Memo to Congress - Fix Foreign Policy - Putin & Ukraine

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Being an American it is sometimes difficult to see the world through anything other than rose colored glasses.  Think about it.

Our principle source of information on foreign policy is a media that long ago stopped reporting the news and decided to make the news.  Their principle source for information are bureaucrats and politicians working for agencies like the State Department, the intelligence agencies, and groups like NATO and the United Nations.

Then there are the international banks, international corporations, international financing mechanisms like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank not to mention the vast array of foundations, think tanks, pharmaceutical companies supplying drugs to third world countries, defense contractors (including the most powerful of all the arms dealers) among the many special interests with a special interest in foreign affairs and all the money, power and perks found around such money pits.

The world has been controlled by these foreign affairs special interests since the beginning of the 20th century and the dawning of world wars.  The sad part of the truth is that they have all joined forces to find ways to use government and private resources to manipulate events around the world for the purpose of altering the foreign policy balance.

The sadder part of the truth is that in the course of their manipulation they are totally devoid of humanitarian principles and international law but serve a higher purpose, feeding greed and accumulating wealth.  Of course the media consistently paints a picture of serving the higher good by these groups but what they really meant was serving a higher god and their god is greed manifested in power and wealth.

We have pretty much been lied to about sinister purposes behind the foreign affairs of the past century and most certainly been lied to about the worst abusers of misdirected foreign policy.  Maybe we will wake up, or maybe we will keep having "isolated" conflicts that leave hundreds of thousands of people dead, millions and millions of people condemned to refugee camps, and more and more of the world's natural resources in the hands of people loyal to no government but their god Greed.

Look around you.  Listen to what the media is telling you.  The cover story of the day is "Putin is a bad guy - he wants to recreate Russia."  You hear it from the mouths of the Obama administration, it is parroted by the news media, echoed by our allies around the world (although with far less enthusiasm than in America), and applauded by Wall Street and the international banking community.

They also tell you Putin has no respect for international laws, international treaties nor international banking since he is destabilizing the world financial markets.

If I were the America public I would search a lot deeper into the motives behind those condemning Putin.  So far the Russian forces have done nothing more than to protect Russian assets in Crimea, namely a huge naval base on the Black Sea.

As a result he has earned the wrath of Obama and been bombarded by cream puffs called sanctions, economic sanctions at that, and oh yeah, Russia was tossed from the G8.  Now we seem to have a long history of using tough economic sanctions to punish errant nations and force compliance with our will.

Libya has been under US sanctions since 2011.  Sudan has been sanctioned since 2002.  Burma since 1997.  Syria since 1986..  Iran since 1979.  Cuba since 1962.  North Korea since 1950.  We also had economic sanctions against the former Soviet Union from 1948 until the collapse in 1991.

But only once in the past 66 years have US economic sanctions really worked and that was when we sanctioned our own closest allies, Great Britain, France and Israel during the Suez Canal crisis of 1956.  The three were going to invade Egypt in response to the Egyptian nationalization of the Suez Canal and the Americans stopped them dead in their tracks when President Eisenhower started dumping British pounds on the world monetary market and cut off all American oil and gas to the three allies.

It might have been the only time in world history that an invasion was stopped by economic sanctions and probably the last time in history that sanctions actually served people rather than the financial interests impacted by the area.  No lives were lost in a costly invasion that would probably have resulted in major damage to the canal and massive disruption of the world economy since it was the gateway for oil to the western world.

So the bottom line is, economic sanctions don't work.

Just ask the Cubans who have lived with them for over 50 years.  In truth, economic sanctions only hurt the people in those countries who are already victims before we got involved.

Then there is the issue of violating international law, etc., etc.  So far no one has proven Russia or Putin violated international law.  On the other hand, the history books are filled with American violations of about every international law and treaty that exists dating all the way back to our treaties with the Native Americans.

People need to understand we have made it a practice to ignore the law, local, state, federal or international whenever it was useful for the economic interests of, well, certainly not our nation but more appropriately the financial manipulators who use our treasury as their money and our military as their private army.

Wake up...The latest NSA mess has proven our government totally ignores laws protecting things like privacy or unreasonable search and seizure and has run ramshackle over our Constitution and Bill of Rights.  It also violated every international law and treaty we have with our allies and everyone else.

Is drug traffic illegal?  Not if our intelligence agencies are involved like in Asia and South America.

How about the ultimate abuse, political assassination?  We've been there and done that.

Illegal invasions like we say Putin is poised to undertake in the Ukraine?  Ask the Iraq or Afghanistan governments how they feel about that.

Indirectly we are behind many more abuses of international laws and treaties like triggering the Arab spring revolutions and so many more I could write a book.

Yet our president and media stand up and declare Putin and Russia to be acting illegally and like a bully?  We, our government, needs to look in a mirror before it starts condemning anyone for illegal activity.

And while we are at it, I have cited a litany of ways we have directly violated international laws and treaties but there are far more indirect methods that have been used so other people take the blame.

Foreign policy today has little to do with assuring the quality of life for people, or their health, education or welfare.  Those who think we are spreading democracy throughout the world so we can thus protect the lives, freedom and opportunities for the suppressed masses have got it all wrong.

In the vast majority of the cases our foreign policy supports a financial concern of someone other than the American people and that is a bigger crime than the crimes we already commit violating international laws and treaties.

We need an independent re-evaluation of our entire foreign policy strategy.  We need to know if NATO and all other international groups serve the agenda to help people or just help special interests.

Putin was upset because the Ukraine wanted to join NATO and the European Union and we were behind the scenes making sure it happened.  What does a country like the Ukraine have to do with a North Atlantic defense group?  Maybe NATO has outlived it's usefulness and is now creating conflict to justify it's existence?

Maybe it's time to stop being hypocrites and start being leaders in finding peace, not causing war and unrest.

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Spirits in the Sky - Harry Chapin

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A new feature of the Coltons Point Times is to recognize those artists now departed whose contributions to music and life made them giants among people and Harry Chapin is the first of the series.  This greatest of all storytellers quietly left a mark on society that stands alone.  Twice I got to see Harry in concert and it was an honor to experience the joy and love he gave to the audience and the world.  Following is a video of his last recorded performance in Canada 30 years ago that took place just 11 months before his fatal car crash in NYC.

  

Harry Chapin (December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter best known in particular for his folk rock songs including "Taxi", "W*O*L*D", and the number-one hit "Cat's in the Cradle"; as well as his folk musical based on the biblical book of John, "Cotton Patch Gospel". Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who fought to end world hunger, his work a key player in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977. In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work.

Chapin was resolved to leave his imprint on Long Island. He envisioned a Long Island where the arts flourished and universities expanded and humane discourse was the norm. "He thought Long Island represented a remarkable opportunity," said Chapin's widow, Sandy.


Chapin served on the boards of the Eglevsky Ballet, the Long Island Philharmonic, Hofstra University. He energized the now-defunct Performing Arts Foundation (PAF) of Huntington.

In the mid-1970s, Chapin focused on his social activism, including raising money to combat hunger in the United States. His daughter Jen said: "He saw hunger and poverty as an insult to America". He co-founded the organization World Hunger Year with legendary radio DJ Bill Ayres, before returning to music with On the Road to Kingdom Come. He also released a book of poetry, Looking...Seeing, in 1977. Many of Chapin's concerts were benefit performances (for example, a concert to help save the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse, New York), and sales of his concert merchandise were used to support World Hunger Year.

Chapin's social causes at times caused friction among his band members and then-manager Fred Kewley. Chapin donated an estimated third of his paid concerts to charitable causes, often performing alone with his guitar to reduce costs. Mike Rendine played Bass during the years of 1979.

One report quotes his widow saying soon after his death — "only with slight exaggeration" — that "Harry was supporting 17 relatives, 14 associations, seven foundations and 82 charities. Harry wasn't interested in saving money. He always said, 'Money is for people,' so he gave it away." Despite his success as a musician, he left little money and it was difficult to maintain the causes for which he raised more than $3 million in the last six years of his life. The Harry Chapin Foundation was the result.

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