Both Republican and Democratic Senators have expressed grave concerns about the huge reductions in top level personnel that Sec. Tillerson is carrying out. His actions are endangering US interests throughout the globe. For example, how can we use diplomacy to end the Korean nuclear crisis when the position of US Ambassador to S. Korea remains vacant?

Tweet by tweet and threat by threat, Donald Trump is inching toward war with North Korea. It’s not just a few belligerent comments. For months, top Trump officials have been floating the possibility of an illegal and unconstitutional first strike on North Korea. We need to prepare for a future where Trump tries to attack North Korea, and we need to do it fast. In the words of Trump’s own Defense Secretary, war on the Korean peninsula would be catastrophic. New official studies find that hundreds of thousands and even millions of South Koreans would die in a conflict on the Korean peninsula. That is to say nothing of the long-term consequences that war would bring to global peace and security. Congress is currently considering bills that block Donald Trump from starting a war with North Korea all by himself. Specifically, the legislation blocks any funds for an unprovoked attack on North Korea or other military action that’s not expressly authorized by Congress. This important legislation wouldn’t do anything to change the President’s constitutional right to defend our country if we’re attacked. Instead, it would simply make clear that Donald Trump cannot start a war, just because he wants to. Urge your Members of Congress to support these bills to stand between Trump and a reckless war on the Korean peninsula.

The State Department and White House have yielded to pressure from a hard line minority of Cuban Americans to reverse President Obama's historic steps toward more normal relations between the US and Cuba. Senator Marco Rubio has exploited fear and uncertainty about the health situation of US intelligence agents and other personnel in Havana to endanger rapidly growing travel that fosters mutual understanding and trust. He fears hundreds of thousands of Americans annually forming their own opinion about bilateral relations, countless Cuban entrepreneurs creating a better future for their families and the construction of a vibrant Cuban community across the Florida Straits. Cooperation and engagement are the only path to resolve outstanding issues, not the drastic and precipitous removal of both countries' essential embassy staff. (Additional information can be found at http://tinyurl.com/warninginfo )

Cuban American extremists have exploited unexplained health problems of US government personnel in Havana to try to roll back the historic normalization of diplomatic relations achieved by the Obama Administration. Their immediate target is the burgeoning travel that has fostered mutual understanding and trust. They fear hundreds of thousands of Americans annually forming their own opinion about Cuba, countless Cuban entrepreneurs creating a better future for their families and the creation of a vibrant community across the Straits of Florida. .

I served our nation at the Defense Intelligence Agency, where I specialized in Iran, and I can tell you that Donald Trump’s reckless saber-rattling is putting American lives and global stability at risk. Donald Trump requested $54 billion in additional funds for things like fighter jets, air craft carriers, and nuclear weapons--even as his budget proposes deep cuts into the U.S. State Department and foreign aid. The message is clear: instead of putting diplomacy first, Trump is stripping away our ability to negotiate with other countries and increasing the risk of all-out war. To make matters worse, Trump has taken to Twitter, seemingly seeking to goad or shame China, even while he continues to antagonize the North Korean leadership. Even Republican Senator Bob Corker recently said that Trump is putting the US “on the path to World War III.” The stakes couldn’t be higher, and we can’t remain silent. Trump's reckless Pentagon spending and bellicose rhetoric should prompt all congressional lawmakers to state right now that they will not support the Trump launching a war of choice. MoveOn members championed strategic and lasting diplomacy with Iran and were the backbone of the resistance to the Iraq war. Let's make it clear to Members of Congress that we're prepared to once again flood the streets in cities and towns across the country to stop Trump’s war making.

Donald trump is trying to kill the Iran nuclear deal and put our country back on a dangerous path towards war with Iran. This week, reports indicate that the President will officially decertify the Iran deal to Congress. International experts and the President’s own senior advisors have publicly made clear the deal is working exactly as intended. Unfortunately, Donald Trump’s petty, political desire to undo everything accomplished during the Obama Administration means that he’s going to ignore the truth and decertify the deal anyway. With the President having made his intentions clear, it is up to Congress to make the next move. Congress has to choose whether it will side with the American public, national security experts, and our closest allies or whether they’ll side with Donald Trump and a series of warmongers who have hated this deal since day one, precisely because it avoids the regime change war they’ve always wanted. The Iran deal is working, and we need Congress to protect it against Trump’s efforts to kill it and put us back on the path to war. In the weeks ahead Congress is likely going to be weighing legislation that could either immediately kill the deal by reimposing sanctions or undermine the deal but still walk away from this historic diplomatic accomplishment. Instead of following Trump’s lead, Congress should take steps to isolate the Iran deal from Trump’s political meddling and build upon its foundation to solve our nation’s problems through diplomacy, not war. Let’s make Congress hear our voices and demand they do the right thing, defend diplomacy, and avoid a war with Iran.

Everyone may be affected if Trump's threats and ill-informed aggressive rhetoric doesn't end. It needs to stop NOW!

On September 1, six peasant farmers were murdered in the Peruvian Amazon. All the evidence suggests the massacre was part of a violent campaign to evict local farmers and indigenous communities to make way for industrial palm oil plantations. We need your help to stop the violence!

The Rohingya are mostly Muslims traced to the area around the 8th C and they are now denied citizenship in Myanmar because the Government believes they are immigrants from Bangladesh. They are subjected to hostility from the major ethnic group (Buddhist extremists), which is also the composition of the ruling Government. The country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who once won the Novel Peace Prize, has been largely criticized for neither condemning nor stopping the extreme human rights violations meted out to the Rohingya, a minority tribe currently being subjected to torture, displacement, restricted movement, denied access to state utilities, and being humiliated. U.N claims most of the alleged tortures cannot be validated; the same loose buttons that are being pushed by Aung. So this problem continues and the Rohingya continues to be “cleansed” in what many believe is an effort to extinct the tribe from Myanmar. Essentially, many leaders fail the litmus test of times. A mass killing that targets a tribe/religion is a hate crime. Aung, added to being stripped of the Nobel Prize, must be made to condemn, act in accordance with international law to provide protection to this minority group, and see to it that perpetrators are punished. The birthright of the Rohingya must be respected and restored, and such must be put in their constitution. It is time to end their years of humiliation and displacement. The type of violence is not acceptable and it is time for world citizens to send a strong message to the Myanmar Government. Please take few minutes of your time to sign this petition, share with your friends, and encourage them to sign as well. Thank you for quick action on this. Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38168917 Sincerely, Haddijatou Camara-Ba

Updating this petition from Sept 2017, to include several important developments. Our Government this month continues to labeling this Treaty as irresponsible, dangerous, blaming it as a divisive measure, destabilizing our world, and “an easy” way, not doing the hard work of diplomacy. We know the opposite is true. We are expanding NATO, and enforcing on our allies our strict nuclear weapon policies as a test of loyalty. We are expanding our nuclear weapon facilities, testing, university research, and spending the these most dire greatly needed resources of our talent on new improved nuclear weapons, and greater destructive forces, instead of applying them to our task at hand…. Climate and environmental remediation, and decommissioning our weapons. We are breaking all laws, international and our own military codes, and directly, daily endangering humankind. Once again, we use the fear of Russians as our reasoning for our building anew. Russian colleagues who i’ve sat with can’t believe we are seeing this again. Pres. Gorbachev is still alive and can’t believe it. The millions who built bridges together in science, education, the arts and culture can’t believe it. Just because leaders don’t remember basic conflict resolution tenents, doesn’t mean we citizens need to be obedient to their endless rhetoric and threaten to destroy each other, the whole earth. In honoring our soldiers, let it be clear, there is NO courage, no bravery, nor wisdom, nor valor, nor patriotism in nuclear weapons. No common sense. No humanity. No reason, except short term profit. for a few, wrapped selfishly in our flags. ** Over 90 % of the citizens of Germany, a democracy and ally, want our 20 H-bombs out of their land now. ** 53 or more of 59 Members of the Scottish Parliament want the nuclear armed Trident submarines out of Scotland now! Their citizens clearly do NOT want what our Representatives say they do, “Protection under our umbrella”. They don’t believe in this. They believe nuclear weapons are extremely costly and dangerous and keep us all insecure. They no longer believe the lie. They believe in law that protects. And they believe we can create many more and better jobs with these resources. The Kings Bay Plowshares 7, seven of our colleagues who entered our largest nuclear weapon naval base, with banners of Martin Luther King, Jr. , with prayer and candles, who are upholding every moral and humanitarian law we can think of, are being tried at this moment in Federal Court in Georgia, to the fullest extent (possibly decades in prison), focusing on the cutting of a fence which hides truth, rather than the reality of sacrificing their lives for their fellow human beings, the greater good, the 10 Commandments, and Pope Francis’s call. They are standing up in the middle of the belly of a non democratic, hidden, criminal, most dangerous congressional industry. Please lend them (us all) your support and make it an issue with your representative: www.KingsBayPlowshares7.org Every democratic process to even begin a discussion of the basics of this grave concern has been denied consideration, or discussion, or making it to the floor to be mentioned. Recent examples are The SANE Act of 2012, and again 2017 by Sen. Blumenthal, Sanders, and Markey, etc. Efforts simply disallowed by the committee chairs. Period, end of discussion, gone from view, and media. Democracy? Many states and cities are beginning to pass and look into creating new resolutions once again, as we did in the 1980s, against the industry that makes and threatens all with omnicidal devices, and begin divestment from our industries that make them. Please bring it to your town, city, state. Several great resources for these actions: www.NuclearBan.US, https://www.psr.org/blog/resource/back-from-the-brink-a-call-to-prevent-nuclear-war/, and, www.DontBankOnTheBomb.com, and www.codepink.org, among others. A few excellent new 2018 editions have come out addressing all you need to know about standing up to this industry with clarity, facts, and widened truth: Commander Robert Green’s “Security Without Nuclear Deterrence.”, Daniel Ellsberg’s “Doomsday Machine”, and Timmon Wallis’s “Disarming the Nuclear Argument”. Don’t listen to the US defilement of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, read it yourself, and listen to the Nobel Ceremony as to why they gave the Peace Prize to ICAN. Priceless. Read the clear statements of Pope Francis, and the results of his international symposium on it. The core of Christian, Jewish and other teachings oppose the possession and threat of such devices, and the others the industry is making as we speak. * Below is the Petition as its was from Sept. 2017. You’ve signed, thank you, Please share as you can. Onward, Togeher. Updating this petition from Sept 2017. to include several important developments. Our Government this month continues to labeling this Treaty as irresponsible, dangerous, blaming it as a divisive measure, destabilizing our world, and “an easy” way, not doing the hard work of diplomacy. We know the opposite is true. We are expanding NATO, and enforcing on our allies our strict nuclear weapon policies as a test of loyalty. We are expanding our nuclear weapon facilities, testing, university research, and spending the these most dire greatly needed resources of our talent on new improved nuclear weapons, and greater destructive forces, instead of applying them to our task at hand…. Climate and environmental remediation, and decommissioning our weapons. We are breaking all laws, international and our own military codes, and directly, daily endangering humankind. Once again, we use the fear of Russians as our reasoning for our building anew. Russian colleagues who i’ve sat with can’t believe we are seeing this again. Pres. Gorbachev is sti...

On August 23, the New York Times published a major article on the humanitarian catastrophe produced by the U.S.-backed Saudi-UAE war and blockade in Yemen, acknowledging that Yemen is "the world's largest humanitarian crisis" and that "there is little chance for significant improvements unless the war ends." But the August 23 NYT article falsely minimized the U.S. role in the catastrophe: "the United States is not directly involved in the conflict." [1] Past reporting by the New York Times has been more straightforward in acknowledging the direct U.S. military role in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. On August 24, 2016, the New York Times reported - under the headline "Support for Saudi Arabia Gives U.S. Direct Role in Yemen Conflict" - that the Saudi bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital was another public reminder for the Obama Administration of "the spiraling violence of a war in which it has played a direct role...the Pentagon has given steady support to the coalition led by Saudi Arabia, with targeting intelligence and fuel for the Saudi planes involved in the air campaign." [2] The U.S. role in Saudi Arabia's Yemen war certainly hasn't become less "direct" since August 24, 2016. The Intercept reported on July 13, 2017 that the U.S. has doubled the fuel provided to Saudi-UAE warplanes bombing Yemen since October. [3] The New York Times reported on June 14, 2017 that as a condition of the recent arms deal with Saudi Arabia that was narrowly approved by the Senate, U.S. military advisers coordinating U.S. logistical assistance to the Saudi bombing campaign would sit in the Saudi air operations control center in Riyadh. [4] Such "conditions" are apparently not working to prevent civilian casualties, as the New York Times reported on August 23, 2017 that at least 30 civilians were killed or wounded by Saudi airstrikes in Yemen's capital. [5] Urge the New York Times to correct its August 23, 2017 article to acknowledge that the U.S. is directly involved in the Saudis' war in Yemen through targeting assistance and midair refueling for Saudi-UAE warplanes bombing Yemen by signing our petition. References: 1. "'It’s a Slow Death': The World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis," Shuaib Almosawa, Ben Hubbard and Troy Griggs, New York Times, August 23, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/23/world/middleeast/yemen-cholera-humanitarian-crisis.html 2. "Support for Saudi Arabia Gives U.S. Direct Role in Yemen Conflict," Mark Mazzetti and Shuaib Almosawa, New York Times, August 24, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/world/middleeast/yemen-saudi-arabia-hospital-bombing.html 3. "U.S. Doubled Fuel Support For Saudi Bombing Campaign In Yemen After Deadly Strike On Funeral," Samuel Oakford, The Intercept, July 13 2017, https://theintercept.com/2017/07/13/u-s-doubled-fuel-support-for-saudi-bombing-campaign-in-yemen-after-deadly-strike-on-funeral/ 4. "Saudi Arabia Tries to Ease Concerns Over Civilian Deaths in Yemen," Eric Schmitt, New York Times, June 14, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-arms-training-yemen.html 5. "Saudi Coalition Airstrikes Near Yemen’s Capital Kill Civilians," Shuaib Almosawa and Rod Nordland, New York Times, August 23, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/world/middleeast/saudi-airstrike-sana-yemen.html

Capitulating to his generals, President Trump has agreed to send thousands of more American soldiers to Afghanistan, even though experts agree that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable. [1] The only realistic alternative to endless war in Afghanistan is a negotiated peace that includes all the major Afghan factions and all the neighboring countries that are supporting major Afghan factions in the Afghan civil war, including Pakistan, India, Iran, and Russia. The Obama and Bush Administrations never seriously pursued a negotiated peace. So far, the Trump Administration is simply continuing the Bush-Obama policy of adding just enough American soldiers to prevent the Taliban from completely taking over Afghanistan, without doing anything diplomatically and politically to end the war. [2] The strategy of trying to be more patient than the Taliban is almost certainly doomed to fail in the future as it has in the past. People fighting in their own country are almost always more patient than foreign soldiers. Urge your Representative and Senators to press the Trump Administration to commit to sustained diplomacy to end the war in Afghanistan by signing our petition. References: 1. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/24/donald-trump-afghanistan-215412 2. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/23/opinion/donald-trump-end-afghanistan-war.html