On March 12, 2025, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) was interviewed on a webinar with Quincy Institute of Responsible Statecraft. As former chair and ranking member of the the House Armed Services Committee, Smith (no relation) is an important voice on military matters in Congress. Quincy Institute and Rep. Smith chose the title A New Approach…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUbBU0OqCgE (15 minutes of excerpts), https://x.com/Fidias0/status/1892990169558721024 (full speech, 98 minutes) The full transcript of the speech is at https://progressivememes.org/ukraine/Jeffrey-Sachs-Speech-to-EU-Parliament.pdf This is is a summary. Sachs talks about Ukraine, Israel, Iran, and China. He tells them: Pursue peace with Russia. A lot of what European leaders believe about Russia is childish. For example, Russia has no…
(Slightly shorted version also published at antiwar.com) If you believe that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked, you will likely compare Putin to Hitler and will likely oppose President Trump’s peace negotiations with Russia. After all, if Putin’s invasion was unprovoked, a settlement would reward naked aggression and would be akin to Neville Chamberlain’s…
Foreign Affairs published this essay by Michael Beckley of Tufts University and the Foreign Policy Research Institute: The Strange Triumph of a Broken America Why Power Abroad Comes With Dysfunction at Home Beckley says the U.S. has an aggressive foreign policy but it often loses wars because it doesn’t spend enough on the military to…
Several commentators have claimed that Benjamin Netanyayhu is thumbing his nose at President Biden and is ignoring the desire of the Biden administration for Israel to adopt a less aggressive stance towards the Palestinians, Lebanon, and Iran. For example, in October of 2024, Tom Engelhardt wrote: “But if you want a measurement of just how far…
Using my own lyrics and Udio.com for the music, I created a rock opera about U.S. militarism. This is part one, on U.S. illegal and disastrous wars since WWII. (Also available on Youtube here.) Part Two, on the war in Ukraine is here. The finale is Blessed are the Peacemakers. How many wars will…
In Bellingham on Jan 28, 2024 the Washington State Democratic Central Committee passed a resolution written by me, Donald A. Smith, PhD, along with Sharon Abreu and Linda Boyd, calling for a less militarized foreign policy and for a “just transition” to a peace economy. Resolution on the Urgency of Transitioning to an Economy Based…
In Jeffrey Sach’s NATO Expansion & Ukraine’s Destruction, he quotes NATO Secretary0-General Jens Stoltenberg saying, “So, he [Putin] went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. He has got the exact opposite.” When Prof. John Mearsheimer, I, and others have said the same, we’ve been attacked as Putin apologists. The same…
CIA Manipulation of Public Opinion Here’s my summary: The security state (CIA and Pentagon) run the government more than the White House does, especially when the president is old and weak, as is Biden. Congress mostly follows what the White House wants (on foreign policy) [and funds the security state extravagantly]. The peoples’ voices barely…
RESOLUTION TO 40th LD DEMOCRATS REGARDING SITUATION IN UKRAINE: WHEREAS the conflict in the Ukraine is heating up into a potential major war between nuclear superpowers, and WHEREAS in February of this year, the U.S. government, led by neo-con Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, and Ukraine ambassador Geoffrey Piatt, supported the…