{"id":30333,"date":"2018-01-16T11:32:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T19:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=30333"},"modified":"2018-01-16T11:32:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T19:32:00","slug":"chelsea-manning-challenges-anti-russia-fanatic-ben-cardin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/16\/chelsea-manning-challenges-anti-russia-fanatic-ben-cardin\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea Manning Challenges Anti-Russia Fanatic Ben Cardin"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a typical foray into reckless hyperbole, Cardin told<\/a> a public forum in November: \u201cWhen you use cyber in an affirmative way to compromise our democratic, free election system, that\u2019s an attack against America. It\u2019s an act of war. It is an act of war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardin is far from the only member of Congress to use \u201cact of war\u201d rhetoric about alleged Russian cyber actions. Republican ultra-hawk Arizona Senator John McCain<\/a> has hurled the phrase at Russia. But the most use of the phrase comes from a range of Democrats, such as Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal<\/a> and the normally sensible Northern California Representative Jackie Speier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As his party\u2019s ranking member of the key Senate committee on foreign policy, Cardin is at the tip of the anti-Russia propaganda spear. After three decades in Congress including nearly a dozen years in the Senate, he\u2019s an old hand at spinning. No one has worked harder to get political mileage out of \u201cRussiagate.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A Distorted Report<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week, Cardin upped the ante with the release of a report<\/a> that he commissioned. In effect, it\u2019s a declaration of red-white-and-blue jihad against Russia.<\/p>\n

The report \u2013 which accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of \u201ca relentless assault to undermine democracy and the rule of law in Europe and the United States\u201d \u2013 received massive coverage in U.S. news media. Conservative<\/a> and liberal<\/a> punditry voiced acclaim.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever before in American history has so clear a threat to national security been so clearly ignored by a U.S. president,\u201d a solo statement by Cardin declares on the opening page. With the truly repugnant President Trump in its crosshairs, the report\u2019s most polemical claims \u2013 no matter how debatable or ahistorical \u2013 have predictably gotten a pass from mass media.<\/p>\n

But the much-ballyhooed report is a carefully selective and distorted version of history.<\/p>\n

The expansion of NATO up to Russia\u2019s borders, the U.S. interference<\/a> in dozens of countries\u2019 elections (including in Russia<\/a> during the Clinton administration), Washington\u2019s support for repressive regimes in the past and present \u2013 such realities didn\u2019t merit consideration or mention. Nor did facts such as the USA\u2019s role as the world\u2019s biggest arms merchant<\/a>. Or the aggressively deadly U.S. military interventions in the recent past and present, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya.<\/p>\n

Such omissions are essential to the self-righteous tone of the Russiagate frenzy. Only with silence about basic truths of U.S. foreign policy can officials in Washington pose as leaders of an angelic nation that must confront satanic Russia.<\/p>\n

In light of what is at stake for human survival \u2013 with the odds of nuclear war shifting ominously because of the agenda that he\u2019s helping to push \u2013 Senator Cardin can be understood as someone who avidly fits into patterns of nationalistic and militaristic madness. The sad fact is that he has plenty of company on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

Democratic leadership used to be much saner. Five decades ago, it was the fanatical Republican standard bearer Barry Goldwater who scorned reaching out to the Kremlin \u2013 while Democratic President Lyndon Johnson wisely sought d\u00e9tente<\/a> with Russian leaders on behalf of peaceful coexistence and reducing the risks of nuclear conflagration.<\/p>\n

Right after being sentenced to prison in August 2013 for heroic whistleblowing that exposed many U.S. war crimes, Chelsea Manning released a statement that quoted Howard Zinn: \u201cThere is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.\u201d A nuclear war between the United States and Russia would do more than kill vast numbers of innocent people. Scientific research tells us that a nuclear holocaust would make the Earth \u201cvirtually uninhabitable<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The extreme hostility toward Russia that makes such an outcome more likely<\/a> must be rejected. Senator Ben Cardin is one of the loudest and most prominent voices for such hostility. He should be challenged.<\/p>\n

Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org<\/a> and founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy<\/a>. His books include<\/i> War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a typical foray into reckless hyperbole, Cardin told a public forum in November: \u201cWhen you use cyber in an affirmative way to compromise our democratic, free election system, that\u2019s an attack against America. It\u2019s an act of war. It is an act of war.\u201d Cardin is far from the only member of Congress to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-30333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30333"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30335,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30333\/revisions\/30335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30333"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=30333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}