- 18 Jul 2022 13:09
#15239168
German source: https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=85973
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Proofread by me. (but there wasnt much to fix, actually, this is better english than I myself would have managed)
I would like to point out that this text doesnt reflect my own opinion, because I would change some of these demands (for example I would demand for nationalization of the US arms production instead its dissolution, and I would demand reduction of the US military budget to a quarter or less, but not complete termination) and add a lot of crucial others (for example introduction of massive tax raises for extremely high incomes, replacement of the US dollar with the Bancor as international currency, and fixing the many ways the US is currently abusing, poisoning and terrorizing their own population, especially poor people).
I also think that Biden would be replaced as president very quickly and most violently after a speech like this. After all, the USA is very experienced in introducing regime change.
Dear fellow citizens, dear fellow human beings around the world!
The Government of the United States of America has decided, after much discussion, to initiate a change of era in order to avert present and future suffering in the world and to fulfill our responsibility for peace, freedom and justice. After relentless analysis of our past policies, we have come to the following conclusion:
We, the United States, have waged wars over the past decades in violation of international law and with disregard for human rights in order to achieve our interests by force. We have used intelligence and military means to force regime changes and have been responsible for the deaths of millions of people through our actions.
For a long time, we assumed that the rest of the world understood that only we were allowed to do this because we could, because we were not subject to any international jurisdiction, because we were by far the world's largest military power and also a major economic power, because we considered our interest in establishing and defending a unipolar world to be legitimate, because we saw ourselves as entitled, as a self-appointed global power of order, to interfere in other countries as we saw fit. We not only waged military wars and overthrew governments, but also imposed and enforced sanctions against states, companies and individuals worldwide at our own discretion, plunging countless people into misery.
When, starting in 1990, the then Soviet Union under Gorbachev pushed the door wide open for a peaceful transition of former Eastern bloc states to independence, and even the Soviet Union itself dissolved and opened up to the West, we celebrated this as a victory over socialism. Instead of seeing the end of confrontation and the Cold War as an opportunity for lasting peace and radical disarmament, we used the situation for unilateral expansion of power. We rejected Gorbachev's proposal of destruction of all nuclear weapons and radical disarmament of conventional weapons.
Nor did we consider the dissolution of NATO, which had been founded explicitly as an alliance against the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc countries allied with it.
Although we had lost the enemy with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, we held on to this military alliance of the capitalist West. We even included more and more former Eastern bloc states in our alliance and stationed our weapons systems and troops there. In this way, we followed the logic of a new military confrontation already since the 1990s and prevented a sustainable reconciliation process of the old as well as the new NATO members with the successor state of the Soviet Union, which had peacefully relinquished its power so rigorously to its own disintegration. We declared NATO as a peace-loving defense alliance, although we as the U.S. and also our NATO allies repeatedly demonstrated the opposite. We exploited the weakness of the disintegrating Soviet Union to break promises and conclude treaties that unilaterally served our interests. We turned Russia and the new states that emerged from the Soviet Union into the Wild East, where a neoliberal gold-digging spirit took possession of the economic chaos, giving rise, among other things, to the oligarchs and their power that we tend to complain about today. In the end, we also brought forth a Putin, appointed by his weak predecessor Yeltsin - our desired president - who expected the former KGB man to bring order back into this chaos with strength.
We refused to cooperate with Putin on an equal footing, ignored his ideas and proposals for a common security architecture and for cooperation that respects the interests of all parties, and thus contributed significantly to his radicalization into an autocratic ruler. Today we say that Putin has always lied and is obsessed with great power fantasies, which we as the West and NATO must resolutely oppose. It is not the armament on Russia's borders that is the problem - although we as the United States would never have tolerated or condoned anything similar anywhere in the world - but his great power aspirations and his fear of democracy. We have refused to negotiate with Putin, along with the Ukrainian government, over Ukraine's NATO membership and solutions to the conflict-ridden legacy of the Soviet era, at the very least accepting escalation to war.
We always fought our wars far from our own country. However, in Cold War times until 1990, we knew that a nuclear war would almost certainly devastate our country as well. For decades, we have been working to shift the "balance of terror" in our favor and make war waged with tactical nuclear weapons feasible. The complete destruction of the countries of Europe where we have stationed our nuclear weapons was factored into our planning games. To achieve this, we canceled arms limitation agreements with Russia and set in motion a nuclear arms buildup spiral on both sides. The resulting danger of nuclear war is greater today than ever before.
A critical reflection on all this, and especially the war in Ukraine, has now after all brought us to a fundamental reversal in American policy and to this turn of the times to be proclaimed. We state: Every war is a crime against humanity. And we cannot credibly condemn this crime of the Russian government without subjecting our own actions in the world to critical analysis. Every day people die because of war, not only in Ukraine. Every day it generates unspeakable suffering and hatred, and with it heavy mortgages for the future for generations to come. We have to put an end to this military logic, which wants to force political and economic interests with violence, we have to put an end to worldwide suffering and death. Also in view of the urgent task of mankind to at least still limit the climate catastrophe, our strength must be directed towards the goal of worldwide cooperation and confrontations must be reduced and avoided in the future. The immense expenditure on armaments in the world must be urgently redirected to give people the chance of a future instead of bringing death. All of our efforts for climate justice and respect for our living planet must at the same time also open the way to a self-determined and dignified life for people and communities all over the world. For our future work against climate catastrophe will go hand in hand with a resolute commitment to economic justice based on cooperation rather than competition.
The goals outlined here mean huge upheavals in the economy and politics. Our government has adopted the following resolutions as immediate measures:
- As of now, the U.S. is shutting down its drone program, which has killed people we have declared terrorists and numerous civilians around the world so far.
- We will close our military bases on foreign territories - hundreds in dozens of countries around the globe - within a year.
- We offer Russia immediate negotiations, involving all the countries concerned, to first achieve a cease-fire in Ukraine, with a view to an international peace conference within the next 3 months. Since one of our goals is the dissolution of NATO, Ukraine's membership in NATO is off the table. Joint solutions for the legacies of the Soviet era will be worked out as soon as possible, taking into account all interests and in particular the right to self-determination in the regions concerned.
- With immediate effect, we are also working to bring peace to other trouble spots in the world in which we are involved in some way. To this end, we are also stopping our arms deliveries worldwide with immediate effect and withdrawing our armed forces on land, at sea and in the air.
- We withdraw from NATO with immediate effect and promote its complete dissolution.
- We will reduce our military budget to zero within 5 years and use this immense sum for the aforementioned goals, for humanitarian and for all peacekeeping measures. We support our defense industry in converting to civilian production.
- We invite all nuclear powers to disarmament negotiations with the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons worldwide within the next 5 years. To this end, we will first withdraw all nuclear weapons stationed outside our territory within 6 months. This as a first measure to build confidence. Further major efforts for confidence-building measures will be needed for this and further negotiations.
- Likewise, we invite international negotiations to limit conventional weapons with the goal of their elimination.
- We immediately launch an investigation into all war crimes committed by our troops and bring them to justice. We apologize for the past prosecution of whistleblowers and recognize their valuable contribution to the investigation of war crimes. The extradition request against Julian Assange will be withdrawn today.
- Further measures for a radical transformation towards a fair world trade, the containment to the abolition of speculation, especially in food (i.e. the financial transactions aptly described as "financial weapons of mass destruction"), the disempowerment of the financial sector, the redistribution of wealth in favor of the economically disadvantaged population, the reorganization of land ownership and the ownership of means of production, and others are to be published shortly.
- Furthermore, we will work vigorously to fundamentally change the foundations and working methods of international organizations, especially the IMF and the World Bank, in cooperation with all countries, or to abolish these institutions.
- We will also fundamentally reform our electoral system and the instruments of popular political participation to strengthen democratic principles that have been increasingly eroded. In doing so, we will promote understanding and solidarity among people, communities and peoples, the overcoming of racism and sexism, and the undivided dignity of all people. We will take special care to ensure that democratic instruments cannot be abused by supporters of totalitarian and anti-human ideologies and powerful vested interests. For this, democratization and the assumption of democratically organized responsibility and participation in all information media are indispensable.
We take seriously the responsibility for our policies of the past decades.
We are aware that much hard work lies ahead and that our lives are in acute danger from those whose interests are threatened by our new policy. However, since this new policy is in the existential interest of the vast majority of the world's population, we ask for broad support and backing against expected massive attacks. Specifically, as a first step, we are asking for the support of the majority of elected representatives in the Senate and House of Representatives. We are aware that a continuation of the present policy would escalate confrontations to the point of a nuclear world war. We could no longer justify this. We are convinced that our new policy will also remove the ground from all autocrats of this world in the short and medium term and will initiate a process of grassroots democratic changes worldwide. Unconditional respect for the right of self-determination of all peoples based on the principle of solidarity will shape these changes in very different ways. What they have in common is the striving for a peaceful, free and just world.
In the past, we have only ever destroyed trust. It will be all the more difficult for you to give us the necessary leap of faith to shape this new world together. Nevertheless, we sincerely ask you to do so.
Sincerly,
Joe Biden
President of the United States of America
on behalf of the entire administration.
German source: https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=85973
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Proofread by me. (but there wasnt much to fix, actually, this is better english than I myself would have managed)
I would like to point out that this text doesnt reflect my own opinion, because I would change some of these demands (for example I would demand for nationalization of the US arms production instead its dissolution, and I would demand reduction of the US military budget to a quarter or less, but not complete termination) and add a lot of crucial others (for example introduction of massive tax raises for extremely high incomes, replacement of the US dollar with the Bancor as international currency, and fixing the many ways the US is currently abusing, poisoning and terrorizing their own population, especially poor people).
I also think that Biden would be replaced as president very quickly and most violently after a speech like this. After all, the USA is very experienced in introducing regime change.
There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning. - Warren Buffett
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