John Quincy Adams Society at Syracuse

10/22/2024

Getting personnel and equipment out may prove the easy part.

03/29/2021

Join us this Thursday as we talk about America's history with anti-insurgency operations throughout the 20th century, how our post-9/11 political environment has changed our conception of terrorism and finally how American foreign policy can be changed to more effectively push for peace and stability around the world.
https://syracuseuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJctfumqqz0rHtMyMtw3DKGlHqV00_s0ULuU

08/07/2020

In an open letter, these veteran diplomats claim that it's high time for a change in America's policy towards Russia.

"It makes no sense for two countries with the power to destroy each other and, in 30 minutes, to end civilization as we know it to lack fully functioning diplomatic relations...
Reality is that Russia, under Vladimir Putin, operates within a strategic framework deeply rooted in nationalist traditions that resonate with elites and the public alike. An eventual successor, even one more democratically inclined, will likely operate within this same framework. Premising U.S. policy on the assumption that we can and must change that framework is misguided. We must deal with Russia as it is, not as we wish it to be, fully utilizing our strengths but open to diplomacy."

America’s current mix of sanctions and diplomacy isn’t working. An open letter on how to reconsider our approach to Putin—and whoever comes next.

08/03/2020

"In March, the government sought to buoy the economy and blunt the economic impact of the pandemic with “Economic Impact Payments,” more commonly known as “coronavirus stimulus payments.” According to CNBC, the average payment was $1,809 per tax filer, which could be individuals or married couples filing jointly.

The long-term benefits of that payment to tax filers are dwarfed by the costs imposed on taxpayers by the defense budget and payments to defense contractors that Congress authorized in this year’s NDAA.

The IRS anticipates 155.1 million tax returns to be filed in 2020, meaning the cost of the upcoming NDAA will be, on average, $4,711.11 per tax filer, completely wiping out the stimulus payment and imposing an additional $2,902.11 burden per filer."

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2020/07/24/tax-burden-from-the-pentagon-budget-authorized-by-the-ndaa-wipes-out-covid-stimulus-payments/

07/31/2020

Why do these senators think Americans need fighter jets as relief for the effects of the Covid-19 virus?🤔🤔 Any guesses?

Millions in new spending for missile defense and F-35's. How's that related to coronavirus?

07/25/2020

A brief but beautifully written piece by Stephen Wertheim, a previous guest of ours, that makes it clear how pursuing American dominance across the world ends up hurting Americans at home.

Some highlights from the piece:
"America’s privileged instrument, its globe-straddling military, has proven irrelevant to the greatest attack on the American people in a generation. Consider the irony: Many countries that the United States has bound itself to protect by force — Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea — have controlled the spread and secured their people. Their protector, by contrast, reigns supreme as the single most infected country in the world. We’re #1 in armed force around the globe and vulnerability to disease at home.
(...)
�a federal government that annually devotes more than half of its discretionary budget to the Pentagon has left millions of its people without basic health care�
(...)
The fact remains: if a foreign policy undermines life at home, then it destroys its reason for being. All national policy, foreign or domestic, aims to provide for the safety and well-being of the American people."

Before the pandemic, more and more Americans concluded that their country’s foreign policy was failing them. In return for lavishing taxpayer dollars on the world’s largest national security...

06/22/2019

For those American friends who have trouble with Geography.

The country on the LEFT outlined in yellow, is your country where your freedoms are to be found. The country on the the right, also outlined in yellow is Iran.
There's an entire ocean (the Atlantic), a whole continent (Africa) and most of the Middle East separating the two. That's thousands and thousands of miles. Your "freedoms" are not to be found there.
The red dot, indicates where your 220 million dollar (I'm told) drone was shot down. It was not defending your freedoms. As for your "values", trust me, they don't have enough steam to reach the shores of Iran; but your warships and bombers do.