin, Mr. President? Or is dropping to your knees to pucker up and kiss the ass of Benjamin Netanyahu just something you do? It was the U.S. who left the agreement and thus the onus of responsibility for rejoining is on the U.S. Demanding more from Iran without lifting any sanctions is exactly the policy President Trump authored and maintained.

“As indirect negotiations between the US and Iran to revive the JCPOA are being dragged out, Washington continues to blame Tehran for the lack of progress despite President Biden’s refusal to lift all Trump-era sanctions.”

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/06/07/blinken-not-sure-if-iran-deal-is-actually-going-to-happen/
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“Washington’s double standard was extraordinarily blatant. The United States and its NATO allies maintain a large, ongoing naval presence in the Persian Gulf right on Iran’s doorstep. US officials apparently do not consider that deployment of massive Western military power a provocation of any sort. Yet, Tehran’s decision to send a pair of ships from its second-rate navy into Washington’s general neighborhood is supposedly a dangerous provocation. The willful blindness of US leaders on this score is breathtaking.”

https://original.antiwar.com/Ted_Galen_Carpenter/2021/06/07/washingtons-hypocritical-iran-obsession/
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Perpetual war abroard and increasing authoritarianism at home — — — -this is the long trajectory of the national security state put into place at the end of WW2. They mean to sustain a policy of perpetual war while slowly, nearly imperceptibly, transform the United States into an authoritarian Fascist state and this occurs under both political parties.

“While First Amendment advocates have long argued that cracking down on journalists and their sources dissuades people from sharing information that can help expose the truth, hold the powerful accountable, and improve the common good, the Obama-Biden administration and the Trump White House both went to great lengths to prevent leaks and punish government officials for divulging information to reporters. Before the Trump-era “war on whistleblowers,” the Obama DOJ prosecuted nine leak cases, more than all previous administrations combined.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/06/07/washington-post-publisher-says-biden-doj-intensified-trump-era-attacks-press-freedom
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“Others might question whether the US, who just blocked multiple United Nations’ ceasefire attempts while greenlighting $735 million worth of arms sales to Israel, might be a more obvious “destabilizing” factor in the conflict and the region more generally.

Yet this appears not to have been considered for one moment. That is because, while the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “destabilize” as “to cause (something, such as a government) to be incapable of functioning or surviving,” in media and political speak, “stability” often simply means “under US control.” Therefore, by definition, the US cannot destabilize another government or region; only foreign actors can do such a thing.”

https://fair.org/home/stability-news-codeword-for-under-us-control/
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NATO — — — a useless, braindead, washed-up relic of the Cold War now being primarily used as a tool for U.S. Imperialism in Europe. Did you know that when a nation joins NATO that it is required to spend a certain percentage of its budget on U.S. armaments? How is NATO not a force for U.S.-American warmongering, Imperialism and perpetual war? ABOLISH NATO NOW!!!!

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/06/06/nato-summit-west-to-move-china-to-back-burner-russia-and-belarus-to-the-front/
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Who is provoking who? Isn’t it NATO and the U.S. that is provoking Russia?

“In addition to the Black Sea region, the Baltic Sea is a potential flashpoint in any future NATO-Russian conflict. One in which, as seen above, Russia is outnumbered eight-to-one, with the U.S. siding with its local NATO adversaries. Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad is on the Baltic Sea and Russia’s Union State partner Belarus is not far from it. Belarus has recently been identified as an enemy by NATO and, in an accusation as ludicrous as it is provocative, a military threat to Ukraine by the latter’s president.”

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/06/07/pentagon-nato-launch-jubilee-war-games-in-baltic-sea/
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“Militarism creates the illusion of safety, though of course its endless presence creates just the opposite.”

“Global — and especially American — militarism continues uninterrupted and fully funded. Joe Biden’s 2022 defense budget proposal, for instance, is $754 billion, up $14 billion from Trump’s last defense budget.”

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/06/03/nukes-lies-and-invisible-murder
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“But to most Americans their ideas aren’t alien. They talked about frustration over decades of economic globalization, led by and supported by neoliberal elites, resulting not only in the loss of American jobs and wages, but also access to affordable secondary education and a middle-class life. Yes, they touched on immigration and China as drivers of the economic gap. But the speakers largely focused on “the overclass,” as Lind put it, as handmaidens of policies that helped tip the playing field in favor of their own accumulation of wealth while leaving the rest of America behind. Add 20 years of war concocted and pushed by the same modern aristocracy, and the result: a complete loss of faith in institutions, a growth in cynicism and despair, a dissolution of the social fabric, and degradation of the culture. “

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/06/07/ugly-when-status-quo-apologists-lash-out-at-conservative-restrainers/
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“Taiwan is not a vital security interest for America. It is important not to confuse moral status with strategic value. Taiwan is about as close to China as Cuba is to America. Imagine Beijing claiming that maintaining the independence of Cuba was essential to the PRC’s defense. It is self-evident Taiwan is irrelevant to American peace and prosperity. When US analysts contend the island is important for America, they mean that a Taiwan hostile to China extends Washington’s reach up to the PRC’s border. However, convenient that might be for the US, it is not essential. In contrast, Taiwan is extremely important to China for the same reason.”

“Refusing to turn Taiwan into a security dependent does not mean doing nothing. Recognizing China’s interests and seeking a peaceful accommodation is a better though admittedly imperfect strategy. The objective should be preserving the status quo, which appears to be an acceptable second best for everyone.”

https://original.antiwar.com/doug-bandow/2021/06/05/taiwan-is-a-country-in-all-but-name-still-that-doesnt-mean-america-should-defend-it/
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“But what is equally undeniable is that US-imposed sanctions have augmented these factors as well as compounded the suffering felt by ordinary Venezuelans. As Roger Harris pointed out in a May 4 essay for CounterPunch, even a US government-authored report admits that “sanctions, particularly on the state oil company in 2019, likely contributed to the steeper decline of the Venezuelan economy.” Now, in addition to the US government itself, one its major organs of interventionist propaganda has conceded this exact same point.

In a May 30 article in The New York Times about how organized crime groups have stepped in to provide services in certain Caracas neighborhoods, Isayen Herrera and Anatoly Kurmanaev seem to almost inadvertently acknowledge that Venezuela is “disintegrat[ing] under the weight of Mr. Maduro’s corrupt leadership and American [sic] sanctions.” This is quite an admission from a publication that has been at the cutting edge of disseminating the ad Venzuelum as well as propagandizing for the US-orchestrated coup led by so-called ‘interim president’ Juan Guaidó and for US interventionism more broadly.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/06/08/even-the-new-york-times-now-admits-that-its-us-sanctions-not-socialism-thats-destroying-venezuela/
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“These lawmakers represent states with a direct interest in pouring billions into modernizing and building new weapons.”

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/05/26/meet-the-senate-nuke-caucus-busting-the-budget-and-making-the-world-less-safe/
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While Americans never stop waxing on about our POW’s or our casualties, sometimes I wonder if they ever consider the tens of millions of people that we have assaulted, murdered, displace and lives that we have ruined by our meddlesome, Imperialist, aggressor foreign policy and our chemical weapons deployment. This proposed bill at least addresses that issue somewhat.

“U.S. veterans have received some compensation, writes Marjorie Cohn, but very little assistance has been given to the intended victims of the defoliant. “

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/06/07/bill-introduced-in-us-congress-to-help-agent-orange-vietnamese-victims/
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“Instead, it became a public relations debacle, as Saudi Arabia not only publicly brutalized a desperate and impoverished population but also proved incapable of defeating a “ragtag” group of rebels despite billions of dollars of U.S. military hardware. The Saudis’ recent willingness to negotiate a cease-fire reflects their weakened position.

Yet the reason the Saudis feel ready to engage and the Houthis do not lies in the terms of the negotiation. Blinken failed to acknowledge that the Saudis’ cease-fire proposal, as well as the terms offered by U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking in March, impose harsh terms on the Houthis. The U.S. and Saudi claim that they are pursuing peace is less than honest, because the plans they’ve offered the Houthis could encourage them to keep fighting rather than accept a truce.

To end a war, the victors usually dictate terms to the losers. Imposing maximalist demands on the victors is futile: They will simply continue fighting.”

https://outline.com/Cnyaht
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“I don’t put faith in Human Rights Watch, but it must be said that it’s a very powerful institution. It carries a lot of moral authority and its April 27 report, entitled “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution ,” was a very valuable weapon in delegitimizing aspects of Israeli policy. And it’s now being very widely quoted by supporters of the Palestinians: “Human Rights Watch says Israel is a state based on Jewish domination. Human Rights Watch says Israel is committing crimes against humanity in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and in Gaza. Human Rights Watch says the idea of a Jewish state in the context of Palestine is not legitimate.”

That’s a very powerful weapon. If you are involved in the struggle of trying to persuade public opinion, these are very powerful weapons. And Israel is currently in a panic mode. For those of you who know the United States scene of the past three years, Israel’s supporters have been targeting college campuses about what’s called Israeli Apartheid Week . Israel supporters are trying to say that it’s anti-Semitic to call Israel an apartheid state, that the university officials should not allow an Israel Apartheid Week. Well, guess what happened? B’ T selem — The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories , Israel’s leading human rights organization, said Israel practices apartheid. Human Rights Watch, the main human rights organization in the world? Guess what it said? Israel is practicing apartheid in the West Bank, in East Jerusalem, in Gaza.”

https://www.blackagendareport.com/norman-finkelstein-truth-and-justice-are-ultimate-test-not-international-ngos-0
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“Contrary to the claim that Israel suddenly found itself holding territories after the June ’67 war, declassified documents reveal detailed directives drawn up by the IDF ahead of the prolonged policing mission it would be tasked with.”

https://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium.HIGHLIGHT-israel-said-67-land-conquests-weren-t-planned-declassified-documents-say-otherwise-1.9873297
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“Pursuit of a chimerical Palestinian state that, in any foreseeable political situation, is not going to be more than a collection of beleaguered Bantustans, has become a culpable diversion from seeking equal civil rights and personal security for Palestinians.

A ground-breaking examination of an alternative option is spelled out by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the US/Middle East Project in a detailed study called Breaking the Israel-Palestine Status Quo. This proposes a rights-based approach, notably freedom for the Palestinians from dispossession and discrimination and the assertion of their right to freedom of movement. This would confront and seek to reverse what the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch have both denounced as a system of apartheid, enforcing inferior status on Palestinians.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/06/08/forget-the-peace-process-the-focus-now-should-be-on-restoring-civil-rights-to-palestinians/
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“A human-rights-based approach, notably freedom for the Palestinians from dispossession and discrimination and the assertion of their right to freedom of movement.”

“A new U.S. approach should prioritize protecting the rights and human security of Palestinians and Israelis over maintaining a peace process and attempting short-term fixes.”

https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/04/19/breaking-israel-palestine-status-quo-pub-84167
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“Julian Assange’s father and brother continue their U.S. tour and will be in Boston where Assange will be presented with the Sacco and Vanzetti award on Wednesday at 3 pm EDT, live-streamed here.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/06/08/watch-assange-wins-sacco-vanzetti-award-in-boston/