Dear Friends,

Read below and ask yourself these questions: Does it benefit our country to deliberately be hostile to Russia whose nuclear weapons are as numerous as ours? Where is the logic in this direction? What will it accomplish? Is the end game to pursue this policy of hostility, surrounding Russia’s borders with missiles and troops (as it is now) until war is finally triggered? Do these senators believe that such a war would remain non-nuclear? Do they not remember the fates of Napoleon and Hitler who tried to conquer Russia? Have they not heeded Russia’s clear warnings? What is behind all of this?

Are the D.C. policy makers so fearful that they will lose power in a multi-polar world that they will risk the lives of all Americans to prevent this from happening? How far will they go with their “Full Spectrum Dominance” theories? Have they talked up their own propaganda until they believe it is true? Has the rubicon already been passed? Let us hope not!

What must we citizens do to demand a change in direction of both Republican and Democratic congress members who have the combined power to vote in these continuing insane pieces of legislation?

Send your ideas! We will work them into a medley of enlightened actions to inform American citizens of the risks and options we have to stop these nonsense pieces of legislation in their tracks. Friends, as Ed Snowden said two years ago, “There are more of us than there are of them!” Numbers count when people of conscience come together to act in their own interests.

This is not a partisan issue. For this grave issue, it doesn’t matter who you voted for.

If we don’t solve this ultimate issue, other important issues can be blown into oblivion in a 30-minute exchange of warheads.

At this juncture in our public lives, Americans of all persuasions must become conversant regarding (a) the history and relationship between Russia and America, (b) problems in our present-day democracy and (c)–if we survive this period–what kind of nation we want to build in the future.

Share this message with your friends, family, business colleagues and our youth.

Antiwar.com
February 9, 2017

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Agrees to Be Hostile Toward Russia

Bipartisan Consensus on New Sanctions, Need for New Hearings

There is a lot of political rancor in the Senate these days, but the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has found something everybody can get behind: a general anti-Russian sentiment, and the intention to take some more actions against the Russian government.

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Dear Friends,

The Chinese billionaire tells it like he sees it at the World Economic Forum. Don’t miss –– we should take notice.  Others don’t see us as we see ourselves.

Sharon

Russia Today

Nobody ‘stealing’ your jobs, you spend too much on wars, Alibaba founder tells US

Published time: 20 Jan, 2017 01:20 Edited time: 20 Jan, 2017 16:31

Friends, a second article by Nicolai Petro, Russian/Ukrainian PhD at the University of Rhode Island, who has been deeply involved with US-Russia relations for decades. He usually takes a middle of the road approach, but herein he takes the opportunity to assess what has failed and what Trump could do differently, if so inclined.

Following this article, you will next receive an update on the latest blaze of activity charted by CCI.

So keep reading!   Sharon

ACADEMIA
(prepared for Russia Direct Report, “The New Face of America,” vol. 4, 2016).  http://bit.ly/2gJhA9B

From Obama to Trump: Cold War Averted. What Now?

By Nicolai N. Petro [1]

The Trump administration has a unique opportunity to change the American foreign policy debate about Russia and move beyond the outdated policy of containment.

Obama’s foreign policy legacy is marred by the failure to improve relations with Russia. This failure is due primarily to his administration’s inability to envision Russia as anything but an obstacle to U.S. interests. Time and again, at key junctures, his administration failed to provide innovative leadership that might have moved Americans beyond the assumptions of the Cold War, and instead fell back on conventional stereotypes about Russia.

Why the Reset Failed

The “reset” serves as a model for the failure of the entire Russian-American relationship. From its inception the Reset rested on the flawed assumption that there was a rift between the values of the Kremlin and the Russian people that West could exploit. Its object was not to engage Russian officials in an open dialogue about values but instead, as the policy’s chief architect Michael McFaul explained, “to establish a direct relationship with the Russian people” over the Kremlin’s head. [2] As a result a golden opportunity to change the tenor of Russian-American relations by engaging in a real dialogue was lost.

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Dear Friends, with all the maelstrom of interpretations in media, and our own personal angst, Michael Brenner’s metaphor about Moby Dick seems apt. Please read and ponder this possibility.

Sharon

Consortium News
January 15, 2017

America’s Self-Destructive Obsessions

The U.S. population is led from one hysteria to the next, now transitioning from the Global War on Terror to the New Cold War with Russia, a fearful madness that is infecting the collective psyche, says Michael Brenner.

By Michael Brenner

Captain Ahab’s obsessive hunt for Moby Dick was driven by the thirst for revenge. The great white whale had maimed Ahab – in soul as well as body. Ahab was consumed by the passion to restore his sense of self, and make himself whole again, by killing his nemesis – a compulsion that his wooden leg never lets weaken.

America’s “war-on-terror” has become our national mission for restoration. The psychic wound of 9/11 is what grieves us; it inflames our collective passion for vengeance. The physical wound is already healed. By now, it must be memorialized in order for the scar to be seen.  It never did impair our functioning. In that sense, little more than a broken toe.

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