Cold War with China is Dangerous

I. Cold War with China is Dangerous

Sixty-six organizations, including Peace Action, issued a statement with the following key points:

# We are deeply concerned about the growing Cold War mentality driving the U.S. approach to China.

# Worryingly, both parties are increasingly latching onto a dangerously short-sighted worldview that presents China as the pivotal existential threat to U.S. prosperity and security, and counsels zero-sum competition as the primary response.

# The true global challenges of today -- like economic inequality and lack of opportunity, climate change, nuclear proliferation, pandemics, financial crises, supply chain disruption and ethnonationalism -- will require joint, non-military solutions with China and other countries.

# Instead, the level of demonization and outdated Cold War thinking driving Washington, threatens to fuel destabilizing arms-racing and risks escalation towards a predictably devastating conflict.

# President Biden and Congress should focus on innovation, cooperation and multilateral approaches, not hostility and confrontation, to address shared challenges and areas of concern.

# If the U.S. government doesn't change course quickly, this dangerous bipartisan push for a new Cold War with China risks empowering hardliners in both countries, fueling more violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, and failing to confront the truly existential-shared threats we face this century." (Statement is found in Peace Action of Michigan "Flash!", SUMMER 2021).

President Biden's Battle: Guns or Butter?

President Joe Biden's big spending on the American Jobs Plan offers hope for decent jobs improving roads, bridges, and broadband. His American Families Plan offers hope for investments in childcare and community college, and lowering taxes with the Child Tax Credit. Child poverty could be cut by 50%.

But big spending on "butter" can be stymied by overspending on "guns." In the 1960's battle between guns (Vietnam) and butter (The Great Society), well-intended programs of social uplift were squeezed by a lack of financial outlays.

President Lyndon Johnson got the legislation for "The Great Society" adopted, However, LBJ undermined it by spending American blood and taxes fighting the U.S. war in Vietnam. Will Joe Biden avoid a similar failure? He wants to "Build Back Better," but will he get the resources without reducing Pentagon overspending?  

Although Biden has extended the New START cap on nuclear weapons with Russia, he is going ahead with the rising costs associated with upgrading all the U.S. nuclear armaments. Is that affordable or safe? Can the U.S. afford the financial drain and blowback from over 800 military bases in dozens of countries around the world?

Biden continues to transfer more military assets to the South China Sea and near to Taiwan. Will some variant of a Tonkin Gulf Incident sink his domestic programs?

Given his domestic priorities for building back better, why is Biden proposing an increase in the Defense Budget over President Trump? Does he really think Americans can afford both "guns and butter?"  

President Dwight Eisenhower offered a cautionary vision: "There is no way in which a country can satisfy the craving for absolute security, but it can bankrupt itself morally and economically in attempting to reach that illusory goal through arms alone." (Source: Same as above).

A Bunch of Lies

The Washington Post published "The Afghanistan Papers" based on confidential documents written by the Pentagon. Those papers reveal the real results of war in Afghanistan. 

U.S. officials failed to develop a clear strategy for war in Afghanistan. They admitted to fueling corruption by flooding the country with money and then turning a blind eye. They confessed that almost everything they did to end opium farming in Afghanistan backfired. 

U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the progress of the war in Afghanistan. One U.S. veteran wrote, "Every data point was altered to present the best picture possible. Truth was rarely welcome."

Will Congress learn from the tragic mistakes? Will Congress conduct hearings to hear from those who lied to us? (Source: Found in Peace Action of Michigan "Flash!", Winter-January 2020).