Surprise! Institute of Peace in Shutdown

W.J. Astore

Meanwhile, Institute of War Is Going Full Throttle

Surprise! America’s Institute of Peace (USIP), admittedly a think tank that is neither that peaceful nor successful, is being shut down by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the Institute of and for War, otherwise known as the Pentagon, is going full throttle and likely getting even more money to crank up conflict around the globe.

The symbolism here is almost too obvious for words. The budget for the Peace Institute is roughly $55 million. The budget for the War Institute (Pentagon) is roughly $900 billion. That means America spends 16,000 times as much money preparing for war than it does thinking about peace. That might be one reason why we always get war—we get what we pay for.

For the yearly budget of the USIP, we could buy roughly one-half of an F-35 fighter jet. Now there’s some meaningful cost savings.

A Reminder: My new book, American Militarism on Steroids, goes live on Amazon Kindle tomorrow. It gathers all the essays I’ve written for TomDispatch, which amazingly add up to over 230,000 words. Prolix? Prolific? Profane? It must be profane if it criticizes our beloved Institute of War. Available for downloading for $7.50 at this link. Thank you.

4 thoughts on “Surprise! Institute of Peace in Shutdown”

  1. Please excuse me for being a constant commenter (irritant?) here, but I need to vent, it’s therapeutic.

    I just tried going to the USIP’s website to learn a bit more about them as WJA’s description of them (“a think tank that is neither that peaceful nor successful”) piqued my interest, but got a “Sorry, you have been blocked” message. Here yesterday, gone today. No matter, probably just another CIA front, and its $55 million will no doubt go to funding another 60 seconds of warfare somewhere in the world.

    Interestingly, and understandably, another (supposed) think tank called the “Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation” (of course in DC) will soldier (ha) on. Its website is still functional. Briefly, it was authorized by Clinton in1993, receives grants from the federal government, and has ties to the Heritage Foundation. It’s healthy enough to have a bill before the present Congress, HR 2080.

    This is what I’m (finally) getting to. “Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is an educational, research, and human rights nonprofit devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million people killed by communism around the world and to pursuing the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes.” With a purpose like that it fits in quite nicely with the mindset, worldview, and agitprop of the Institute of and for War and the larger (but not by much) Empire. There’s even a statue in DC dedicated by Dumbya in 2007.

    As for that figure of “100 million killed by communism around the world”, there’s no mention how it was arrived at, over what period of time. Nonetheless, there could be some truth to it.

    But here’s the question: while the supporters of “Victims of Communism” and the believers in its cause are no doubt self-righteously pleased with themselves, can any one of them answer how many millions of victims around the world have there been to capitalism and its progeny the American Empire, the Institute of and for War, the IOF (Israeli Offense Force)?

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    1. Oh, those aren’t victims–those are the righteously vanquished, or so the U.S. empire and IOF would say. Oh, and “savages” too.

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      1. Or “Amaleks”, to give our Israeli partners in crime(s) their due. Remember Netanyahu’s noxious speech in October of 2023? ““You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. 1 Samuel 15:3 ‘Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass’,” Netanyahu said.

        And is it any surprise Kamala Harris came up with this gem at the DNC convention, “As Commander-in-Chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world… Let me be clear: I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.”

        (Not so) great minds think alike.

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  2. … what a cruel-joke… for $55M.. half price of one fighter-jet… even THAT’s too much to alot-for-PEACE

    … Eisenhower warned we were going to get screwed by military-power-might, even he could not envision just how-immensely-badly it was going to be, and it’s still heading skyward

    … how can we reign-back all the hundreds-of-billions now being handed out like x-mas-candy… GFL

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