CCI Friends,

I was shocked on April 13 when ominous U.S. “Defender-Europe 2021 ‘War Games’” were announced on Ukraine/Russia’s border … using 30,000 NATO troops, miles of new tanks and battleships headed for the Black Sea. Stunned also, Russians quickly fielded a similar number of soldiers, miles of trucks near their borders and ordered the ships out of their waters!

The U.S. side, hyped the news channels about Russians mounting for war (while totally ignoring the U.S. Defender-Europe 21 War Games). For those who don’t follow news carefully, Russia looked like the big bad bear … there was no mention of the U.S. War Games (which preemped Russia’s response)!

We Americans believe in fair play … don’t we? We teach our children to treat others kindly on their playgrounds … don’t we? We expect fair play on basketball courts and golf greens … don’t we? It’s a matter of personal pride … isn’t it? Only unsavory characters do otherwise … right?

Then why do we tolerate our government, president and military to stoop to such dangerous antics? They provoked fear in another heavily nuclearized nation, spent enormous amounts of our tax dollars for troops, tanks, weapons and battleships,  … and then blamed Russia for having troops on their own borders?

Below Natylie Baldwin points out other dangerous idiocies. Please read and determine if this is acceptable behavior for people in U.S. leadership.

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Dear CCI Followers,

Like many of you, I’ve been deeply conflicted regarding the role our nation has and is playing across the world. Our military combined with NATO has caused unimaginable devastation, death and suffering in one nation after another for decades.

For years the notion that we were ‘taking out dictators’ and creating the way for democracy, seemed to make us feel like we were forging a noble path. Ignoring the killing fields in Vietnam, we moved into the Middle East countries with a vengeance. Many of us have become deeply disturbed by the outcome of these wars.

Reading James Carden’s “Isolationism Revisited” below, I’m finding myself excited by Thomas Jefferson’s 1801 inaugural address saying  “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.”  Any of the Middle East people today would be better off if we had stayed out of their countries.

I think I’ve just become a Jeffersonian Isolationist!  If we go into another country to share food, water, sanitation and medical help, that’s wonderful. If not, we need to stay out and let them work out their own evolutions.

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Dear CCI Followers,

CCI and World BEYOND War  have a high-level discussion for you on Thursday, May 6.

Two serious experts, Ray McGovern, former CIA briefer on USSR/Russia to several U.S.Presidents, and Vladimir Kozin, Russian expert on Defense, missiles and nuclear war, will discuss their concerns for where the United States and Russia are today regarding the potential for World War III.

David Swanson, author, activist, journalist and Director of World BEYOND War, will host this ZOOM event.

Please be sure to make time for this:

Thursday, May 06, 2021:  1 PM EDT,  10 AM PST

Register here:
https://actionnetwork.org/events/an-online-conversation-on-peace-russia-and-the-united-states-with-vladimir-kozin-and-ray-mcgovern

Once you have registered you will be given the Zoom link to enter the discussion.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Dear CCI Followers,

Putin made Russia’s position on Ukraine clear and known in his State of the Nation speech yesterday. Do Joe Biden and the Democrat Party want to risk WWIII? This is the decision they have before them.

What can we do to offset this insanity? We can call and email the White House, call and email our Congress members, write short, passionate letters to our newspapers, discuss this issue with your neighbors, friends, fellow workers, VIPs in your network.

Do we care enough about our families and ourselves to make our concerns known to others? We at CCI base, will do all of these recommendations above this weekend. Please help us by doing the same!

Until now we in America have been a quiet populace, going along with whatever Washington says or does. This may be our last chance to speak out to our elected officials and each other.

Please … please, over the weekend, send this email to all whom you know, write brief letters to officials and create a ground-level outpouring of angst that we want our families and all life to survive on this planet!

See below: Raymond McGovern, top U.S. CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President’s Daily Brief (for each President). He received the Intelligence Commendation Medal at his retirement … and then returned it in 2006 to protest the CIA’s involvement in torture.

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