Category Archives: Politics

NINE WAYS DRAWING DOWN OVERSEAS BASES WILL IMPROVE US SECURITY

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NINE WAYS DRAWING DOWN OVERSEAS BASES WILL IMPROVE US SECURITY

By Andrew J. Bacevich and David Vine, Responsible Statecraft.March 11, 2021 | EDUCATE!

Shared by Dr. Syed A. Ehtisham

For every State Department embassy, consulate, and mission there are nearly three U.S. military bases overseas. The disparity between the 277 U.S. diplomatic installations and the estimated 800 U.S. military bases abroad symbolizes how dangerously militarized U.S. foreign policy has become.

Thankfully, across the political spectrum — and even within the U.S. military — there is growing recognition of the problem. Last month the Biden administration announced the Pentagon will conduct an urgently needed “Global Posture Review” to ensure the deployment of U.S. military forces around the world is, as President Joe Biden said, “appropriately aligned with our foreign policy and national security priorities.”

This review offers a historic opportunity to close hundreds of unnecessary military bases abroad and improve national and international security in the process. In contrast to former President Donald Trump’s hasty attempt to withdraw bases and troops from Syria and his attempt to punish Germany by removing installations there, the Global Posture Review provides a chance to close bases carefully and responsibly, save money, and build back U.S. alliances and diplomatic presence worldwide.

“I think we have too much infrastructure overseas,” the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Mark Milley, admitted in December. “Is every one of those [bases] absolutely positively necessary for the defense of the United States?”

Milley called for “a hard, hard look,” acknowledging that many overseas bases are “derivative of where World War II ended.” Since that conflict and the start of the Cold War the United States has maintained thousands of military bases in foreign lands. Three decades after the Cold War’s end, there are still 119 base sites in both Germany and Japan, according to the Pentagon. In South Korea there are 80. Other bases dot the planet from Aruba to Australia, Kenya to Qatar, among more than 80 countries occupied. Ours is the largest collection of extraterritorial bases in world history. China has one overseas base today, in Djibouti.

We have worked for two years with an unusually transpartisan group of military experts who agree “We’ve got too many daggone bases,” as former Air Force General Roger Brady has said. Last week more than forty experts, including veterans, a former member of Congress, scholars, analysts, and advocates, joined the Overseas Base Realignment and Closure Coalition (OBRACC) in sending an open letter to the Biden administration calling for closures to improve national and global security.

Unsurprisingly given the political diversity of a coalition that has involved the Koch Foundation and Codepink, the Cato Institute and Noam Chomsky, the letter’s co-signers differ about how many bases to close, which to close, and how to close them. Despite our differences, we agree on nine major reasons to begin closures. (Full disclosure: We are signers on the letter, too).

1) The costs: an estimated $51.5 billion in 2017 — nearly two times the State Department’s budget. Add troops on installations abroad and the total reaches more than $150 billion. Imagine what we could do with a fraction of the billions spent to maintain this robust overseas infrastructure. Imagine how we could repair crumbling domestic infrastructure, including transportation, electric grids, and ventilator supplies.

2) Bases abroad have fueled a hyper-interventionist foreign policy. Overseas installations simply make it too easy to wage war overseas. Since 1980 U.S. presidents have used foreign bases to launch wars and other attacks at least 25 times in 15 or more countries in the greater Middle East alone. The wars have killed, wounded, and displaced tens of millions.

3) Overseas bases are technologically outdated: rapid response forces can deploy anywhere on Earth fast enough to be based in the continental United States. Increasingly accurate ballistic missiles have made foreign installations into sitting ducks for enemies.

4) Overseas bases destabilize regions and increase the likelihood of future wars: hundreds of U.S. bases surrounding Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea encourage their leaders to boost their own military spending and activity. Imagine how U.S. citizens would feel if Russia or China built a single base near our borders. The calls for a military response would be swift.

5) OBRACC experts agree that bases in the Middle East have fueled radicalization, anti-American propaganda, recruitment by militant groups like al Qaeda, and deadly attacks, such as those of September 11, 2001.

6) Rather than spreading democracy, U.S. bases are found in and support at least 40 countries led by dictators and other undemocratic regimes, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Niger, and Turkey. Bases in colonized U.S. territories are a major reason Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana and Virgin Islands, and American Samoa have neither gained full independence nor full U.S. citizenship rights.

7) Overseas bases are bad for the environment. Domestic installations are too, but overseas, the military often ignores domestic environmental standards, resulting in the dumping of hazardous materials, toxic leaks, and daily damage during training.

8) Bases abroad almost always generate protest against U.S. forces. Unsurprisingly, people tend not to like their countries occupied by foreign militaries. Locals also tend not to appreciate crimes committed by military personnel, deadly accidents, environmental harm, and thriving sex work industries supported by bases.

9) OBRACC experts agree that overseas deployments painfully separate U.S. military personnel from their families. Stationing whole families overseas disrupts the careers, schooling, and lives of spouses, children, and other family members.

Thankfully, closing overseas bases is politically easy compared to closing domestic installations. Unlike the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process for domestic facilities, Congress need not be involved in overseas closures. Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush closed hundreds of unnecessary bases in Europe and Asia. For parochial reasons alone, members of Congress should support closing installations overseas to return thousands of personnel and family members, and their paychecks, to their districts and states.

The Biden administration should heed growing demands across the political spectrum, from OBRACC and others, to close overseas bases. Biden should pursue a strategy of drawing down the U.S. military posture abroad, returning troops back home, and building up the country’s diplomatic posture and alliances.  Unless we want to continue our current posture of endless wars, run-away military spending, and armed forces poorly positioned to defend the United States, we must seize this historic opportunity for change.

Dr. S. Akhtar Ehtisham
Blog syedehtisham.blogspot.com
All religions try to take over the establishment and if they fail, they collaborate with it, be it feudal or capitalist.

2020 USA presidential election: Was science on the ballot?

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[Jan] Was science on the ballot?

Message Body

An email received by Thinkers Forum USA :

{Email posted with hyper link as is}

A rare recent ray of light from Science magazine, from Sheila Jasanoff and others:
“The pandemic has seen much hand-wringing about Americans’ unwillingness to “accept science” and follow public health directives…….It is tempting to treat matters of health, safety, and environmental policy as if they are primarily about facts, because this transforms intractable social disputes into seemingly answerable technical questions. But such moves are inimical to democracy. When the key issue is who decides, acting as if disagreements are mainly about evidence is bad politics and bad social science. It turns expertise into an object of distrust and exacerbates American culture’s tendency to alienate people from the perceived elitism of science (2). This creates fertile ground for alternative facts and conspiracy theories that reframe problems and relocate the focus of blame.

Science advice thus occupies a precarious position on the boundary between asserting facts and making policy. It faces the structural problem of being authoritative without becoming authoritarian. It divides power between scientists, who are mainly accountable to their peers, and authorized political representatives, who are accountable to the citizens they serve. This allocation of authority is fundamentally political, even constitutional. We should not be surprised if expert advisers find their claims being questioned, given their consequential role in contemporary governance.”
Worth reading in full and digesting at length IMO. Its at:
https://compcore.cornell.edu/science2021/

Jonathan
Jonathan Latham, PhD
Executive DirectorThe Bioscience Resource Project, Ithaca, NY 14850 USA

Social Media & Women by Nilofar Suhrawardy

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social Media & Women!

The following article is written by Nilofar Suhrawardy

Social Media & Women! | Countercurrents

Nilofar Suhrawardy is based in Delhi. Nilofar Suhrawardy is a senior journalist and writer with specialization in communication studies and nuclear diplomacy. She has come out with several books. These include:– Modi’s Victory, A Lesson for the Congress…? (2019); Arab Spring, Not Just a Mirage! (2019), Image and Substance, Modi’s First Year in Office (2015) and Ayodhya Without the Communal Stamp, In the Name of Indian Secularism (2006)

Of late, a new importance is being accorded to “social media.” The so-called “social media” is allegedly playing an extremely negative role in spread of “socially-approved” abuses targeting weaker sections, particularly minorities and women. Now, is there really such a “social media” or this is just a hype? And aren’t we erring in according it a little too much importance?

Let us accept it, just as Covid-19 knows no socio-cultural lines, Indian women of all religions face similar problems. Marriage seems to be a must for all. Divorce is still viewed as a stigma. Widow-remarriage is hardly given any importance. And practically all face dowry problems and so forth. In Indian society, these may be viewed intrinsically as part of country’s culture, supposed to be legally unacceptable but yet viewed as socially pertinent.

Paradoxically, as communication boom is increasing at an accelerating pace, so are certain chains trying to act as restrictions on people’s life, freedom as well as peace of mind. What else can one say about the increasingly negative role being played by some means of “social media”? These include attempts to poison people’s minds against one another on account of social – particularly religious and caste-based – differences. Continuance of gang-rapes is suggestive of the fairer gender being viewed as easy targets as well as being looked down upon as commodities to be exploited and then discarded.

Of course, the trend to give religious clerics more importance than required in deliberating over controversial issues cannot be ignored. Equally significant is politicization of these irrespective of whether the needed solution is arrived at. Politicians have gone over-board on triple-talaq issue but have remained practically silent on dowry problems. Why?

At this point, it may be pertinent to analyze speculations aired recently about Muslim women. With due to respect to views expressed that, “Muslim Women Can think,” of course an attempt has been made in favor of fairer gender of this community. Nevertheless, the headline does raise apprehensions. What does it suggest? Is an attempt being made to convince others that Muslim women can think? In this case, clearly notions entertained about women at large, including Muslims cannot be ignored. If stereotyped impressions were not held about women in general in most parts of world, this subject would not have been deliberated upon.

The fact that women continue to be discriminated against, are viewed as secondary to males to degree of even being looked down upon cannot be ignored. The most high-ranking jobs in majority of institutions are rarely given to women, irrespective of what their qualifications are. This stands true in political arena too. Limited representation of women in democratically elected bodies, including Parliament, state assemblies and so forth are just a mild illustration of this stark reality. When their vote is as important as that of men, why isn’t their representation in these bodies given much importance? Clearly, once women surge forth as their population demands, Indian political scenario may take a totally different form.

But in all probability, nobody is likely to think or even dream along these lines. There apparently prevails apprehension of men losing their command over politics and in other fields too.

Essentially, it is erroneous to label discrimination faced by women and also sideline their achievements exclusively along religious lines. Nevertheless, speculation raised as well as defended that Muslim can think women needs to be deliberated upon from other angles too. The instant glance at headline clearly raises speculation about negative, primarily stereotyped approach held towards Muslims as a whole and fairer gender of this community. As mentioned earlier, the fact that this approach is held towards women in general only raises questions on why have Muslim women been selected in particular? Why? Should it be assumed a means of gaining greater attention for the subject? Perhaps.

There is no denying, when negative “news” focusing on Muslims is circulated, it is noticed. In fact, it may not be wrong to state; there prevails the trend of according greater attention to “negative” aspects of certain issues than to positive. As for instance, the general tendency is to assume Muslim women in general as fairly conservative, illiterate/semi-literate, dressed from head to toe. The same can be said about most women in the sub-continent, irrespective of their religion, caste, class and other ethnic divisions. Against this backdrop, prospects of Indian community progressing as a whole may be viewed as fairly limited by focusing only on Muslim women.

Besides, how much importance has really been given to factors responsible for backwardness of majority in the country, particularly those residing in rural India? Give a thought; is there a decent school available within a range of few kilometers making it possible for each child, girl and boy, to gain some basic, elementary education? In this context, the fact that Muslims in rural as well as urban areas give at least some importance to ensure that their children acquire some elementary as well as religious education from nearby madarsas cannot be ignored. Those who can afford to, invite a tutor to teach basic principles to their children. Children, include both girls and boys.

It may be noted, the practice of Muslim women being invited to teach children in various Muslim dominated areas is fairly strong, particularly in urban parts. Besides, quite a few women hold classes at their own homes. Apart from this, the fact that Muslim women give considerable importance to engaging in ventures to increase their income cannot be ignored. These include running or assisting in beauty parlors, stitching clothes and/or being linked with tailors in demand from their homes and numerous such means which help in adding to family income. A considerable number of Muslim women engaged in professions such as these belong to weak economic sections. They are not economically privileged and yet are smart enough to try and wriggle out of their economic crises.

So, does this imply that Muslim women cannot think? Or are examples of celebrities needed to defy this claim? No. In fact, in light of examples cited, ordinary Muslim women have been moving along the path of spelling a better future for their families for decades. That the elderly Muslim ladies decided to assemble at Shaheen Bagh in protest against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is a marked reflection of their stepping forward as strong personalities. Had they been weak individuals, who did not think and act on their own, history would not have witnessed their gathering at Shaheen Bagh and numerous other places.

Against this backdrop, importance of communication demands that prior to stating – Muslim women can think- some relevance needs to be accorded to role being played by ordinary Muslim ladies at large. And this holds true for women of all religious communities. Rather than label spread of negative “abuses” as “socially approved,” it may be more pertinent to view them as agenda of some extremists. Certain individuals/groups may be aiding them in return of some gains.

Importance gained by ladies participating in farmers’ protest and earlier at Shaheen Bagh is a strong slap on those who view the fairer gender as weaklings, who can’t think and act on their own strength. The fact that these ladies have gained attention globally and nationally cannot be undermined. What does this suggest about the so-called spread of “socially approved abuses” targeting minorities and women? If abuses spread through “social media” were really “socially approved,” the role played by ladies belonging to minorities would not have been hailed. Besides, the message, conveyed strongly by ladies in farmers’ protest and at Shaheen Bagh, has not been undermined by so-called “socially approved” “social media.” Their lives and moves may hardly be viewed as at mercy of the so-called “social media!”

We, the People, the Humanity and Our Entangled Future in Global COVID-19 Pandemic

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Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja Ph.D

We, the People, the Humanity and Our Entangled Future in Global COVID-19 Pandemic

“He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.”  CHARLES PEGUY – French Author (1873-1914).

Looking Beyond the Erroneous Logic of Contemporary Professional Intellect and Political Leaderships

Are we living in an era of false truth, feigned piety and alternate transient facts of human affairs?  To answer a rational question, we need to look for critical thinking of our own lives being managed by distorted narratives coming from those who cannot even think for themselves in political governance. Those occupying positions of influence generate ideas and narratives which are often drawn from people who are ideologue of self-interest, contradictions and misrepresentations across global landscape. The COVID-19 pandemic surge has depleted our inner thoughts, souls and outlook for change and adaptability to the making of the future. At the outset, political leaders appear to be leading the movement for human survival, often abridged by medical scientists and experts in determining which vaccinations – be it European, Russian, Chinese or American should be used to treat people of ethnic, social, moral and intellectual and political diversities. Do they pretend that vaccines or the pandemic knows nationalities or political ideologies separating the human intellect? Ostensibly, human faculties of thinking and choices are being used for divisions and political indoctrinations not for specialized human unity to cope with the emerging crises of COVID-pandemic and its aftermath impacting the masses across the world.

Truth is ONE, it cannot be divided into numbers of votaries, that is, We are One People, We are One humanity under the dreadful impacts and consequences of an invisible enemy set to dehumanize all the mankind on this planet. We should be looking for an informed conscience not default of an enlightened conscience to restore trust and societal confidence that COVID-19 pandemic is medically and spiritually treatable and could be diagnosed by century’s evolved medical science complemented by human genius and technological know-how of the 21st century information age. If our leaders are bent on following self-geared national interests and not the interest of one global humanity, consequently our fate, our future are at great risk of dissolution and annihilation by sheer perpetuated ignorance. We are facing many adversaries both in our own minds (the self) and subdued minds which control our thoughts and propagated minds setting in a given societal culture. This trend has evolved a new tyranny of political and medical obsessions to make us powerless and indifferent while we continued to be the victims of this seamless pandemic raging across our lives. We must be looking for truth to necessitate rethinking in our minds and souls for change and universal sense of humanity as being One and unshakeable by geography, politics and ethnicity and sentiments of political nationalities and persecution. We can do it, we are One People and One Humanity impacted by unknown motives of the few lacking knowledge and wisdom to unite the mankind in situations of crises often engineered by ignorance missing divine knowledge of truth and human origin.  We cannot be divided into segments of geography and history as numbers. We the People, We the Humanity are connected to all other things within the God-given Universe to serve the mankind. This gives soundness and power to reason and forbidden truth in the current global affairs.

Global Mankind Looks for Peace, Unity of the People and a Sustainable Future

Jerry Alatalo THE ONENESS of HUMANITY For Global Truth, Justice,Peace(11/03/2015) describes “Empire, Spiritual Evolution, World  Peace” in the following context:

“The first peace, which is most important, is that which is found within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.” (BLACK ELK).

Our common sense of One Humanity must inspire new thinking and complements the essence and spirit of the 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s vision of “Perpetual Peace” as ‘cities of peace’ do not wage war against mankind. We must connect people to people across the globe to be active participants in delivering a new and more viable common future of unity, happiness and future-making. They used to export weapons to wage wars, now exporting wars and media propaganda and are profiteering from the emerging crises in the Middle East. Replacing human consciousness of peace and security by repulsive ideas of despotism, the warlords are corrupting the human values, new-age visions and concepts of healthy standards of peaceful co-existence as they see it a threat to their plans. In the 21st century of changing global culture of new and critical thinking of globalization, we must pioneer new vision of participatory global humanity and critical insights of the stagnated international affairs. The global mankind never consented to any superpowers, the UNO or the Nation State to represent its interests and priorities.

Agreeably, in the 21st century knowledge-based political affairs require true and effective leadership having a comprehensive sense of human rights, dignity, kindness towards fellow human beings and versatile understanding of navigational change when facts of political life warrant a change. Most contemporary leaders of the world appear to rejoice self-centered evil-mongering, not wisdom and truth of people-oriented political systems of governance. Ideas and ideals that defy reasoning and truth are gushingly operative in aerial bombing of the innocents in Syria and inhuman displacement of civilians, killings of people in Iraq, forced confinement and torture of masses in Kashmir by Indian occupied forces, Palestinians under Israeli occupation, Saudi Arabian-UAE led war against the people of Yemen, not to mention of the large scale Syrian civilian displacements of refugees sheltered in Western European nations, and almost a million forcibly evicted Rohinga Muslims from Mynamar (Burma). The UNO is just a symbolic title, not a force to transform conflicts into peacemaking optimism. We, the People of the globe ask all nations on Earth to recognize our strengths and weaknesses for unity of minds for change and adaptability to the making of a people-oriented future in peace and living together as people of reasoned conscience.

We must reason for an instinctive recognition of social, economic and political injustice across the globe and logically try to transform the world of political wickedness, disharmony, socio-economic and political deprivation and exploitation into a world of moral, intellectual and  spiritual reasoning and be passionate  and hopeful for constructive changes in thoughts and behaviors – be it the policing or the masses march on streets and halls of fame, our aim and wisdom must be focused on purpose – a different and a better world of tomorrow and continuous change to be monitored and assessed by the people of knowledge and reason to ensure that we do not cross-over the limits of the Laws of Nature  deserving punishment from God –  the Creator and Sustainer of all the lives, the Earth and the Universe that matter to us all as human beings. The aggressive violations of human rights, dignity and equal participation should not lead to a Third World War against us by us. Its consequences will be unthinkable and catastrophic for the human civilizations claiming to be intelligent and just as it happened during the 2nd WW. The warmongers and their cruelty were not punished in its entirety against the fellow human beings.

(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs – global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, 12/2019).