{"id":29846,"date":"2023-05-16T19:16:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T11:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/?p=29846"},"modified":"2023-05-18T03:45:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T19:45:45","slug":"the-u-s-should-be-a-force-for-peace-in-the-world-eisenhower-media-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/the-u-s-should-be-a-force-for-peace-in-the-world-eisenhower-media-network\/","title":{"rendered":"The U.S. Should Be a Force for Peace in the World &#8211; Eisenhower Media Network"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The Russia-Ukraine War has been an unmitigated disaster <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Hundreds of thousands have been killed or wounded <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Millions have been displaced <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Environmental and economic destruction have been incalculable <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Future devastation could be exponentially greater as nuclear powers creep ever closer toward open war<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"ose-twitter ose-uid-d29e16989bff25fe90a74feae000b201 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; height:550px; max-height:550px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\" data-embed-type=\"Twitter\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"600\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I\u2019m taking this full page New York Times ad into congress today, calling on the US to stop fueling the war in Ukraine and start promoting peace! Thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EisenhowerMedia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@EisenhowerMedia<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VEMEOSgqZw\">pic.twitter.com\/VEMEOSgqZw<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/medeabenjamin\/status\/1658483457637642250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 16, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">We deplore the violence, war crimes, indiscriminate missile strikes, terrorism, and other atrocities that are part of this war. The solution to this shocking violence is not more weapons or more war, with their guarantee of further death and destruction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">As Americans and national security experts, we urge President Biden and Congress to use their full power to end the Russia-Ukraine War speedily through diplomacy, especially given the grave dangers of military escalation that could spiral out of control.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Sixty years ago, President John F. Kennedy made an observation that is crucial for our survival today. \u201cAbove all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy\u2013or of a collective death-wish for the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">The immediate cause of this disastrous war in Ukraine is Russia\u2019s invasion. Yet the plans and actions to expand NATO to Russia\u2019s borders served to provoke Russian fears. And Russian leaders made this point for 30 years. A failure of diplomacy led to war. Now diplomacy is urgently needed to end the Russia-Ukraine War before it destroys Ukraine and endangers humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The Potential for Peace<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Russia\u2019s current geopolitical anxiety is informed by memories of invasion from Charles XII, Napoleon, the Kaiser and Hitler. U.S. troops were among an Allied invasion force that intervened unsuccessfully against the winning side in Russia\u2019s post-World War I civil war. Russia sees NATO enlargement and presence on its borders as a direct threat; the U.S. and NATO see only prudent preparedness. In diplomacy, one must attempt to see with strategic empathy, seeking to understand one\u2019s adversaries. This is not weakness: it is wisdom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">We reject the idea that diplomats, seeking peace, must choose sides, in this case either Russia or Ukraine. In favoring diplomacy we choose the side of sanity. Of humanity. Of peace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">We consider President Biden\u2019s promise to back Ukraine \u201cas long as it takes\u201d to be a license to pursue ill-defined and ultimately unachievable goals. It could prove as catastrophic as President Putin\u2019s decision last year to launch his criminal invasion and occupation. We cannot and will not endorse the strategy of fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">We advocate for a meaningful and genuine commitment to diplomacy, specifically an immediate ceasefire and negotiations without any disqualifying or prohibitive preconditions. Deliberate provocations delivered the Russia-Ukraine War. In the same manner, deliberate diplomacy can end it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>U.S. Actions and Russia\u2019s Invasion of Ukraine<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">As the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended, U.S. and Western European leaders assured Soviet and then Russian leaders that NATO would not expand toward Russia\u2019s borders. \u201cThere would be no extension of\u2026NATO one inch to the east,\u201d U.S. Secretary of State James Baker told Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990. Similar assurances from other U.S. leaders as well as from British, German and French leaders throughout the 1990s confirm this.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Since 2007, Russia has repeatedly warned that NATO\u2019s armed forces on Russian borders were intolerable \u2013 just as Russian forces in Mexico or Canada would be intolerable to the U.S. now, or as Soviet missiles in Cuba were in 1962. Russia further singled out NATO expansion into Ukraine as especially provocative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #800000;\">Seeing the War Through Russia\u2019s Eyes<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Our attempt at understanding the Russian perspective on their war does not endorse the invasion and occupation, nor does it imply the Russians had no other option but this war.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Yet, just as Russia had other options, so too did the U.S. and NATO leading up to this moment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">The Russians made their red lines clear. In Georgia and Syria, they proved they would use force to defend those lines. In 2014, their immediate seizure of Crimea and their support of Donbas separatists demonstrated they were serious in their commitment to defending their interests. Why this was not understood by U.S. and NATO leadership is unclear; incompetence, arrogance, cynicism, or a treacherous mixture of all three are likely contributing factors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The Russia-Ukraine War; Shoe on the other foot<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Again, even as the Cold War ended, U.S. diplomats, generals and politicians were warning of the dangers of expanding NATO to Russia\u2019s borders and of maliciously interfering in Russia\u2019s sphere of influence. Former Cabinet officials Robert Gates and William Perry issued these warnings, as did venerated diplomats George Kennan, Jack Matlock and Henry Kissinger. In 1997, fifty senior U.S. foreign policy experts wrote an open letter to President Bill Clinton advising him not to expand NATO, calling it \u201ca policy error of historic proportions.\u201d President Clinton chose to ignore these warnings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Most important to our understanding of the hubris and Machiavellian calculation in U.S. decision-making surrounding the Russia-Ukraine War is the dismissal of the warnings issued by Williams Burns, the current director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In a cable to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2008, while serving as Ambassador to Russia, Burns wrote of NATO expansion and Ukrainian membership:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">\u201cUkraine and Georgia\u2019s NATO aspirations not only touch a raw nerve in Russia, they engender serious concerns about the consequences for stability in the region. Not only does Russia perceive encirclement, and efforts to undermine Russia\u2019s influence in the region, but it also fears unpredictable and uncontrolled consequences which would seriously affect Russian security interests. Experts tell us that Russia is particularly worried that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to face.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Why did the U.S. persist in expanding NATO despite such warnings? Profit from weapons sales was a major factor. Facing opposition to NATO expansion, a group of neoconservatives and top executives of U.S. weapons manufacturers formed the U.S. Committee to Expand NATO. Between 1996 and 1998, the largest arms manufacturers spent $51 million ($94 million today) on lobbying and millions more on campaign contributions. With this largesse, NATO expansion quickly became a done deal, after which U.S. weapons manufacturers sold billions of dollars of weapons to the new NATO members.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">So far, the U.S. has sent $30 billion worth of military gear and weapons to Ukraine, with total aid to Ukraine exceeding $100 billion. War, it\u2019s been said, is a racket, one that is highly profitable for a select few.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">NATO expansion, in sum, is a key feature of a militarized U.S. foreign policy characterized by unilateralism featuring regime change and preemptive wars. Failed wars, most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, have produced slaughter and further confrontation, a harsh reality of America\u2019s own making. The Russia-Ukraine War has opened a new arena of confrontation and slaughter. This reality is not entirely of our own making, yet it may well be our undoing, unless we dedicate ourselves to forging a diplomatic settlement that stops the killing and defuses tensions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Let\u2019s make America a force for peace in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Read more at<\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\"> <a title=\"Eisenhower Media Network\" href=\"https:\/\/eisenhowermedianetwork.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eisenhower Media Network<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #800000;\">SIGNERS<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Dennis Fritz, Director, Eisenhower Media Network; Command Chief Master Sergeant, US Air Force (retired)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Matthew Hoh, Associate Director, Eisenhower Media Network; Former Marine Corps officer, and State and Defense official.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">William J. Astore, Lieutenant Colonel, US Air Force (retired)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Karen Kwiatkowski, Lieutenant Colonel, US Air Force (retired)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Dennis Laich, Major General, US Army (retired)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Jack Matlock, U.S. Ambassador to the U.S.S.R., 1987-91; author of Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Todd E. Pierce, Major, Judge Advocate, U.S. Army (retired)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Coleen Rowley, Special Agent, FBI (retired)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Christian Sorensen, Former Arabic linguist, US Air Force<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Chuck Spinney, Retired Engineer\/Analyst, Office of Secretary of Defense<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Winslow Wheeler, National security adviser to four Republican and Democratic US<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Colonel, US Army (retired)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Ann Wright, Colonel, US Army (retired) and former US diplomat<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">TIMELINE<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">1990 \u2013 U.S. assures Russia that NATO will not expand towards its border \u201c\u2026there would be no extension of\u2026NATO one inch to the east,\u201d says US Secretary of State James Baker.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">1996 \u2013 U.S. weapons manufacturers form the Committee to Expand NATO, spending over $51 million lobbying Congress.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">1997 \u2013 50 foreign policy experts including former senators, retired military officers and diplomats sign an open letter stating NATO expansion to be \u201ca policy error of historic proportions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">1999 \u2013 NATO admits Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic to NATO. U.S. and NATO bomb Russia\u2019s ally, Serbia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">2001 \u2013 U.S. unilaterally withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">2004 \u2013 Seven more Eastern European nations join NATO. NATO troops are now directly on Russia\u2019s border.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">2004 \u2013 Russia\u2019s parliament passed a resolution denouncing NATO\u2019s expansion. Putin responded by saying that Russia would \u201cbuild our defense and security policy correspondingly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">2008 \u2013 NATO leaders announced plans to bring Ukraine and Georgia, also on Russia\u2019s borders, into NATO.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">2009 \u2013 U.S. announced plans to put missile systems into Poland and Romania.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">2014 \u2013 Legally elected Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, fled violence to Moscow. Russia views ouster as a coup by U.S. and NATO nations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">2016 \u2013 U.S. begins troop buildup in Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">2019 \u2013 U.S. unilaterally withdraws from Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">2020 \u2013 U.S. unilaterally withdraws from Open Skies Treaty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">2021 \u2013 Russia submits negotiation proposals while sending more forces to the border with Ukraine. U.S. and NATO officials reject the Russian proposals immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Feb 24, 2022 \u2013 Russia invades Ukraine, starting the Russia-Ukraine War.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">This ad reflects the views of the signers. Paid for by <span style=\"color: #00ccff;\"><a style=\"color: #00ccff;\" title=\"Eisenhower Media Network\" href=\"https:\/\/eisenhowermedianetwork.org\/russia-ukraine-war-peace\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eisenhower Media Network<\/a><\/span>, a project of People Power Initiatives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" title=\"Subscribe to the Eisenhower Media Network\" href=\"https:\/\/eisenhowermedianetwork.org\/russia-ukraine-war-peace\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Subscribe to the <span style=\"color: #00ccff;\">Eisenhower Media Network<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Related<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><div class=\"ose-wrapper ose-uid-fa30e6f00afd0988ed47af89d2a7e666 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; height:550px; max-height:550px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\" data-embed-type=\"SelfHosted\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" width=\"600\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/ukraines-death-by-proxy-chris-hedges\/\" > <\/iframe><\/div><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The Russia-Ukraine War has been an unmitigated disaster Hundreds of thousands have been killed or wounded Millions have been displaced Environmental and economic destruction have been incalculable Future devastation could be exponentially greater as nuclear powers creep ever closer toward open war &nbsp; I\u2019m taking this full page New York Times ad into congress [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[301,113,31,145,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corruption","category-foreign-policy","category-media","category-military","category-political-issues"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}