'Guns to butter' for a Better Future

There are many ideas towards a plan for world peace and development. See 'More' below.

I summarized two proposals posted in March 2021 which I believe are fresh, feasible and authentic regarding converting 'guns to butter' for a better future.

1.  Close all USA military bases

The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft (QI), has been brave enough to tell the world that some 750 US military bases around the world appear to have little or no usefulness in keeping the country safe and prosperous. 

In a one-hour webinar 'Taps for America's Empire of Bases?', QI president Andrew Bacevich moderated David Vine, Christine Ahn, and John Glaser.

These 3 experts agreed:

• There are NO exaggerated threats to the USA from the Middle East and elsewhere.
• The greatest threat to peace is the military-industrial complex.
• All bases abroad should be closed and the troops sent home. Open Letter to President Biden, March 4, 2021.
• Funding for peace diplomacy and domestic infrastructure (health care, transportation, education, clean water, housing, etc.) should be greatly increased.

The Quincy Institute is a new US 'think tank' founded in December 2019. It is 'the most truthful and daring of the dozens of these entities that exist in the Washington DC area', according to Sharon Tennison, Founder and Director of Center for Citizen Initiatives, in a March 11th letter to its members.

2.  Putin's 'open system'

Matthew Ehret, Senior Fellow at the American University in Moscow and editor-in-chief of the Canadian Patriot Review explains global 'win-win cooperation' for the future in 'Putin's Vision for an Anti-Fascist/ Open System Future and You' (The Canadian Patriot, March 10, 2021).

Ehret reports that President Putin speaks about an 'open system' of international behaviour that would avoid wars and instead would focus on cooperative efforts of multi world nations for joint security and development, such as the following:

• Space diplomacy among Russia, USA, and China. Increase working together to explore space.
• Asteroid defense. Implement a proposal by the Chief of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, nick named the 'Strategic Defense of Earth'. by aiming US President Reagan's 'Star Wars' Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) away from targets on earth to aim for incoming meteors and asteroids.
• Arctic and Far East Development. By further expanding the 'Silk Road' on rails as proposed 150 years ago, but from South America, north across the Bering Strait, to Europe. Ships are now crossing the thawed Arctic Circle. Development of new cities, mining, transport corridors and energy benefits all nations connected.
• 'Guns to butter' in an 'open system' world. If all nations cooperate to divert military spending to social needs, poverty can end and global warming stopped.

Ehret concludes: 'If Russia, America, China and other nations of the UN Security Council and BRICS were to apply their best minds to solving these problems rather than fall into a new arms race, then not only would either country benefit immensely, but so too would humanity more broadly.' Agreed! Let's hope it becomes a reality.

This means that we all need to look inward and have the moral courage to make this happen. Peace starts with us. Yes, 'Guns to butter' for a better future!

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More

Peace Quest, Rideau Institute, World Federalists. Webinar: 'Peace Prospects in the Biden Era (Thursday, April 1, 2021, 6:30 PM ET). — Free webinar on Zoom. Featuring Douglas Roche.

Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and World Beyond War Canada. Free webinar on Zoom: 'Why Canada Should Leave NATO'. Saturday, April 3, 2021, 3 PM ET. — Free webinar on Zoom.

New Hampshire Peace Action. 'Peace & Justice Conversations:Is Russia truly our enemy? Should we risk nuclear war?' April 12, 2021, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm ET. — Free webinar on Zoom.

Escobar, Pepe. Welcome to shocked & awed 21st century geopolitics. In Information Clearing House, March 23, 2021.

Fry, Stephen. The Terrifying $1.2 Trillion Plan That Could Kill 90% of Humanity, March 16, 2021. YouTube, 11.16 minutes.

O’Connor, Taylor. 10 Global Peacebuilding Networks. In Transcend Media Service, March 15, 2021. [We can add to this list many others, such as: Center for Global Nonkilling, World Beyond War, Project Ploughshares, Center for Citizen Initiatives, Coalition to Oppose Arms Trade, Voice of Women for Peace, and PeaceQuest. For alternative news sources see Honest World News.]

Zuesse, Eric. Why It’s Especially Necessary to End NATO Now. In Modern Diplomacy, March 15, 2021.

Benjamin, Medea and Nicolas J.S. Davies. Biden’s Foreign Policy — Ten Problems, One Solution. In The Progressive, March 13, 2021.

Healy, Hazel. 10 Steps to World Peace. In New Internationalist, September 18, 2018.

Glaser, John. 'Withdrawing from Overseas Bases: Why a Forward ‐ Deployed Military Posture Is Unnecessary, Outdated, and Dangerous'. Cato Institute, Policy Analysis No. 816, July 18, 2017.

United Nations. Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Adopted September 25, 2015. Preamble: This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom….The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which we are announcing today demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal Agenda….'

World Beyond War.org. A global movement to end all wars.

Center for Global Nonkilling. Promoting change toward the measurable goal of a killing-free world.

Updates

Sahiounie,  Steven.  US-NATO provocation in Ukraine to stop Russian pipeline.  The Duran, April 7, 2021.

Paul, Ron. Why Is the Biden Administration Pushing Ukraine to Attack Russia? OpEdNews Op Eds, April 5, 2021. 

Lavelle, Peter, CrossTalk, RT, April 2021. The End of Ukraine? YouTube, 25 minutes. — Lavelle hosts three panelists: Mary Dejevsky,  Independent columnist, London; Earl Rasmussen, Executive Vice-President, The Eurasia Centre, Washington, DC; and Gabriel Gavin, journalist, policy consultant, Moscow, Russia.

Baldwin, Natylie. The Situation in the Donbass, In Natylie's Place: Understanding Russia, April 3, 2021. — The situation in the Ukraine is extremely dangerous. Heavily armed Ukrainian soldiers with USA weapons are threatening the Russian Republic, as Russian soldiers stand by ready to respond if attacked.

It is criminal how the West is maligning Russia and Putin

By Alex Ewashen. August 4, 2015

Alex Ewashen

On June 27th on the Doukhobor Heritage Tour 2015 to Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Russia, to seek out our forefather’s ancestral roots, Brian and I set out on an experience of a lifetime, we returned on July 20th. These countries mentioned were all a part of Russia when our ancestors migrated to Canada in 1899. The heritage tour is a wondrous story, but that will come at a later day.

It is another world out there which our media tells us nothing about, but to strike right at the bone, it is criminal how the West is maligning Russia and Putin. In our travels through villages, towns, country sides and the streets of cities we found that Putin was well respected and admired, and that Moscow was the centre of that part of the universe. Besides being a very popular tourist destination, (one of the most expensive cities in the world) people from Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and of course Russia go to Moscow to work, they work 20 days there and come home for 10.

There are huge cranes everywhere, from the Kremlin to the outskirts of the city, and streets are being dug up to up grade the infrastructure. In our travels we came into Moscow from two different directions and there are new four and six lane highways leading into the city. The streets of Moscow are clogged with BMW's, Audi's, Mercedes, Volvo's, Cadillacs, and every other American and Japanese cars. Men in silk suits and shinny brief cases hurry by on the streets, too preoccupied, or on iPhones, to give you a glance or a smile. I could have spent my entire time sitting on the street photographing the different ladies foot ware, toenails painted to match their shoes and handbags.

And what about the West’s embargo and sanctions? Well, it seems as far as technology and big business, like KFC, Burger King, and McDonald’s, and the car industry are exempt. It is business as usual. The ordinary man in Russia welcomes the embargo. People were getting upset about the many imports, and Russia has geared up very fast to becoming self sufficient developing their own industries. A young couple we stayed with in a village were into making cheeses and selling cream, butter and milk. Their produce had gone up in price by 60 to 75% since the embargo. A lady running a souvenir kiosk, said: 'Look at my stock, it is all made in Russia now'.

On the other hand while visiting in Georgia, which is under US dominance, the general populace is very upset about the embargo. Georgia has a centuries old wine industry, because they are forced to take part in the embargo, they cannot sell their wine to Russia, who was their biggest customer. Georgia grows tons of watermelon which they used to sell to Russia, this market is no more, so the agricultural producers are really hurting.

Saudi Arabia, the US’s foremost ally in that part of the world, is investing 10 billion US in the next five years, largely in the Russian economy, targeting infrastructure, agriculture, medicine, and logistics. Putin’s goal is to make Russia 100% self-sufficient in it’s food industry within the next 10 years.

The biggest thing happening to demonstrate the futility of Western efforts to isolate Russia is a summit underway between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to establish a new development bank, BRICS, and emergency currency reserve pool, each to be armed with $100 Billion, to rival the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) .

Russians are very conscious about their diet. A bill has been submitted to restrict advertising of food high in sugar, salt, fat and saturated fat. If passed, the bill would ban fast-food advertisements aimed at Russian youth and would require that any advertising of these products be accompanied by a health warning. The law would also prohibit fast food advertisements within 100 metres of gyms, medical clinics, military buildings, cultural venues libraries and schools.

Our trip was an experience of a lifetime, and a real eye opener….

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More

1. Alex Ewashen. Rags To Riches…My Way. July 8, 2015. Book Review by Koozma.J. Tarasoff.
2. Natylie Baldwin and Kermit Heartsong. Ukraine: Zbig's Grand Chessboard & How the West Was Checkmated. Next Revelation Press, San Francisco and Montreal, 2015.
3. Corinne Seminoff. 'Back to the Motherlnd - Remaking Russian Farms in Times of Crisis.'
4. Ekaterina Blinova. From 1945 - 49 the US and UK Planned to Bomb Russia into the Stone Age.  Russia Insider, September 4, 2015.