Security Policy Reform Institute

There is nothing progressive about Biden’s $753 million military budget request.

Biden reneged on his campaign promise of stopping weapons of war from going to law enforcement agencies. Congress should pressure him to use his executive power to prevent further transfers of military hardware and recall combat gear from our streets.

U.S. objectives in Syria are unattainable. Syrian civilians will continue to suffer needlessly as the U.S. military occupies one-third of the country and Washington amplifies economic pressures in hopes that a favorable outcome will somehow materialize. This is cruel and counterproductive. To actually use their leverage in Syria, U.S. forces must withdraw.

War is an industry. Breaking down defense contracting for FY2020 shows exactly how the military industrial complex wins favorable policies, runs pressure groups and think tanks, and dominates the Pentagon — so it can eke out contracts to hand government jobs over to Corporate America.

In large numbers, congressional Democrats voted against amendments to shave 10 percent off the Pentagon budget. We break down the numbers and defense industry campaign contributions to show how the party’s fiercest “resistance” occurs along class, rather than partisan, lines.

Police reform proposals aim to change to a system that cannot be reformed. It must be dismantled. Critically, the trail of military equipment left in its wake must be removed from public life.

Both Democratic and Republican parties have fanned the flames of new cold wars with China and Russia. Pressure must be applied across the political spectrum to urge the U.S. to immediately reduce tensions and end this dangerous arms race.

The U.S. has repeatedly and ineptly failed the Syrian people. The Caesar sanctions convert the proxy war into an economic siege calibrated to punish Syrian civilians to coerce Iran. Rather than hastening the demise of Bashar Al-Assad, the sanctions will only bring about further hardship for ordinary Syrians.

Sixteen-time incumbent Eliot Engel supported the racist 1994 crime bill, building more prisons, and gutting public schools. His foreign policy is even worse. As House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Engel stands in the way of a progressive foreign policy.