Lift Sanctions Against Russia!

Menendez is too hawkish on Russia

By Murray Sabrin

Regarding "Senator wants Russia punished" (Page A-1, Sept. 1):

Our state's senior U.S. senator, Bob Menendez, D-N.J., is aggressively promoting a hawkish foreign policy that could trigger a war between the United States and Russia. Why? Is it because Russia and China will be pricing future bilateral trade in their own currencies and not the U.S. dollar, which would undermine the greenback's status as the world's reserve currency and force the federal government to get its fiscal house in order?

Russian President Vladimir Putin is an autocrat, but he is not making any threats against America. On the contrary, it is Menendez and Republican senators such as John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who are getting the most media airtime to promote their war propaganda.

By calling for more economic sanctions against Russia, Menendez and the rest of the neoconservative cabal in Congress are in effect laying the groundwork for Putin to react to sanctions — an act of war — if the Obama administration imposes additional trade restrictions. In other words, the Obama administration is the aggressor against Russia.

Our nation's foreign policy has been hijacked by the military-industrial complex for decades, which is another way of saying war and the preparation for war have been the thrust of U.S. foreign policy for more than seven decades.

Instead of a belligerent foreign policy, the American people should demand an immediate lifting of trade sanctions against Russia and a return to a foreign policy of non-intervention and free trade.

Murray Sabrin

Fort Lee, Sept. 1

The writer is a professor of finance at Ramapo College and was a candidate for U.S. Senate in the 2014 Republican primary.

The above originally appeared as a letter to the editor at NorthJersey.com.