Dear CCI Friends,

We Americans are told we need new supersonic missiles that are 5 times faster than the speed of sound in order to ward off an attack from Russia or China.

We who keep up with Russia closely are absolutely certain that Russia has no intention to start a war with us, nor would China. Why would these countries risk a war after renovating their major cities with new 40-story buildings, concentrating on consumer production throughout the world and re-establishing their classical cultures? A war to demolish all that they are working so hard to rebuild in the past 20 years???  Come on now!

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Dear CCI Friends,

I don’t know whether you get as much information on these topics as I get, but I can’t avoid choosing to spend 2020 doing everything I can do to reject war-making and war continuation. We comfortable people here in America MUST come to grips with what is going on in our name and with our tax dollars. Please help with educating the American public in 2020 — so many are blithely unaware of these facts below.

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Dear CCI Friends and Colleagues,

A Russian whom we Americans love and respect, President Mikhail Gorbachev, spoke out yesterday. His health is in a precarious place and has been for some time, but speaking out on the state of our world seems to give him the impetus to stay alive till now.

In September just passed we had an appointment with President Gorbachev which he was unable to keep due to his condition that day. His devoted interpreter and friend for over 40 years, Pavel Palazhchenko, met with us for two hours shortly thereafter. Our ageing hero is rarely able to keep appointments these days, but even so, still sends out strong messages. His insistence is that we Americans and Russians MUST resurrect our former good relations; or else humanity may cease to exist.

Below is his latest message and following it are several other URL’s delivered in the past few days. Study them and think seriously with us what we can do to get Gorbachev’s messages out to our American friends who don’t take seriously the imminent danger in which we now find ourselves.

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Riva Enteen reports on CCI’s recent delegation to Russia and the chance to consider the country and its recent turbulent history from the vantage point of people living there.

Consortium News
October 23rd, 2019
By Riva Enteen

I just came home to California from a 50-person citizen diplomacy delegation to Russia to ponder my neighbor’s bumper sticker that says “Just pretend it’s all OK.” That’s the American state of mind, but it doesn’t extend to Russians, who are painfully aware of war and its death and destruction. The still pervasive images of wheat in the cities and towns reflect the necessity of feeding the people. The US unapologetically operates on the principle that war is good for business. Russians know war too deeply to accept that premise.

Russians call WWII the Great Patriotic War because of all the allies, they lost the most people (27 million) by a wide margin and fought the longest to defeat the Nazis. The siege of Leningrad lasted an almost incomprehensible 900 days. There is a visceral understanding of war in Russia, while in the US war is so sanitized that the corporate media is forbidden to show coffins draped in American flags.

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