Bringing Russian and American citizens together in Peace since 1983.
Dear CCI Followers,
Katrina vanden Heuvel’s analysis below is so “right on!” Please read and forward to your Congress members and friends; that is, if you agree. Let us know if you see the situation from a different perspective.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
U.S.-Russia ties are nosediving after Russian leader Vladimir Putin shot back at President Joe Biden’s description of him as a killer.
U.S. News & World Report
By Vladimir Isachenkov and Matthew Lee, Associated Press
March 18, 2021
MOSCOW (AP) — U.S.-Russia ties nosedived on Thursday after Russian leader Vladimir Putin shot back at President Joe Biden’s description of him as a killer.
The back and forth underscored Biden’s desire to distance himself from former President Donald Trump’s perceived softness on Putin despite actions his administration took against Russia. Although Biden agreed to extend a major arms control deal with Russia, he has been notably cool toward Moscow and highly critical of many of its activities.
In taking a tough stance on Russia, Biden has said the days of the U.S. “rolling over” to Putin are done. And he has taken pains to contrast his style with the approach of Trump, who avoided direct confrontation and frequently spoke about Putin with approval.
In an interview broadcast Wednesday, Biden replied “I do” when asked if he thought Putin was a “killer.” Also Wednesday, U.S. intelligence released a report finding that Putin authorized influence operations to help Trump’s re-election bid.
Regardless of which party is in power, US foreign policy since 9/11 has meant a unified government under the masters of war.
Nation
March 11, 2021
By David Bromwich
Why does the Democratic Party want the Cold War back? Senator Mark Warner and Representative Adam Schiff tell us that Russia is the destroyer of democracy at home and abroad. Vladimir Putin, in their view, is seeking more than reasonable elbow room in Eastern Europe. He aims to subvert and conquer America. In a podcast conversation with Nancy Pelosi after the January 6 Capitol riot, Hillary Clinton said she would “love to see” Trump’s phone records from that day to find out if he was consulting with Putin. This fantastical supposition was greeted by Pelosi with instant credulity: “All roads lead to Putin.”
Where would they be without an enemy? These Democrats have already formed an implicit alliance with Republicans Liz Cheney, Tom Cotton, and Nikki Haley, as well as assorted media friends of the war party dating back to Iraq, such as Max Boot and Jennifer Rubin. There are reasons to hope that Joe Biden’s foreign policy team will have a sounder balance, but the dramatis personae thus far leave an uneasy impression. Susan Rice, a careerist of the foreign policy elite who stopped just short of the highest rung under Barack Obama—having been denied promotion to secretary of state, owing to her association with the Benghazi disaster—has been put in charge of domestic policy. Yet she is hardly likely to stay away from the discussions that interest her more. Antony Blinken at the State Department, Jake Sullivan at the National Security Council, and Samantha Power as head of the US Agency for International Development will administer democracy-promotion initiatives that in the past have been known to include shipments of “armed doctrine.”
Hello CCI followers,
You may know that the late Stephen F. Cohen influenced generations of young academics and journalists who shared his concerns regarding the dangers of a new cold war with Russia and the mainstream media’s refusal to meaningfully challenge the narrative set by Washington’s bipartisan foreign policy elites.
Shortly after Cohen’s demise last September, three of his younger admirers and friends came together to form a new media outlet on Substack called The Scrum, which is dedicated to Steve. I have been a subscriber since the beginning and love their insightful pieces! So I asked The Scrum founding editor, James Carden, about the new site and what he and his colleagues hope to achieve with it:
Can you tell me what distinctive role you are aiming for in the world of so many different types of journalism?
Yes. The Scrum is a project by three writers (Patrick Lawrence, Marshall Auerback and myself) who have come together to analyze current events without any interest in playing to the prejudices or preconceptions of the Left or the Right. Simply put, we look at foreign and domestic issues and ask: what policies advance the common good, here and abroad? Do wars, illegal interventions, cold wars, sanctions, bellicose rhetoric and enormous defense budgets promote peace and global stability or do they not? We believe they do not and we take a deeply critical eye toward all those aspects, regardless of who is in charge.
What perspective do you hope to leave with readers?
One of the things I do when I am writing a story is to ask myself what Steve Cohen would have thought; his approach to foreign affairs was to champion diplomacy, to wage peace not war, to talk to and try to understand our adversaries and those different from us. In short, to try and use empathy and our common humanity to get to common solutions. At The Scrum you will never see us demonize a world leader or cast aspersions on an entire population because they have cultures and systems different from us. We believe in pluralism at home and abroad.
The Scrum is one of a small number of responsible and independent news sources available today. I urge you to check out TheScrum.Substack.com. If you are interested, sign up for a 30 day subscription.
Dear CCI Friends and Followers,
Some 800 U.S. Military bases operate across the world. I’ve been stunned wondering how much money must be going into these huge operations about which we Americans have little to no information or decision making. The subject seemed too huge to even know how to begin investigating.
These 800 bases were never mentioned (that I remember) during the 2020 election. Nor were the dozens of wars being fought in countries we seldom know how to find on maps! We salute our soldiers and don’t ask or care where they are or what they are doing.
This morning, I finally got answers to my questions and more: I got to hear educated, passionate voices on a webinar from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
The Quincy Institute is a relatively new U.S. “Think Tank” and the most truthful and daring of the dozens of these entities that exist in the Washington DC area. Most are political party specific. They “think” for their Democrat or Republican Congress members.
The Quincy Institute is different. It was founded in 2019 by a West Pointer, a dedicated military man, Andrew Bacevich … who woke up, left the military, got a PhD in U.S. Military Science and began writing books and speaking with the American public. He founded the Institute to educate regarding America’s wars, bases and much more. He’s kindly, analytical and committed to finding the Truth … with the hope of saving our nation and our world in the process.
Google the Quincy Institute first, if you don’t know the scope of this new Institute. Then click this URL https://youtu.be/uSauo4d-SMA to learn about the 800 bases from Bacevich and his three expert researchers. If you go to about 4 minutes in … Bacevich will begin to explore this topic.
I was amazed to learn so much in such a short time! You may be also.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives