KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL and JAMES W. CARDEN – At this juncture, with Russia at the start of a new offensive in Ukraine, vanden Heuvel and Carden believe diplomatic engagement is the only moral and realistic policy available to President Biden and his advisors.
Category: Analysis
Cuba Is Not a State Sponsor of Terrorism
NOAM CHOMSKY and VIJAY PRASHAD – For two years, the Biden administration has maintained Trump’s vindictive policy, one that punishes Cuba not for terrorism but for the promotion of peace. But Biden can remove Cuba from this list with a stroke of his pen.
Shah-ddy Workmanship: How the US Undermined Democracy in Iran
HALEY MORROW and TOM H. HASTINGS – Since the US was the most significant actor in deposing the democratically elected Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953, and then installing Shah, Iranians knew he was a “puppet of the non-Muslim West.” While few Americans know or remember that our country ended democracy and installed a dictatorship in Iran, virtually no Iranians have forgotten. If anything, that is the sad strength of the theocracy–they blame all Iranian problems on “The Great Satan” (the US).
A Realistic ‘Energy Transition’ Is to Get Better at Using Less of It
RICHARD HEINBERG – My aim is not to discourage people working toward an energy transition, but to insist that we develop a realistic plan for energy descent, rather than insisting on foolish dreams of eternal consumer abundance by means other than fossil fuels. Currently, politically rooted insistence on continued economic growth is discouraging truth-telling and serious planning for how to live well with less.
State of the Union Address Shows Us Reality and Surreality
DR. TOM H. HASTINGS – I hope the vast majority of us are paying enough attention to get serious about upholding what is good and helpful for us. The devils are hyperactive in the details but, as we heard and saw, they reveal to all of us what they are willing to do if we are at all apathetic about it. As Edmund Burke reminded us, all that is necessary for evil to triumph is good people do nothing.
Don’t Give Up on the UN
GARY B. OSTROWER – A world organization with the ability to prevent war makes more sense than a narrow and nationalistic commitment to traditional sovereignty. In that case, the UN may begin to live up to its original promise.
Diplomatic Cables Prove Top U.S. Officials Knew They Were Crossing Russia’s Red Lines on NATO Expansion
BRANKO MARCETIC – A review of the public record and dozens of diplomatic cables made publicly available via WikiLeaks show that U.S. officials were aware, or were directly told over the span of years, that expanding NATO was viewed by Russian officials well beyond Putin as a major threat and provocation; that expanding it to Ukraine was a particularly bright red line for Moscow; that such action would inflame and empower hawkish, nationalist parts of the Russian political spectrum; and that it could ultimately lead to war.
And Now They Want to Arm Our Children?
ROB OKUN – We can have a country, if we launch a sustained nationwide, nonviolent movement to end the scourge of gun violence.
The U.S. Foreign Policy Establishment Proves in Ukraine That It Forgot the Lessons of Vietnam
JAMES W. CARDEN – The wariness and suspicion of unnecessary and unsupportable foreign interventions which, albeit all-too-temporarily, stemmed from the “Vietnam Syndrome” is today utterly absent in the corridors of power in Joe Biden’s Washington. The Vietnam Syndrome is indeed kicked: Dead and buried. But we may soon regret its passing.
Are We on the Verge of Civil War II?
ROBERT C. KOEHLER – Martin Luther King, in 1964, warned of the escalation of violence and its consequences when he delivered his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, pointing out to the world that: “. . . in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones. . . . Violence ends up defeating itself.” Verge of Civil War II? Consider the signs.
The Myth of the “Moderate Republican” — and Why It’s So Dangerous
NORMAN SOLOMON and JEFF COHEN – Applying adjectives like “moderate” to congressional Republicans is much worse than merely bad word choices. Our language “becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish,” George Orwell wrote, “but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” And dangerous ones.
The Squeaker of the House
WIM LAVEN – It is hard to deliver on political promises. Getting results requires hard work and Kevin cannot do any heavy lifting because he has given up his backbone. As Squeaker of the House we should not expect much more than noise, and the people will need to use their voices to drown out the right-wing extremism that is on its way.
Biden to Democrats: Nominate Me, Whether You Like It or Not
NORMAN SOLOMON – With 2023 underway, Democrats in office are still dodging the key fact that most of their party’s voters don’t want President Biden to run for re-election. Among prominent Democratic politicians, deference is routine while genuine enthusiasm is sparse.
Peace Activists to take on the Pentagon and its Corporate Outposts
KATHY KELLY – Mindful of the children who are maimed, traumatized, displaced, orphaned, and killed by all of the wars raging today, we must hold ourselves accountable as well. Phil Berrigan’s challenge must become ours: “Meet me at the Pentagon!” Or at its corporate outposts.
School Vouchers Have Been a Disaster—Now Advocates Are Trying to Rename Them
PETER GREENE – ESAs (education savings accounts) are legal in around 10 states so far, but if this new idea for promoting school choice hasn’t already been proposed in your state, it may be appearing there soon. Here’s what education savings accounts are, how they work, and what policymakers and families in your state should consider before rushing headlong into adopting this idea.
Fusion–and its Radioactive and Nuclear Weapons Links
KARL GROSSMAN – A research physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab working on fusion energy research and development says “it is time to ask: Is fusion really a ‘perfect’ energy source?”
The “Groundhog Day” Syndrome and Progressive Movements in the U.S.
RICK JAHNKOW – A long game is a slow process that doesn’t satisfy our culturally-ingrained need in the U.S. to see immediate results from everything we do. Nevertheless, if we are ever going to break free of the Groundhog Day syndrome, long-game approaches must be given as much emphasis as organizing rallies that demand “change now!”
Corporate Control in the US: How Pervasive Is It?
BRAD WOLF – Thanks to Lewis Powell and his colleagues, the planet now faces multiple crises, and perhaps extinction, by way of corporate hand. The danger is real, existential, measurable. The dead can be counted. The homeless, the hungry, the drought stricken, flooded, burned down, and the war-ravaged form a chorus of suffering. Corporate profits, CEO salaries, lobbying expenditures, and tax cuts reveal the why and how.
Pursuit of Profit Decimates Quality Journalism
BERNIE SANDERS – We need to rebuild and protect a diverse and truly independent press so that real journalists and media workers can do the critical jobs that they love, and that a functioning democracy requires.-
Can We Rebuild a Welcoming Political Culture? You Might Be Surprised
MELINDA BURRELL – A team of psychologists and neuroscientists recently reviewed studies about how to reduce partisan animosity — those negative feelings we have towards people in the other party. The team identified three science-backed areas of potential action: thoughts, relationships, and institutions.
Small modular reactors will not save the day. The US can get to 100% clean power without new nuclear.
ARJUN MAKHIJANI – We can create a renewable electricity system that is much more resilient to weather extremes and more reliable than what we have today. The thinking needs to change, as the Drake Landing Solar Community in Alberta, Canada, where it gets to negative 40 degrees Celsius in the winter, has shown. It provides over 90% of its heating by storing solar energy in the ground before the winter comes. Better than waiting for the nuclear Godot.
Why Movements Need to Revive Song Culture
PAUL ENGLER – Music is making a comeback in movement spaces, as organizers rediscover how song culture strengthens the capacity to create social change.
Ubuntu or Collective Suicide
ROBERT C. KOEHLER – This will never be a perfect world. This will never be a world without conflict. But let’s pause in this moment, calm ourselves, set down our hatred and look each other in the eyes. I am because you are.
The Renewable Energy Transition Is Failing
RICHARD HEINBERG – We need a realistic plan for energy descent, instead of foolish dreams of eternal consumer abundance by means other than fossil fuels. Currently, politically rooted insistence on continued economic growth is discouraging truth-telling and serious planning for how to live well with less.
Nuclear Guinea Pigs: NRC’s Licensing of Experimental Nuclear Plants
KARL GROSSMAN – “Guinea Pig Nation: How the NRC’s new licensing rules could turn communities into test beds for risky, experimental nuclear plants,” is what physicist Dr. Edwin Lyman, Director of Nuclear Power Safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), titled his presentation last week.
Across Africa, Water Conflict Threatens Security, Health, and the Environment
ROBIN SCHER – Water is a finite resource on our planet. We can only rely on what we have, which translates to about 2.5 percent of drinkable fresh water. Of that amount, only 0.4 percent currently exists in lakes, rivers, and moisture in the atmosphere. The strain of this limited supply grows by the day and as this continues, the detrimental impact will continue to be felt in places least equipped to find alternative solutions—in particular, the African continent.
Small Modular Reactor Update: The Fading Promise of Low-Cost Power
DAVID SCHLISSEL – The promise of cheap power from small modular reactors (SMRs) is disapearing.
The Need for Global Unity: How World Law Can Save Us All
JACOPO DE MARINIS – Many people will say that a world republic is unattainable. What country would agree to limit its absolute sovereignty? And yes, a country whose political leaders are held captive by special interests like military contractors and the fossil fuel industry might not agree to such an arrangement. Yet if the people unite with conviction to claim their right to live in a peaceful world, free from nuclear weapons, and to enjoy an economically and environmentally sustainable future―birthrights a world federal government is uniquely positioned to protect―this seemingly unattainable dream could become our reality.
How the US Should Respond to Israeli Right-Wing Extremism
MEL GURTOV and LARRY KIRSCH – While it is far from clear precisely how US policymakers will express their opposition to Israeli extremism—whether indirectly, through the FTO list as we have suggested, or more directly through diplomatic or legislative means—most important is that the US government deter terrorism sponsored by entities close to the heart of the incoming Israeli government. And those who rightly decry Palestinian terrorism need to take a hard look at what Israelis have just voted in—a coalition that has prominent advocates of violence against innocent Arab citizens. Doing so would give substance to US support of human rights, not only in Israel but in the Middle East generally.
Magic Phrase: “Let’s fix this.”
TOM H. HASTINGS – While there are many helpful phrases in the “street peace” trainings that we do as the Portland Peace Team, my favorite, which we offer when possible to someone in emotional distress over a soluble crisis, is, “Let’s fix this.”
Time to Reset Military Relations with Saudi Arabia
MEL GURTOV – Ending military ties with the Saudi Arabian Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) regime is long overdue.
Biden’s Foreign Policy Sinking His Party & Ukraine
JEFFREY D. SACHS – The U.S. president’s dismissal of diplomacy undermines his own party, prolongs the destruction of Ukraine and threatens nuclear war.
Our Climate is On the Ballot – Protect It
MICHAEL DOVER – It’s no secret that the extremists who now control the Republican Party are vehemently opposed to ending our addiction to fossil fuels, the main culprits in the climate crisis. Even before the rise of Donald Trump, diplomats who forged the Paris Accords cited the U.S. Republican Party as the most serious obstacle in the world to climate progress.
If You Value Your Life, Better Vote D
LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – Although, in recent decades, American conservatives have embraced what they call the “Right to Life,” they have certainly done a poor job of sustaining life in the United States. That’s the conclusion that can be drawn from a just-published scientific study, “U.S. state policy contexts and mortality of working-age adults.”
Will Greed and Dissociation from Nature Do Us In?
ROBERT KOEHLER – It’s fascinating how “interests” interfere with survival. We prepare for — and, of course, wage — war with an overwhelming percentage of our resources (to the benefit of the profiteers), but we plead poverty when it comes to helping people or, you know, saving the planet.It’s fascinating how “interests” interfere with survival. We prepare for — and, of course, wage — war with an overwhelming percentage of our resources (to the benefit of the profiteers), but we plead poverty when it comes to helping people or, you know, saving the planet.
The West Must Stop Blocking Negotiations Between Ukraine And Russia
VIJAY PRASHAD – Ukrainians have been paying a terrible price for the failure of ensuring sensible and reasonable negotiations from 2014 to February 2022. Negotiations could have prevented the invasion by Russia in the first place, and once the war started, could have led to the end of this war to February 2022.
Global Existence is Threatened as Long as Nuclear Weapons Exist
LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – It’s been a long time since the atomic bombings of August 1945, when people around the planet first realized that world civilization stood on the brink of doom. This apocalyptic ending to the Second World War revealed to all that, with the advent of nuclear weapons, violent conflict among nations had finally reached the stage where it could terminate life on earth. Addressing a CBS radio audience in early 1946, Robert Hutchins, chancellor of the University of Chicago, summed up the new situation with a blunt warning: “War means atomic bombs. And atomic bombs mean suicide.”
How Nonviolent Strategy and Training Won a Key Victory in the Anti-Apartheid Sports Boycott
GEORGE LAKEY –
As Iraq War Vote Anniversary Nears, Don’t Forget Who Was Responsible
STEPHEN ZUNES -As we approach the 20th anniversary of the fateful congressional vote authorizing the invasion of Iraq, many are questioning what would have happened had Congress refused to go along. There was widespread public opposition to going to war at the time.
Nukes Are Our Corporate Death Wish…the Sun is the People’s Cure
HARVEY WASSERMAN – Humankind’s ultimate extinction is now flowing through an atomic death spiral. A single errant shell at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia…a single seismic shock at California’s Diablo Canyon…can bury us all in apocalyptic radiation.
How We Could Use Peace and Diplomacy to Break the Cycle of Insecurity
ROGER PEACE – Continuation of the current system of big power competition and rival blocs bodes ill for the future. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has set its “doomsday clock” at 100 seconds to midnight, closer than it has ever been, based on nuclear and global warming threats, an indication of how close humanity is to “destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making.” Moving toward mutual security and cooperation will set the clock back and allow humanity to move forward.
The Military to American Youth: You Belong to Me
ROBERT KOEHLER – The U.S. military needs more than just money (a trillion dollars or so) in its annual budget. It needs access to America’s young people as well — their wallets, their bodies, and their minds.
Putin, Biden Not Trying Hard Enough to Avoid World War III
BRAD WOLF – We have it within our means to not only “avoid World War III,” but to fundamentally change the world and create an enhanced quality of life for all. We have “weapons” of our own, nonviolent and effective. Hopefully, we will unite and realize the power we have before we all are boiled alive. There is literally no time like the present.
Active Today or Radioactive Tomorrow?
ROBERT MOORE – It’s not too soon to conclude that continued reliance on nuclear energy to generate electricity can be weaponized, as we never know when a plant might become a military target. If a conventionally powered power plant had an accident or became a military base, the area near it could recover. That’s just not the case with nuclear energy.
Nine Stupid Nations
WINSLOW MYERS – “Stupid” is the most harsh and humiliating adjective that can be flung at a person, let alone a nation-state. What’s the usual response to being called stupid? Nothing positive. We just go into reaction and resistance. I’m sorry, but there is no other word to describe the obstinate refusal of the nuclear powers to cooperate to dismantle their nuclear arsenals even as the climate emergency sweeps across the world.
Did Boris Johnson Help Stop a Peace Deal in Ukraine?
CONNOR ECHOLS – Russia and Ukraine may have agreed on a tentative deal to end the war in April, according to a recent piece in Foreign Affairs.
The West’s Dangerously Simple-Minded Narrative About Russia and China
JEFFREY D. SACHS – The overwrought fear of China and Russia is sold to a Western public through manipulation of the facts.
Is Curiosity the New Form of Patriotism?
MELINDA BURRELL – In our dynamic world, we need to get comfortable with complexity. Good solutions to our myriad problems require it. Is that the 21st century version of patriotism? If we love our country and want to help it succeed, is our best tool our choice to be inquisitive about people and issues?
Gorbachev Ended Cold War, Eased Nuclear Tensions But Trusted US Too Much
NEWS GHANA – Late Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was a good, well-meaning man who ended the Cold War and dramatically reduced superpower and global nuclear tensions, but he put too much trust into the unwritten assurances of American leaders, experts
Remembering the Genius of Bayard Rustin
GEORGE LAKEY – Thirty-five years after his death, the man who mentored Martin Luther King Jr. still has much to teach movements about harnessing the power of ‘people in motion.’