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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Dear CCI Friends,

I check out both Democrat and Republican TV channels from time to time and found a clip with Colonel Douglas MacGregor that I feel deserves the attention of both parties.

Check this out and see if it makes sense to you:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xjYHO8TWoc.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Respected CCI Followers:

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff with innumerable VIP positions in America’s War Colleges, sits for a ZOOM with questions from James Carden of ACURA, (Professor Steve Cohen’s NGO) and Patrick Lawrence at The Scrum.

The discussion: America’s Addiction to WAR––the latest: Ukraine-Russia-China

This is a MUST to watch! Set aside the time to absorb this Zoom’s essence and then think through how we citizens and U.S. experts can chart a totally different course to offset this latest addictions being put forth by the Biden coordinators.

Keep paper and pen handy to jot down key words and ideas for solution making. We must capture these concepts and figure out how to re-educate and reverse the warring mentality now so prevalent among us here in the United States.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkFxzkYGsqc&ab_channel=scrum1

Don’t miss this! Send us your ideas.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Dear CCI Readers,

Each day brings new complications and changes. Anatol Lieven, Quincy Institutes new Russia specialist and ACURA (American Committee for US Russia Accord) board member, again takes us to the front lines of accusations and sanctions. We need serious professionals to understand these terms and act judiciously.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Responsible Statecraft

Why Biden’s new Russian sanctions are shortsighted, and dangerous

April 15, 2021
By Anatol Lieven

The Biden administration’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan is a wise and morally courageous one. It refuses to inherit and continue a disastrous American tradition in foreign and security policy: the obsession with defending meaningless U.S. “credibility” (aka prestige), irrespective of real national interests and of the cost in American lives and money.

Previous U.S. “strategy” in Afghanistan was a kind of zombie policy: in reality dead, but still walking around because nobody in Washington could bring themselves to bury it.

The obsession with mortal threats from Russia is a zombie dating back to the Cold War, and should have been buried when that struggle ended. It is a terrible pity that Biden cannot break with this obsession, and also with a bipartisan belief in sanctions as a way to bludgeon other countries into subservience to America’s will, instead of getting them to compromise on shared vital interests.

Biden has stated that the new sanctions against Russia announced today have been imposed for three reasons  — and all three of them are wrong.

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