Kucinich RSS Articles

Bombs or Bread; Congress Must Decide

Thu, 10 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following video in advance of today’s expected vote on the Sequestration Replacement Reconciliation Act which raids, among other domestic programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to fund the military budget.

Click on the image to watch the video. The full text follows:

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has been and continues to be a lifeline for 45 million seniors, children, parents, low-wage workers and unemployed persons. About half of all recipients of SNAP benefits are children, approximately eight percent are seniors and 20 percent of households contain people with disabilities. It is imperative that Congress support this vital program instead of drastically cutting it.

Over the last few years, there has been an increase in participation in SNAP; our country has undergone a serious economic recession that millions of Americans still find themselves struggling to overcome. The SNAP program is doing exactly what it is designed to do: react quickly and grow to meet the needs of those who need assistance.

The Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act being considered continues the trend of cutting spending on assistance programs when they are needed most, including SNAP, to fund the continuation of unnecessary and unwarranted wars overseas. Many economists agree that spending for SNAP stimulates the economy; according to Mark Zandi, a $1 increase in food stamp payments boosts GDP by $1.73.

SNAP is a vital assistance program that allows Americans of modest means to avoid hunger. This Congress must act responsibly on behalf of the American people and work to ensure full access to SNAP for our most vulnerable. Funding an already bloated military budget with cuts to the poor is a choice that speaks to the core of who we are as a nation.

Kucinich on AP Afghanistan Poll:

Thu, 10 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following statement after a poll conducted by the Associated Press showed that less than 30% of Americans support the war in Afghanistan:

“A recent poll by the Associated Press demonstrates that support for the U.S. war in Afghanistan has reached its lowest level yet, with just 27% of Americans expressing support for the war. A further 66% are opposed to the war.

“Despite assurances from the Administration that the U.S. is drawing down this increasingly unpopular war, the President’s recent speech in Afghanistan committed us for another ten years. The “progress” we have made in Afghanistan over the past decade does not bode well for the next ten. Just last week, the State Department abandoned plans for a U.S. consulate in Mazar el-Sharif despite spending more than $80 million on the site due to security concerns.

“The human, monetary and moral costs of this war will only continue to increase. Our continued presence there places our troops in harm’s way and undermines our stated goal of stabilizing the region. The majority of the American people recognize that more time in Afghanistan is not the answer. When will the government listen?”

###

Kucinich on Sequester Replacement Act: The Real Deficit we are Dealing with Is a Moral Deficit

Thu, 10 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today delivered the following remarks on the Floor of the United States House of Representatives in opposition of H.R. 5652, the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012:

“It is called a reconciliation act, but how do we reconcile more money for bombs, while cutting money for bread? How do we reconcile our nation helping oil companies, arms merchants, war profiteers, while cutting assistance to low and moderate-income families?

“My colleagues are worried about abuse of food stamps. I wish they would have additional concern and sympathy for the abuse of the middle class: for ten million Americans out of work, for millions losing their homes and their retirement security.

“Let’s look for where the real fraud is in our government: for wars based on lies, over trillions of dollars, billions of U.S. money lost or stolen in Afghanistan. Just in the last week, $80 million dollars for a consulate in Afghanistan which we’re not even going to use, we’re going to close. And we blame poor people using food stamps?

“The real deficit we are dealing with is a moral deficit, and it is time that we face the truth.”

###

Kucinich Inspires at American University in Dubai: “We Live in a World Where Miracles are Waiting to be Welcomed.”

Wed, 09 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today delivered the keynote address at the American University in Dubai’s Fifteenth Commencement. Kucinich spoke to an attentive audience of about 5,000. His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai was also present at the ceremony. Previous keynote speakers have included President William Jefferson Clinton, Secretaries of State James Baker, Madeleine Albright and General Colin Powell and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.

Kucinich’s remarks follow:

Dennis J. Kucinich
United States Representative to Congress
Commencement Speech
American University in Dubai
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

His Highness, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum; Dr. Lance de Masi, President of American University in Dubai, Mr. Elias Bou Saab, Executive Vice President, Members of the Board, Members of the Faculty of American University of Dubai, Esteemed Officials, Parents and Sponsors, Students, Alumni and Friends and especially you, our dear Honored Graduates:

Thank you for the great honor of addressing this esteemed gathering upon an occasion of singular importance in the lives of each and every one of you. This day announces you are prepared. The journey which brought you here has conferred upon you a commencement to the future of your dreams.

For when you ascend this stage you are confidently passing through a portal in the time and space of your life, presenting yourself to the world as a person of accomplishment, as an individual prepared to tap the transformative power of this moment which brings to bear every talent and ability you have developed, pouring it into the moment when you present yourself at the door of opportunity, the moment which is called NOW. The NOW which contemplates that the past, the present, the future exists simultaneously, the power of NOW as it connects with eternity, your timeless self which finds its power in expression of self recreation, self actualization. “Come my friends,” wrote the poet Tennyson, “’tis not too later to seek a newer world.”

Behold the new world being born in the moment. The NOW which comes again and again and again in each and every day forward as you watch for it, recognize it, be mindful of the possibility it presents, be grateful for its imminent unfolding potential. The NOW which bids you to think, to speak, to act, to challenge, to create, to change. The NOW which declares that years of preparation have come to meet the seedling of a single moment. The NOW which whispers: “Do not spill a single seed.” The NOW which makes joyous the challenge of venturing forth in faith. The NOW which bids you, “Come, you are ready!” And reminds you there is no time to waste. The NOW which unveils your deepest potential when you summon the courage to knock upon an unfamiliar door. The NOW which has been secretly awaiting your arrival.

“What you seek, is seeking you,” wrote the poet Rumi. The NOW which waits for you to embrace its endless possibilities, its extraordinary beauty of presence. Yours, the restless quest of the human soul for true purpose, for a place in the world, for life, for love, for a spiritual home all awaits your attention, your touch, your gaze. Your place in the scheme of things is unfolding and even resistance can be your friend as you align with the time signature with which the hand of destiny has inscribed your name. Be relentless in pursuit of excellence. Though your reach exceeds your grasp every moment, “What’s a heaven for?” asked the poet Browning.

What do I know? From my earliest, I heard my life’s drummer banging out a rapid tempo, a quick march to college, to work, to public life, all at the same time, twenty years old working two jobs, going to school, running for city council. When I put my ear to the ground I could hear the heart of the world beating and I rushed excitedly to embrace it fully, no apprenticeships, only the experience of trying and failing, trying and succeeding, climbing the mountains outside or the mountains within, looking up, walking up, running up one path, then another, then still another, sometimes pausing as the crowd passed me by. Then, a new moment, stepping out into the crowd, coursing with it, sensing a new possibility, stepping briskly to meet it, to embark upon a new destination, a new life, the unfolding of each and every day chose a career in public service while I was still in college in Cleveland, Ohio, elected America’s youngest Mayor at age 31.

I ran for Congress five times in a period of twenty-five years before I was elected. I know what it is to try and to fail. Do not fear failure. Let failure be your friend. It prepares you for what you desire to achieve and you arrive at your new destination with growing beauty and wisdom, thanking your friend for the visit.

My dear graduates, the world needs you. I know how important you are. The raw, kinetic, intellectual and spiritual power here from one hundred countries can save our planet from destruction.

We are constantly being told that there is nothing we can do about war, nothing we can do about global climate change, nothing we can do about poverty. Those who accept the self-fulfilling prophecies of doom may have a stake in the status quo or, fearing a new order, delay change. Life, however, is not inert. The human heart is not inert. Its rhythms excite to the call of the future. The soul is not inert. Its eyes see the future.

George Bernard Shaw wrote in Back to Methuselah “You see things and say ‘Why’? I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not’?” He spoke to the capacity of vision, of possibility thinking, of the certainty that life is a profoundly creative experience, an expression of the workings of the mind, the heart and the soul the nonphysical, spiritual world which sanctifies the physical world. Ideas come through our senses bathing in a world of dreams, imagination, the magical, mysterious province of poets and prophets, inventors and painters, the realm where Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam where man receives from the divine the spark of life.

A photograph by the Hubble Telescope has captured a picture of the Eagle Nebula: “Pillars of Creation,” that place in deep space where stars are born. Quantum physicists have identified gluon particles which exist in interstitial space, the space between the spaces, the unseen element of our physical universe which holds together the world with the primal energy of the Big Bang.

We travel back and forth upon the bridge between spirit and matter, at large in a physical universe, we breathe in the eternal spiritual sustenance. Inspired, we fling our dreams back into the physical world and create islands in the sea, buildings which reach to the heavens, new structures in society, and new ways of living. Possibility thinking is a science grounded in old truths. It is the capacity to call forth new outcomes.

Let me share with you a few examples from my own experience. Again and again in my public career I have confronted circumstances where I was told there was nothing I could do about a given condition: a city electric system sold to a giant private utility under indecent conditions. “Nothing you can do,” said my top advisors. I saw something else, organized a civic movement and a three year struggle resulted in regaining for the people of my community a light system which recently observed its 100th anniversary. Two hospitals were to be closed. “Forget it,” I was told. There is nothing you can do. I saw another possibility. Creative legal action ensued, the community rallied, and the hospitals were saved. A steel mill which provided thousands of jobs was about to be closed. Again I was told, “there is nothing you can do.” Long story short, we organized the community, intervened in court, stopped the shutdown of the mill long enough for a buyer to emerge and that mill today is the largest integrated steel mill in the world.

There is a practical physics to civic involvement and action. Look deeply into the appearances of things. Deeper within is another possibility. Envision it, call it forward, act upon it, drawing upon that same elemental energy which comes from where the eternal first touched us and where we touched the eternal, where stars are born.

What I have learned from experience is this - - when you see a condition you desire to see change, when you seek to make something happen and you are told it is not possible - - that may be exactly the place to put your energy, to change the outcome. When you do, people will say a miracle occurred. We live in a world where miracles are waiting to be welcomed

This brings me to a thought I would like to share with you, my fellow citizens of the world; We have inherited a world where war is dropped on our doorstep and we are asked to adopt it as our own. We are told deadly force must be used to change people’s conduct. Violence to stop the violence, war to prevent war, war to end war. When we believe war is inevitable, we come to accept the self-fulfilling prophecy of war. War happens. We wonder why.

We must call forth from this world which is so fraught with fear and foreboding that which is beautiful and glorious a new possibility, a new thinking, a new physics, if you will, of peace. We must do it with courage. We must do it in fulfillment of salaam, the peace which comes from the unseen, the peace which comes from the heart, the peace which comes from our collective yearning, the peace which comes from an awareness that the world is one. That all people are interconnected, interdependent, one with the human family, one with the world, one with the spirit, one with the divine.

War is never inevitable. Peace is inevitable if we desire to call it forward, if we approach it as a science. I speak of peace not simply as the absence of war, but as a practice of the science of human relations, as a capacity of human evolution and human development. But if we call peace forward from the unseen we must name it, we must give it structure, we must prepare for it a place to exist - a space to breathe, to be nurtured - to flower, so that it can be appreciated as an expression of that divine spark of creation.

In writing of the unfolding potential of nature, the poet Lowell celebrates the month of June: “Every clod, [or piece of earth], feels a stir of might, an instinct within it that reaches and towers, and groping blindly above it for light, climbs to a soul in grass and flowers.” His poem was about the search for the Holy Grail, a sacred vessel said to contain drops of the blood of Christ. Peace is a Holy Grail and the quest for peace is empowered by thoughts of peace, words of peace and actions for peace. It is a temporal question. It is also a spiritual journey: Wherewith Allah guideth all who seek His good pleasure to ways of peace and safety, and leadeth them out of darkness, by His will, unto the light, guideth them to a path that is straight. Qur’an 5:16

Think of the possibilities if we could create within every nation a place where the best minds and hearts are brought together within the context of a cabinet level position or ministry wherein resides the power to develop social structures for peace and strategies to avert conflict between groups and between states.

Such a proposal exists; I brought it to the United States Congress two months before 9/11. In its simplest expression, it seeks develop an organized approach to make the daily work of our nation involve our top social and economic scientists to deal with the root causes of domestic violence, spousal abuse, child abuse, gang violence, gun violence, violence against gays, and racial violence. It would develop skills for non-violent conflict resolution on a domestic level, as well as internationally, where such a ministry would be prepared to assist to ameliorate the causes of violence inherent in poverty, lack of access to food, water, shelter and the instability caused by environmental disasters.

As violence is learned, so is peace. Education has a powerful social purpose. A ministry of peace would create the resources for peace education within every culture and within each government to construct a world where we learn to settle differences by tapping the spiritual principles of salaam, of peace. We are then within reach of creating cultures of vision, cultures of creativity, cultures of unlimited wealth and cultures of sustainability.

I have been in Congress for 16 years and involved in government for the better part of 45 years. I am told, “Dennis, such an idea is so impractical.” After all, my nation spends more money for weapons and war than all the other nations of the world put together. We spend so much time, so many resources human and financial preparing for war. Why not begin to spend time and resources preparing for peace?

Will this vision be realized? I was reading a speech given in Dubai in 2007 by His Highness, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, observing the foundation His Highness created. He quoted a friend “. . . in this foundation you are like one ploughing the sea. The challenge is huge; the gap of knowledge in most of the Arab and Islamic countries is bottomless. There is a lot of talk about building communities of knowledge, but little action. The pit is too wide to be seamed, so why should you weary yourself over this matter?”

At a time when the technology of destruction and the capacity of human destructiveness is so great, this is exactly the time to create a common global effort to build communities of peace, to provide structures in every country to help peace issue forth and flourish. I, too, believe that if we will make of human development a new art, we will set our eyes to the distant horizon and plough the seas with wondrous effect. We can then lift up our eyes to the heavens and with our imagination, with joyous abandon plough the stars, and a thundering universe will burst forth with new possibilities and we will make heaven on earth. ‘Come my friends, ‘tis not too late to seek a newer world.’ Thank you.

###

The Key to Economic Recovery; Kucinich Explains Monetary Reform

Tue, 08 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

In advance of a Financial Services Subcommittee hearing today to look at legislative proposals for “reforming or abolishing the Federal Reserve,” Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) released the following video detailing how his legislation would reassert Congressional authority over American monetary policy. H.R. 2990, The National Emergency Employment Defense Act (The N.E.E.D. Act), was introduced in this Congress with Rep. John Conyers (D-MI).

Today’s hearing is in the Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology Subcommittee of the Committee on Financial Services.

The N.E.E.D. Act would put the Federal Reserve under the Treasury as part of a larger to plan to allow Congress to invest in our economy without creating debt or inflation. It does this in three simple steps outlined below.

See the video here.

Almost four years ago, Wall Street crashed our economy, an event that required massive taxpayer intervention to save the financial system from complete collapse. In the wake of that crisis, Congress passed a sweeping overhaul of financial laws that were supposed to help prevent another crisis from happening again. But Wall Street pushed back hard, and very little has changed. The banks that blew up the economy got trillions of dollars in bailouts, while millions of Americans lost their jobs and homes. And as the most recent jobs report shows, there is an ongoing economic crisis in this country, with dire consequences for millions of Americans who are struggling.

There’s an obvious problem here. We have to ask ourselves, why was it so important to rescue the banks, at the expense of the economy? It really comes down to who creates our money, and for what. Banks create our money supply when they make loans. If banks don’t make loans, we lose our money supply. This gives banks enormous power, because they decide what gets funded and what doesn’t. And they can hold us to ransom when they get it wrong.

This is a serious problem for democracy. But it was never meant to be like this:

Our Constitution clearly places the power to create money with Congress, not with banks, or anybody else.

The National Emergency Employment Defense Act – the N.E.E.D. Act – HR 2990 reasserts the sole grant of constitutional power to create money to Congress. It does this in three steps: First, the Federal Reserve System is reorganized under the U.S. Treasury where all new money would be issued without debt or interest, adding to revenue without taxing or borrowing, and spent into circulation to promote the general welfare. The money system would be monitored to be neither inflationary nor deflationary.

Second, we would end the practice called “fractional reserve lending” which allows private entities – mostly banks - to create and issue our money supply as interest-bearing debt. All previously-created private credit would be converted into U.S. government money. Banks would then act as intermediaries, accepting savings deposits and loaning them out to borrowers. This nationalizes our money system, not the banking system.

Third, new money is spent into circulation as the economy grows and that money is used to pay for infrastructure, education, renewable energy, etc., as appropriated by Congress. This would create real wealth and career opportunities in millions of new, good jobs. The national debt would also be paid off as it comes due.

So let’s take back control over our monetary system and fix our economy. Let’s not stand idle any longer, waiting for the banks to save us. H.R. 2990, the N.E.E.D. Act, will get us moving again.

Kucinich: Forty Two Years after the Shootings at Kent State University, Key Questions Remain Unanswered

Fri, 04 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following statement in remembrance of the Kent State tragedy which occurred 42 years ago today on May 4, 1970. Kucinich also called upon the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release the full analysis of an audiotape of the shooting. Kucinich had previously requested the DOJ conduct an investigation after analysis by forensic audio experts found gunshots to have been fired before the Guard fired on the students, killing four and injuring nine others.

“Upon the solemn 42nd anniversary of the shootings at Kent State University we remember with love and compassion those who were affected. There are many of us who remember where we were when the news broke that the students had been killed. We will never forget how this tragedy changed our nation. News of the shootings sparked massive nation-wide protests and defined the way a generation of Americans interacted with its government.

“What happened as a result of the shootings is well-documented. What we still don’t know to this day, is why the shootings took place. An audio recording of the events of May 4^th may have answers.”

Congressman Kucinich published an OpEd here. He also released this video.

The only known audio recording of those events was made by Terry Strubbe, who placed a microphone out of his window and recorded twenty-nine minutes of audio. At least two copies of the Strubbe tape were made, with one ending up in Yale University’s Kent State Collection in 1989. In 2010, The Cleveland Plain Dealer engaged forensic audio engineers to examine a copy of the Yale recording made by Alan Canfora, one of the thirteen victims of the Kent State shootings. That analysis found that shots were fired before the National Guard opened fire. That evidence could be significant, because it could connect an FBI paid informant who was on campus that day and who possessed a gun that might have been the one caught by Strubbe’s microphone.

As Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Congressman Dennis Kucinich requested that Yale University make another copy of the Strubbe tape to ensure its authenticity, and sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting that the Department of Justice undertake a forensic analysis of this authenticated recording. The DOJ concluded that the tape was unintelligible, but that the sounds preceding the fire from the guardsmen were likely to be the sound of Strubbe’s dorm room opening and closing.

Despite the detailed response from the Justice Department, significant questions remain. There was no attempt to reconcile major discrepancies in conclusions among expert analysts. The role of Terry Norman, the FBI informant on campus that day was not discussed. In order to lay these questions to rest, Kucinich wrote to the Justice Department requesting the full analysis used to reach their conclusions.

“The Kent State shootings remain a significant event in American history, and my heart goes out to the families of those affected by this tragedy. Nothing less than a full investigation is warranted.”

Kucinich: Latest Drop in “Official” Unemployment Rate Signals Continuing Crisis

Fri, 04 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

“How Long Can We Stand Idly By? There is a Path to Full Employment.”

Washington, May 4, 2012 -Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement after the Department of Labor issued new employment data showing that 115,000 private-sector jobs were added in the month of April and that the official unemployment rate dropped slightly, to 8.1%, from 8.2%.

“A drop in the official unemployment rate is not proof that our economy is limping slowly out of recession. The reality is that the recovery is far too weak to make a difference for millions of Americans. Although private sector employers have added jobs, nearly 8 million Americans remain underemployed. Millions have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more. The number of American workers who have simply given up and dropped out of the workforce is at the highest level in thirty years,” Kucinich said.

At the state and local level, the jobs crisis continues, fundamentally weakening America’s communities. According to The Washington Post, states eliminated 457,000 jobs in 2010 and 2011, including 178,000 education jobs, due to budget cuts. These cuts disproportionally affect women and minority communities who are historically heavily represented in the public sector. According to Labor Department statistics, so many state and local education jobs have been cut that today, the number is the same as it was in April 2005.

“Statistics can be massaged. There is no escaping the harsh reality that the state of the American worker is dire. We cannot climb out of this crisis by lowering labor standards or pushing for more ‘worker productivity’—artificial concepts that drain wealth from the Middle Class and into the pockets of the wealthiest. Congress must do more to get millions of Americans back to work. The longer we wait, the more lasting and permanent damage we do to our economy.”

“The National Emergency Employment Defense Act, H.R. 2990, which I recently introduced with Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), can provide the solution to our ongoing crisis. By reasserting Congressional primacy over our nation’s monetary policy, it would authorize Congress to spend money into the economy, without causing inflation, to rebuild our infrastructure and create the jobs Americans need.”

Learn more about the NEED Act here.

Congressman Kucinich Announces Winners of 2012 10th Congressional District Art Contest

Fri, 04 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today announced the winners of the 2012 10^th Congressional District Art Contest. The Congressional Art Contest is sponsored by Members of Congress throughout the country annually for public and private high school students. The winning entry will be sent to Washington, D.C., where it will be on display in the U.S. Capitol building for one year.

The grand prize winner is Ms. Rachel Vick of Bay High School. Ms. Vick and a parent will receive round-trip tickets to Washington, D.C. to attend the ribbon cutting festivities on June 20, 2012. Ms. Vick’s art teacher at Bay High School is Cherie Kuhn Bauer.

See Ms. Vick’s award-winning self-portrait HERE.

Other winners of this year’s contest include:

Daniel Dobish, Runner-Up to Grand Prize, 1st Place in Drawing, Westlake High School
Wan Kwok, 2nd Place in Drawing, Westlake High School
Emily Yates, 3rd Place in Drawing, Padua Franciscan High School
Alexa Indriola, Honorable Mention, Independence High School
Rachel Rymont, Honorable Mention, Padua Franciscan High School

Elizabeth Auckley, 2nd Place in Painting, Bay High School
Grace Veres, 3rd Place in Painting, Bay High School
Alissa Kolke, Honorable Mention in Painting, Bay High School
Sami McLaughlin, Honorable Mention, Painting, Strongsville High School

Kaleigh Macalla, 1st Place, Print Making. St. Joseph Academy
MaryKate McCafferty. 2nd Place Print Making, St. Joseph Academy
Madison Bluemel, 3rd Place, Print Making, Strongsville High School
Allison Smolarsky, Honorable Mention, Print Making, Normandy High School
Calvin Peters, Honorable Mention, Print Making, Strongsville High School

Joseph Szabo, 1st Place, Photography, Padua Franciscan High School
Abby Salem, 2nd Place, Photography, Westlake High School
Emma Ryan, 3rd Place, Photography, St. Joseph Academy
Michael Harding, Honorable Mention, Padua Franciscan High School

Caroline Goodill, 1st Place, Photo Illustration, St. Joseph Academy
Jenna Fisler, 2nd Place, Photo Illustration, Bay High School
Alexandra Melendez, 3rd Place, Photo Illustration, Westlake High School
Alayna Manochi, Honorable Mention, Photo Illustration, Normandy High School
Madison Schoenherr, Honorable Mention, Photo Illustration, St. Joseph Academy
Emily Moscarino, Honorable Mention, Photo Illustration, Padua Franciscan High School
Grace Galvin, Honorable Mention, Photo Illustration, Westlake High School
Stephanie Maciag, Honorable Mention, Photo Illustration, Westlake High School

Kucinich: NATO Missile Defense Program Provokes Ally

Fri, 04 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a longtime opponent of the proposed European missile “defense” system, today made the following statement after Russia announced it would be prepared to use “destructive force preemptively” if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (at the behest of the United States) moves forward to establish the missile system:

“Russia’s response demonstrates that it views NATO’s placement of the missile system in Central Europe as a threat to its own security, since the missile’s placement is near the Russian border. Neocons who have long sought to rekindle a Cold War with Russia have promoted a policy of ‘encirclement,’ one aspect of which is the placement of a missile system around Russia’s border.

“NATO would be wise not to provoke a confrontation over this matter,” said Kucinich.

“As a longtime opponent of this missile system, I welcomed the Obama Administration’s plans to scrap the European Ground-Based Mid-Course Defense (GMD) system in 2010 due to the high cost to the U.S. taxpayer and doubts regarding its capabilities.

“This plan which proposes placing missiles in NATO countries such as Poland and Romania, supposedly to counter any Iranian missile threat, is no more acceptable than its predecessor,” said Kucinich.

An assessment by the National Academy of Sciences puts the cost of the system at 3 times more than the Administration’s estimate and calls into question the ability of the system to offer protection to the United States.

“Even without regard to the price or reliability of these missiles, it needlessly compromises our diplomatic relationship with Russia after significant strides have been made between our two countries over the past two years,” said Kucinich.

Kucinich: We are Not Exiting Afghanistan. We are Staying.

Wed, 02 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who has led the call to end the war in Afghanistan, today released the following statement after President Obama announced that the U.S. has signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement with Afghanistan.

“Yesterday, the President announced that the U.S. signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement with Afghanistan, committing the United States to the country for a long time to come. The agreement addressed the transition to Afghan-led security forces by 2014. Human and monetary costs to the U.S. will continue to skyrocket.

“According to a recent article in The Atlantic, the U.S. spends an estimated $14,000 per Afghan troop per year. The long-term costs to the U.S. to train the 352,000 Afghan security troops we are counting on to allow the withdrawal of U.S. troops will be over $4 billion per year; or more than $40 billion over the next ten years. The Associated Press recently highlighted a report that raises significant questions regarding International Security Assistance Force claims that there have been Afghan-led military operations, an indicator of progress toward Afghan military self sufficiency, a cornerstone of our strategy.

“It is widely recognized that much of Al-Qaeda’s leadership and presence in Afghanistan has been decimated. Since the death of Osama bin Laden exactly one year ago, we have lost 381 U.S. troops. The President stated that ‘we must give Afghanistan the opportunity to stabilize.’ The assertion that maintaining a long-term presence in the country is the best way to prevent future attacks on the U.S. belies the reality on the ground: that our mere presence is destabilizing. The events of the past few months alone – the Koran burnings, coordinated attacks by the Taliban in Kabul, and the killing of Afghan civilians by a U.S. solider – should be enough of an indication that more time in Afghanistan is not the answer.

“America has been lulled to sleep by the mindboggling elongation of a war seven thousand miles away. The plain fact is we are not exiting Afghanistan, despite the appearances which the White House is trying to create. We are staying. Have we learned nothing from ten years of quagmire? It is time to bring our troops home safely and responsibly.”