From The Grayzone:
Pushback with Aaron Maté
Dennis Kucinich on the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ Ukraine letter debacle and how to revive the US peace movement at a time when elected progressives are afraid to take a stand against war.
Dennis Kucinich, who led Congressional opposition to the Iraq war, reacts to the Congressional Progressive Caucus retracting a letter calling for diplomacy with Russia. “If we don’t believe in diplomacy,” Kucinich asks, “then where do we go as a country?”.
Dennis Kucinich is a former Congressmember (D-Ohio) and former Mayor of Cleveland.
First of all, I am really getting tired of Disqus making me check boxes with car or bicycle pictures every time I log on, which is once every day.
Was LBJ a ‘progressive’? He signed Medicare, Medicaid, and the Civil Rights Act. He also started the bombing of Vietnam.
FDR was considered ‘progressive’. He pushed Japan to attack Pearl Harbor.
‘Progressives’ started to become neoconservatives after McGovern’s 1972 nomination.
My impression is that, with respect to the war in Europe, Roosevelt wanted to find a way to overcome Americans’ adherence to the spirit of Washington’s warning about foreign entanglements and a reason was needed to enter that war, and that Johnson’s escalation was strongly motivated by the McNamara squad, whom Johnson was reluctant to fire so soon after JFK’s assassination. I’ve never believed that Johnson was ever an enthusiastic supporter of foreign adventures.
So I would concur that a real movement toward foreign interventionism started to become dominant after Johnson’s exit from office.
LBJ as Speaker of the House? OF COURSE he liked war, he was deep deep in the deep state. Ike toppled near every gov’t in the Middle East; LBJ was there. LBJ was much more enthusiastic supporter of war than JFK
YES!!!!! I agree wholeheartedly about the nastsy, often difficult, little ritual too. This place has never been totally user friendly. In the past I have spent half an hour writing a comment, only to have it disappear when I clicked the post button. When I objected, I was told it was an auto edit program that did it. Still aw.c-m is the best peace advocacy outfit on the net in my opinion. Regarding your Good Putin moniker, I wholeheartedly agree. I have been a militantly antiwar since I smeared my buttox with $-hit to fail my physical for the draft board, no $-hit. I Do not blame Putin. I blame Obama, Hillary Clinton, Victoria Nuland and the crew whom overthrew the elected presidents of Ukraine, put in a Russophobic puppet that empowered their Nazi pals that led to civil war between anti Russian Ukrainians and the Russian speakers who had been singled out and attacked. In any case, Russia had lost 20 plus million dead in WWII fighting the Nazis, and Putin and his military were not going to let these Nazis of Today to be empowered by NATO membership put nuclear missiles on their border. It would be a mortal blow of existential scope, just as the U.S. saw Russian missiles in Cuba. When Russia saw this threat materializing, they asked for negotiations. Jens Stoltenburg, leader of NATO spurned their request, saying “We won’t change the way do things in NATO for you.” What choice did Putin have at that point to stop this train of creeping danger from NATO but to stop this train of events in its tracks, or to beg NATO to reach some understanding that kept Russia safe. Stoltenburg said no. What would the U.S. have done if Russia refused to get its nukes out of Cuba?
They’re only pro-peace when there’s a repub president bombing poor countries. Dem presidents bomb for peace.
those are the liberal interventionists, the Neo-cons of the Democratic party, those aren’t the “progressives.” Not sure there ARE any progressives in the party, certainly none in the DNC. The neo-cons are the GOP version of the very same thing. The distinctions you’re trying to make are illusory
Really? How so?
There used to be some, but there are no more. Barbara Lee and Kucinich come to mind. Kucinich was gerrymandered out of his seat by the Democratic Party establishment, and Lee has gotten too old and now is just an establishment Democrat.
We need a new president, Putin has failed miserably. We need a new, strong president that can lead negotiations with the west. Putin is a joke, no other leader is taking him seriously. Now he’s crawling in the mud, begging other leaders to hear him out. It’s so embarrassing!
Well, you could have Boris Yeltsin, who made deals with U.S. corporations to steal publicly owned Russian assets by selling them off.
Careful what you wish for, you might get it. I live in the U.S., and from my perspective, Putin is a much better leader than any president we’ve had since at least Jimmy Carter. Remember that it was Putin who lifted you out of poverty after Yeltsin and his corrupt band ransacked your country. And listen to Putin speeches, they actually make sense (most of them), unlike Biden’s.
There are many people that can take over the presidency, preferably someone who isn’t associated with the war in Ukraine.
We need peace and a president that will prioritise Russia and it’s citizens.
That’s not going to happen. First, the cause of this war was U.S. aggression in expanding NATO toward Russia and placing NATO missiles near Russia, then fomenting the coup in Ukraine and aiding Ukrainian Nazis in killing ethnic Russians in the Donbas. Second, the people most likely to take over in Russia if Putin is replaced are more war hawks than he is. You think this is bad, wait until one of those takes over.
I’m not saying this is bad, I’m just saying that Putin has done way too many mistakes. He has to be replaced with someone that’s competent!!
Putin is a liar and a coward.
Your a dufus!!!
Kucinich was the last of the McGovern Democrats though they were always an endangered species. Anarchism is ultimately the only thing that makes sense if you take anti-imperialism to its natural conclusions.
I worked on both of their presidential campaigns. Kucinich was the last elected Democrat worth voting for for president. Since The Squad showed that they’re nothing but wolves in sheeps’ clothing who actually support the Democratic Party establishment, I’ve refused to vote for any Democrat, period. The Democratic Party went to hell before I was born, when it stole the vice presidential nomination from Henry Wallace in 1944. The whole world would be exponentially better if Wallace had become president instead of Truman.
Dennis the Menace!! To all that is just and peaceful.
Did you ever look up “ad hominem”, troll? Here’s a link-
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ad_hominem
See my response to supremeborg, above. Then, repeat your Latin classes.
“Dennis the Menace!! To all that is just and peaceful.”
With all due respect, Kucinich isn’t perfect, but, compared to your hero Trump, he’s Tolstoy or Gandhi. Because you disagree with his domestic policy, you’re unwilling to acknowledge this?
You obviously ditched irony/parody 101 classes. Or didn’t even register. Oh well…public school and all…
Oh, BTW: Did I even mention Trump????
You got me. It honestly seemed like you were being serious. I admit to being a bit humor impaired sometimes.
My best, sincere respects and regards to you. I have made similar admissions in younger years.
Thank-you both. I’ve been in the peace movement since the 60’s, and fear we are closer than ever on the Doomsday Clock to annihilation. I keep emailing the White House to stop the war and institute the Minsk Accords, but fear it falls on deaf ears, as our Blob wants to “weaken Russia”, and the MIC is making so much money. They will not admit to the terrible coup that installed the Azov’s in 2014 and lead, as we predicted, to the horrific killing of Ukrainian people.
I’ll never forget the terror we lived under during the last 2 weeks of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was only 8 years old at the time, but I barely slept those 2 weeks. In some ways, this is even worse, because the U.S. and Russia aren’t talking, the fault of course being that of the U.S. We now have a bunch of Dr. Strangeloves running the planet, and we’ll be lucky if this doesn’t end up in nuclear war.
Oct 27, 2022 Biden Surrenders First Use Nuke Policy to Pentagon Neocons
The president is too weak to argue in defense of a campaign promise to only use nukes in response to first use by adversaries.
https://kurtnimmo.substack.com/p/biden-surrenders-first-use-nuke-policy
we always had a first use policy, the Soviets never did.
If Trump runs as a Peace candidate in 2024, he will win, unfortunately. Even a would be Fascist dictator is better than World War Three, many might feel. As much as American culture revolves around hating Russia, the American people do not want themselves or their families incinerated in a nuclear war over who will rule Kershon. Or perhaps you can fool all the people all the time!
As much of a vile pig as he is, Trump has been much better on the issue of peace than Democrats or other Republicans. The problem is that Trump just says these things, but doesn’t do them, because all he really cares about is money and his ego. So, for example, when he tried to make peace with North Korea or pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, and got major resistance from the military/intelligence/industrial complex, he folded like a wet piece of paper. To be clear, I don’t at all consider Trump a “peace” candidate, I don’t care what he says. He only wants peace to the extent that he wants to be able to enjoy his illegitimate wealth without being blown up.
And BTW, Trump is no more “fascist” than any Democrat or other Republican. “Fascism” means corporations running the government. They all support that, and we’ve had that here for a while now.