Christian Science Monitor
May 8, 2018

To pay for a ‘Russia first’ agenda, Putin takes ax to military spending

By Fred Weir, Correspondent

MOSCOW

Inaugurated for his fourth official term as Russia’s president Monday, Vladimir Putin surprised many by declaring what sounds like a “Russia first” program: a relentless focus on domestic development, to be partially paid for by sharp cuts in defense spending.

It may sound contrary to Western perceptions of Russia’s global intentions. But the priorities listed in the new Kremlin strategic program suggest that Mr. Putin has decided to use what seems likely to be his final term in office to cement his already substantial legacy as a nation-builder.

The projected surge in spending on roads, education, and health care will have to be paid for. A key source of that funding will be the military budget, which had been growing by around 10 percent annually for much of the Putin era.

“The times when the external threat was used to make cuts in social expenditures palatable has passed. We can’t go on like that any longer,” says Pavel Zolotaryov, deputy director of the Institute of USA-Canada Studies (ISKRAN), which is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “A lot of the goals of military modernization have already been accomplished, so we can afford to slow it down, make selective cuts to fund social goals, while continuing the basic path.”

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Dear CCI Friends,

Seldom do we have the opportunity to see two experts, from two quite different positions, debate the topic of “Who is to Blame” for the new Cold War.

Watch Professor Stephen F. Cohen, America’s greatest living historian on all things Russian and former American Ambassador to Russia for two years, Professor Michael McFaul from Stanford University as they addressed the topic for public consumption on May 15, 2018. This debate occurred at the prestigious Harriman Institute at Columbia University.

Please put the following link in your browser and witness the passion and depth to which Professor Cohen expresses his deep concern for the current situation that jeopardizes our entire planet and Professor McFaul as he relates to the same set of facts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4dJcdM2Dkg

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Dear Friends,

I am sure that if any American takes a serious look at the costs of human suffering caused by these perpetual wars, they will be aghast and unable to sleep at night. A number of times I have tried to mentally put myself in the shoes of a refugee mother with my four small children to feed and protect… and other atrocities that are even worse for a mother to witness. It causes such pain that I have to close my mind to it. No wonder our young veterans come back from these wars emotionally torn to shreds and damaged for life––with now some 22 of them committing suicide daily.

When will we Americans wake up??? Wake up and demand a halt to all of this? Yes, I know it would cause huge unemployment in 45 out of 50 states where armaments are manufactured around the clock … and yes, to bring home army personnel from 800 military bases across the world would mean millions of jobless men coming back here to somehow make a living for themselves and their families. And yes … it would cause a huge shift in the U.S. financial system, no doubt a severe depression.

Who has a plan to find this many people a means to survive? Have we created a monster that we have no way to deal with other than continuing down this track? Where are our solution makers, our best minds who can tell us what the social and financial costs would be if we choose a course correction?

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Consortiumnews.com
February 4, 2018

Recipe Concocted for Perpetual War is a Bitter One

Perpetual war is leading to a host of societal ills, yet debates on war and peace are almost entirely absent from public discourse, Robert Wing and Coleen Rowley observe.

By Robert Wing and Coleen Rowley

Last October marked the 16th anniversary of our unending war – or military occupation – in Afghanistan, the longest conflict on foreign soil in U.S. history. The cost to human lives in our current cycle of U.S.-initiated “perpetual wars” throughout the Middle East and Africa is unthinkably high. It runs well into millions of deaths if one counts – as do the Nuremberg principles of international law – victims of spinoff fighting and sectarian violence that erupt after we destroy governance structures.

Also to be counted are other forms of human loss, suffering, illness and early mortality that result from national sanctions, destruction of physical, social and medical infrastructure, loss of homeland, refugee flight, ethnic cleansing, and their psychological after-effects. One has to witness these to grasp their extent in trauma, and they all arise from the Nuremberg-defined “supreme crime” of initiating war. Waging aggressive war is something America is practiced in and does well, with justifications like “fighting terrorism,” “securing our interests,” “protecting innocents,” “spreading democracy,” etc. – as has every aggressor in history that felt the need to explain its aggressions.

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Friends,

Please call your Congress members and let them know that Congress, not the President, should make the decision whether or not to declare war on another country. Republican Senator Paul says: It is wrong, it is unconstitutional and it should be stopped!

Read below.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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The American Conservative
May 7, 2018

Rand Paul: Congress Moves to Give the President Unlimited War Powers

The Kentucky senator warns the new AUMF is a massive abdication by the legislative branch.

By Rand Paul

In the near future, Congress will debate a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). I use the word “debate” lightly. So far, no hearings have been scheduled, and no testimony is likely to be heard unless something changes. That’s a shame, because this is a serious matter, and this is a deeply flawed AUMF.

For some time now, Congress has abdicated its responsibility to declare war. The status quo is that we are at war anywhere and anytime the president says so.

So Congress—in a very Congress way of doing things—has a “solution.” Instead of reclaiming its constitutional authority, it instead intends to codify the unacceptable, unconstitutional status quo.

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