John Quincy Adams Society at Syracuse

In an open letter, these veteran diplomats claim that it's high time for a change in America's policy towards Russia. "It makes no sense for two countries with the power to destroy each other and, in 30 minutes, to end civilization as we know it to lack fully functioning diplomatic relations. ... Reality is that Russia, under Vladimir Putin, operates within a strategic framework deeply rooted in nationalist traditions that resonate with elites and the public alike. An eventual successor, even one more democratically inclined, will likely operate within this same framework. Premising U.S. policy on the assumption that we can and must change that framework is misguided. We must deal with Russia as it is, not as we wish it to be, fully utilizing our strengths but open to diplomacy."

"In March, the government sought to buoy the economy and blunt the economic impact of the pandemic with Economic Impact Payments, more commonly known as coronavirus stimulus payments. According to CNBC, the average payment was $1,809 per tax filer, which could be individuals or married couples filing jointly. The long-term benefits of that payment to tax filers are dwarfed by the costs imposed on taxpayers by the defense budget and payments to defense contractors that Con...gress authorized in this year’s NDAA. The IRS anticipates 155.1 million tax returns to be filed in 2020, meaning the cost of the upcoming NDAA will be, on average, $4,711.11 per tax filer, completely wiping out the stimulus payment and imposing an additional $2,902.11 burden per filer." https://responsiblestatecraft.org//tax-burden-from-the-pe/

Why do these senators think Americans need fighter jets as relief for the effects of the Covid-19 virus? Any guesses?

A brief but beautifully written piece by Stephen Wertheim, a previous guest of ours, that makes it clear how pursuing American dominance across the world ends up hurting Americans at home. Some highlights from the piece: "America’s privileged instrument, its globe-straddling military, has proven irrelevant to the greatest attack on the American people in a generation. Consider the irony: Many countries that the United States has bound itself to protect by force Australia, N...ew Zealand, Japan, South Korea have controlled the spread and secured their people. Their protector, by contrast, reigns supreme as the single most infected country in the world. We’re #1 in armed force around the globe and vulnerability to disease at home. (...) a federal government that annually devotes more than half of its discretionary budget to the Pentagon has left millions of its people without basic health care (...) The fact remains: if a foreign policy undermines life at home, then it destroys its reason for being. All national policy, foreign or domestic, aims to provide for the safety and well-being of the American people." See more

For those American friends who have trouble with Geography. The country on the LEFT outlined in yellow, is your country where your freedoms are to be found. The... country on the the right, also outlined in yellow is Iran. There's an entire ocean (the Atlantic), a whole continent (Africa) and most of the Middle East separating the two. That's thousands and thousands of miles. Your "freedoms" are not to be found there. The red dot, indicates where your 220 million dollar (I'm told) drone was shot down. It was not defending your freedoms. As for your "values", trust me, they don't have enough steam to reach the shores of Iran; but your warships and bombers do. See more

Another oil tanker getting attacked in the Persian Gulf, another hasty accusation against Iran without evidence and efforts to bring the United States into a conflict against her interests. We're not buying what Secretary Pompeo is selling, here's a list of reasons why: https://twitter.com/AliVaez/status/1139286168602849287?s=20

SAUDI ARABIA DOESN'T DESERVE UNCONDITIONAL U.S. SUPPORT "For decades, Washington has viewed the Middle East through an unsophisticated and downright elementary lens. The formula goes something like this: Iran is a malign actor bent on expansionism (the fact that Iran has neither the economic influence or military power to accomplish this feat is lost in the conversation), so any country in the region on the opposite side must be an inherently good partner for the United State...s to coddle. Tehran is the evil monster, whereas Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Manama, and Baghdad are either noble players in an existential regional drama or victims of Iranian perfidy." It's an affront to American people that the foreign policy, fueled by their taxes, are being run in such an "elementary" fashion. It's also beneath the potential America has for creating positive change in the realm of international affairs and the unnecessary, almost irrational, support America provides to Saudi Arabia tarnishes America's image in the world. "Core U.S. national security interests in the Middle East are narrow. They include preventing a major, long-term disruption to the global oil supply and protecting the American public from transnational terrorist groups. Continuing to give Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab partners unconditional support, as Saudi King Salman is recommending, will do nothing to achieve those two limited U.S. objectives."

"If progressives want to shave $200 billion off $700 billion in defense spending, they need a new military strategy. The financial cost of the current strategy is simply too great to withstand those cuts, and the alternative to that strategy can’t be no strategy. It can’t be let’s spend that money on the Green New Deal without a coherent alternative to the Air Sea Battle-inspired expeditionary force posture. ... Stick to submarines. They are an asymmetric threat to the su...rface ships that China is churning out daily. (We’re already building a new class of submarines that can be scaled up.) Stick to short-range anti-missile batteries to protect ground infrastructure from China’s large stockpile of ballistic missiles. Stick to land-based anti-air and anti-ship missile batteries. They can be road-mobile (i.e. difficult to target) and they don’t need sitting-duck runways to take off and face a Chinese attack. And they’re cheap! ... Put Beijing in the position we’re in now: having to push their military budget to absurd heights to field what they need for an attack. There’s no invasion of Taiwan if Japan’s main islands, the Ryukyu Islands, and Taiwan itself are bristling with survivable anti-ship missiles and if the Western Pacific is full of U.S. submarines." See more

"The refund was remarkable, a rare example of what congressional oversight can accomplish."

"In his memorandum to Congress justifying the sale, Mr Pompeo listed years of alleged actions by Iran. Iranian malign activity poses a fundamental threat to the stability of the Middle East and to American security at home and abroad, he wrote." No matter how "malign" Iranian activities in the Middle East are, they're *in* the Middle East and pose no threat to American security in *America* and they sure as not as worth approving weapons sales to a regime who killed thousands of civilians in Yemen. Americans need to get their foreign policy into their own hands again.