Just Foreign Policy

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• Force House Vote on Saudi War in Yemen to Stop Cholera & Famine

  On June 15, the UN Security Council unanimously called for a cease-fire in the conflict between the Saudi-UAE coalition and the Houthi-Saleh forces in Yemen. "The U.N. Security Council urged the warring parties in Yemen on Thursday to immediately agree on a cease-fire and keep all ports open for humanitarian aid to confront the threat of famine and the rapid spread of cholera," AP reported. [1] On June 13, the U.S. Senate narrowly failed to block an arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Senators opposed to the deal stressed the need to end the humanitarian crisis in Yemen rather than escalate it. [2] "The Saudi-led war in Yemen has created a humanitarian disaster," Senator Bernie Sanders said. "Millions are at the risk of starvation...chaos in Yemen has also been strategically disastrous for the United States, providing fertile ground for the extremist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS...it is long past time that we begin to take a very hard look at our relationship with Saudi Arabia...it is important that we begin to discuss...the decades long effort by Saudi Arabia to export an ultra-reactionary form of Islam throughout the world." [3] "The human rights and humanitarian concerns have been well documented and are important,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said. “Of equal concern to me is that the Saudi government continues to aid and abet terrorism via its relationship with Wahhabism and the funding of schools that spread extremist propaganda throughout the world." [4] But the Trump Administration plans to escalate U.S. participation in the Saudi bombing of Yemen, with U.S. military advisers in the Saudi air operations control center in Riyadh. [5] U.S. participation in the Saudi war in Yemen has never been authorized by Congress. [6] House Members can challenge U.S. participation in the war with amendments on the National Defense Authorization Act and the Department of Defense Appropriation. In addition, a single House Member can invoke Congressional war powers force to a debate and vote on withdrawing U.S. participation from the Saudi war in Yemen - which the UN Security Council has unanimously said should stop immediately to save Yemen from cholera and famine. The last time the House voted on any aspect of U.S. participation in the Saudi war was June 2016, when the House narrowly failed to prohibit the transfer of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia. [7] Urge your Representative to force a House vote to withdraw U.S. backing from the Saudi war and blockade in Yemen by signing our petition. References: 1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/un-urges-yemen-cease-fire-and-open-ports-to-confront-cholera/2017/06/15/ec92b4b8-5219-11e7-b74e-0d2785d3083d_story.html 2. https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/saudi-yemen-war-famine?r_by=1135580 3. Senator Bernie Sanders, "We Must Reevaluate Our Relationship With Saudi Arabia," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqbebpDHCnE 4. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chuck-schumer-trump-saudi-arabia_us_593ec911e4b02402687bae98 5. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-arms-training-yemen.html 6. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/05/02/alarm-grows-in-washington-as-saudi-coalition-attack-on-yemen-port-appears-imminent/; https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/05/19/trump-may-be-helping-to-create-a-famine-in-yemen-congress-could-stop-him/ 7. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/obama-heeding-close-house_b_10516480.html

  165,493 of 200,000 Signatures

  Created by Robert Naiman
• Nominate Paul Krugman for Treasury Secretary

  Press reports say President Obama will soon nominate a new Treasury Secretary . Press speculation has centered on candidates likely to support the Wall Street agenda of cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits and other domestic spending rather than government policies to create jobs. We want President Obama to nominate Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, who opposes austerity and wants the government to focus on creating jobs.

  240,244 of 300,000 Signatures

  Created by Danny Glover
• Senators: Confirm Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense

  President Obama has nominated former Senator Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense. As Secretary of Defense, Hagel will work to end the war in Afghanistan, cut the Pentagon budget, and prevent war with Iran. Cutting the Pentagon and foreign wars will free money for domestic needs, like preventing cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits. Right-wing pro-war groups are working to block the Hagel nomination. Urge your Senators to speak up for and vote to confirm President Obama's nominee, Chuck Hagel.

  30,134 of 35,000 Signatures

  Created by Robert Naiman
• Cut Social Security & Veterans' Benefits? Cut the Pentagon Instead!

  President Obama has endorsed cutting Social Security and veterans' benefits by using the "chained CPI" to lower the cost-of-living adjustment. But the Congressional Budget Office says cutting Social Security and veterans' benefits in this way would only save the government $163 billion over ten years. There are much better ways for the government to save $163 billion, like cutting the bloated Pentagon budget. Urge President Obama and your representatives in Congress to cut the Pentagon budget instead of cutting Social Security and veterans' benefits. Here are three easy ways to save $163 billion by cutting the bloated Pentagon budget: 1. End the war in Afghanistan. A rough estimate of the cost of deploying U.S. troops to Afghanistan is a billion dollars per thousand troops per year. If we withdraw 16,300 troops from Afghanistan and keep them out, that would save $163 billion over ten years. 2. Cut the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. A recent estimate of the long-term cost of purchasing, operating and maintaining 2,457 F-35s is $1.5 trillion. [1] That's $610 million per plane. If we cut 267 planes - a little over 10% - that would save $163 billion. 3. Cut Pentagon contracting. Every year the Pentagon spends more than $360 billion purchasing goods and services from contractors. Service contractors can cost, on average, 2.94 times more than an average Pentagon civilian employee performing the same job. A crude estimate suggests that just by cutting Pentagon contracting by 7% and bringing the work in house, the Pentagon could save $163 billion over ten years. [2] Cutting the Pentagon budget instead of Social Security and veterans' benefits isn't a wild idea - it's exactly what will happen if there there is no "grand bargain" budget deal. All we have to do to make sure the Pentagon budget is cut is prevent a deal that cuts Social Security and veterans' benefits. Urge your representatives in Congress and President Obama to cut the Pentagon budget instead of cutting Social Security and veterans' benefits. Here's three other actions you can take: 1. Write to Congress and the President, urging them to cut the Pentagon budget instead of Social Security and veterans' benefits: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/chained-cpi 2. Tell your Representative and Senators you'll support a primary challenge if they vote to cut Social Security and veterans' benefits: http://pac.signon.org/sign/chained-cpi-for-every?source=c.url&r_by=1135580 3. Help fellow MoveOn members deliver these petitions against cutting Social Security and veterans' benefits on Thursday, April 25 to a local Congressional office: http://civic.moveon.org/event/events/create.html?id=&action_id=317 References: 1. “Cut Social Security & Veterans' Benefits? Cut the Pentagon Instead!” Robert Naiman, Huffington Post, April 9, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/cut-social-security-veter_b_3040226.html 2. Ibid.

  37,927 of 40,000 Signatures

  Created by Robert Naiman
• President Obama: Don't Strike Syria Without Congressional Approval

  On Sunday, August 25, Republican Sen. Bob Corker and Rep. Eliot Engel - a Democrat who voted for the Iraq war - told Fox News that President Obama should strike Syria first and get Congressional approval afterwards. That's not how the U.S. Constitution says it should go. That's not how the War Powers Resolution says it should go. The Constitution and the War Powers Resolution say that absent an attack on the United States, Congress must approve military action before it takes place. According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the U.S. should not intervene in Syria's sectarian civil war, while just 9 percent thought President Obama should act. Even if Assad's forces used chemical weapons to attack civilians - an allegation which has not been proved, and didn't hold up in the past - only 25 percent of Americans would support U.S. intervention, while 46 percent would oppose it. On July 24, the House approved an amendment by voice vote that would prohibit funding of any military action that violates the War Powers Resolution. If President Obama can get us into war in Syria without Congressional approval, it will set a terrible precedent: a future president can get us into war in Iran without Congressional approval. Tell President Obama not to take any military action in Syria without Congressional approval, and tell Congress to stand up for the U.S. Constitution and the War Powers Resolution. Links for the above information can be found here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/26/1233940/-President-Obama-Don-t-Strike-Syria-Without-Congressional-Approval

  37,952 of 40,000 Signatures

  Created by Robert Naiman
• Pres. Obama: Tap Sen. Ron Wyden to Head NSA

  Gen. Keith Alexander is stepping down as head of the National Security Agency. Fresh, civilian leadership is needed at the NSA to ensure that the NSA's surveillance activities fully comply with the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and all U.S. laws. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been a consistent and vocal critic of blanket NSA surveillance of Americans that violates the basic civil liberties guarantees of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Senator Wyden is an ideal candidate to restore public confidence in NSA compliance with the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and all U.S. laws.

  13,201 of 15,000 Signatures

  Created by Robert Naiman
• Don't Cut Social Security to Feed Lockheed's Profits

  Members of Congress - including leading Democrats - are talking about a budget deal that would cut Social Security and Medicare benefits while protecting the Pentagon budget from planned cuts. Sen. Dick Durbin, the second most powerful Democrat in the Senate, recently told Fox News Sunday he would support cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits as part of a "grand bargain" with Republicans. On CBS's Face the Nation, Sen. Mark Warner - one of the Democrats picked to negotiate with Paul Ryan on the budget - said: "We all know at the end of the day...Democrats are going to have to give on entitlement reform." The "grand bargain" these Democrats are talking about would cut Social Security and Medicare benefits to pay for bloated Pentagon spending, like Lockheed Martin's boondoggle $1.5 trillion F-35 warplane. $1.5 trillion represents more money than the entire savings over the next ten years from all current plans to cut federal discretionary spending - both Pentagon spending and domestic spending. And that's just one unneeded weapons system. Over the last several months, the Washington Post and other media have reported on the extraordinary perks that the Pentagon makes available to senior military commanders at taxpayer expense. These include paid military personnel and DOD civilians to cut grass, chauffeur, schedule events, and to perform other personal aide duties. They also include extraordinarily lavish housing and entitlement to tender and/or accept offers for post-retirement employment with Pentagon contractors and lobbying and investment firms, even if those firms handle the very same issues that the senior officer oversaw at taxpayers' expense. Asking citizens to watch their federally funded benefits shrink so we can pay for these personal perks for generals and admirals is not only offensive but also drives a deeper wedge between civilian society and uniformed military leadership. Tell Congress and the President not to cut our earned Social Security and Medicare benefits in order to protect the obscene profits of Lockheed Martin and the lavish lifestyles of the pampered generals.

  33,197 of 35,000 Signatures

  Created by Robert Naiman
• Help Lee & McGovern End the War in Afghanistan

  The Obama Administration is trying to get an agreement with the government of Afghanistan that would keep thousands of U.S. troops there after 2014, constantly exposed to mortal danger. No U.S. commitment to keep thousands of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan beyond 2014 should be allowed without prior Congressional debate and authorization, consistent with the Congressional role in making decisions about war envisioned by the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution. Congress didn’t allow the Administration to bomb Syria without Congressional authorization; Congress shouldn’t allow the Administration to keep thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan without Congressional authorization. Urge President Obama to go to Congress for explicit approval before making any commitment to keep thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and urge Congress to insist on a Congressional debate and vote before any such commitment takes place.

  24,255 of 25,000 Signatures

  Created by Robert Naiman
• Pass the Drone Strike Transparency Bill

  The Senate Intelligence Committee has taken an important step by passing an intelligence authorization which would, for the first time, require the Administration to publicly report on civilian casualties from U.S. drone strikes. The Administration should support this provision, and Congress should pass this drone strike transparency provision into law. Sarah Knuckey, Director of the Project on Extrajudicial Executions at New York University School of Law and a Special Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, calls this provision "an important step toward improving transparency," and notes that "Various U.N. officials, foreign governments, a broad range of civil society, and many others, including former U.S. Department of State Legal Advisor Harold Koh ... have called for the publication of such basic information." This provision could be offered as an amendment in the Senate to the National Defense Authorization Act. It could be offered in the House as an amendment on the intelligence authorization, or as a freestanding bill. Help us move Congress and the President to support this provision by signing our petition. [Text of the provision can be found here: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/1470.]

  17,610 of 20,000 Signatures

  Created by Robert Naiman
• Back @SenSanders: Use War $$ to Care for Veterans

  As economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes have argued, part of the cost of a war is caring for veterans afterwards. Now Senator Bernie Sanders is proposing to use money from the war account to pay for his veterans' benefits bill, including reversing the cuts to military pensions. 18 military and veterans organizations have backed the Sanders bill. [1] Urge Congress and the President to support Sanders' proposal to use war funding to pay for veterans' benefits. References: 1. http://www.govexec.com/defense/2014/01/senator-suggests-using-war-funds-pay-vets-benefits-bill/77381/

  24,701 of 25,000 Signatures

  Created by Robert Naiman