Search Results for: ukraine

What We’re Supposed to Think

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We’re supposed to think that the United States is threatened for no reason by irrational subhuman monsters arising out of the less important bits of the earth found beyond U.S. borders.

We’re supposed to think that the bigger the U.S. military is, and the more places it’s based in around the world, the better it can counter those monsters.

We’re supposed to think that other nations don’t have this sort of problem or depend on this sort of solution because the United read more

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UVA’s Miller Center Plans Three Days of Russophobia

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Even as some Democrats are at long last growing frustrated with the lack of actual evidence for the past several months of stories about Russia stealing a U.S. election, Russiagate has penetrated so deeply that Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations has declared Russia’s alleged crimes to be acts of war. That Russia’s fictional actions being warfare read more

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Sample Videos

Sample audio interview here.

Debates:

  1. October 2016 Vermont: Video. No poll.
  2. September 2017 Philadelphia: No video. No poll.
  3. February 2018 Radford, Va: Video and poll. Before: 68% said war could be justified, 20% no, 12% not sure. After: 40% said war could be justfied, 45% no, 15% not sure.
  4. February 2018 Harrisonburg, Va: Video. No poll.
  5. February 2022 Online: Video and poll. Before: 22% said war could be justified, 47% no, 31% not sure. After: 20% said war could be justified, 62% no, 18% not sure.
  6. September 2022 Online: Video and poll. Before: 36% said war could be justified, 64% no. After: 29% said war could be justified, 71% no. Participants were not asked to indicate a choice of “not sure.”
  7. September 2023 Online: Three-Way Debate on Ukraine. One of the participants refused to allow a poll, but you can watch it for yourself.
  8. November 2023 Debate in Madison, Wisconsin, on war and Ukraine. Video.
  9. May 2024 Online Debate happening here.

Sample videos:

read more

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The Best Speech Yet From Any U.S. President

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In planning an upcoming conference aimed at challenging the institution of war, to be held at American University September 22-24, I can’t help but be drawn to the speech a U.S. president gave at American University a little more than 50 years ago. Whether or not you agree with me that this is the best speech ever given by a U.S. president, there should be little dispute that it is the speech most out of step with what anyone will say on Capitol read more

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What It Would Take to End Racism and War

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By David Swanson
Remarks at George Mason University on September 13, 2017

Thank you very much for inviting me.

May I see a show of hands of those who believe we should eliminate all racism?

Thank you, and now those who think we should eliminate all war?

Thank you.

In a typical U.S. crowd, I suspect, many more will raise their hands for ending all racism than for ending all war.

Despite the notion that we live in a democracy being largely fraudulent, I think those shows of hands represent very roughly read more

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Congressional Opponents of Sanctions As Nuts As Supporters

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By David Swanson, American Herald Tribune

Both houses of Congress have now passed big new sanctions bills by veto-proof majorities, in fact with near unanimity. The vote this week in the House of Misrepresentatives was 419–3 on a bill to sanction Russia, Iran, and North Korea as punishment for primarily imaginary crimes, despite the sum total of the global legal bodies having asked the United States to judge these crimes, skip over a trial, and move right ahead with punishment being exactly equal read more

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U.S. Wars and Hostile Actions: A List

See also the Nonviolent Actions List.

There is a reason that most countries polled in December 2013 by Gallup called the United States the greatest threat to peace in the world, and why Pew found that viewpoint increased in 2017.

But it is a reason that eludes that strain of U.S. academia that first defines war as something that nations and groups other than the United States do, and then concludes that war has nearly vanished from the earth.

Since World War II, during a supposed golden age of peace, read more

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A message from the U.S. to Iran

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Submitted to the July 2, 2017, conference “United States, Human Rights and Discourse of Domination,” hosted by the University of Tehran and the Iranian World Studies Association.

I’m very sorry not to be there in person and am grateful to Foad Izadi for allowing me to submit this instead. I’m a critic of the institution of war and of all military violence, as well as of all antidemocratic government and all violation of civil liberties. People in Iran, the United States, read more

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U.S. War Justification Is in the Eye of the Beholder

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Originally published in Counterpunch Volume 24 Number 3

The idea that the United States has a problem with war propaganda is typically scratched in a bad-apples manner with a story that the U.S. has set up a new propaganda agency, such as the Global Engagement Center, or hired a company, such as the Lincoln Group, to plant articles in foreign media. Or we’ll read a report that former generals are secretly picking up their talking points from the Pentagon and their income from weapons companies read more

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Sanctions Are Crimes, Not Law Enforcement

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By David Swanson, American Herald Tribune

The U.S. Senate has increased sanctions on the people of Iran and Russia, if the House and President go along. The Senate vote was 98-2, with Senators Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders voting no, the latter despite his support for the Russian half of the bill.

The bill is called “An act to provide congressional review and to counter Iranian and Russian governments’ aggression.”

“Aggression” is a term of art here meant to convey read more

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