Along with the National Endowment for Democracy, the US Institute of Peace is one of President Reagan’s worst disasters. Reagan may well have wanted to create organizations to push democracy and peace, but by putting neocons in charge of both he delivered organizations undermining democracy and pushing war.
Both organizations should be brought up on charges of violating truth in labeling laws. The National Endowment for Democracy, with its focus on subversion and regime change overseas is the antithesis of democracy. The very concept of a national endowment for democracy was cooked up in the mind of arch-interventionist CIA director William Casey.
Likewise the US Institute of Peace, appropriately created by Reagan in the year 1984, is an Orwellian “peace” organization that pushes US intervention and war overseas.
The US Institute of Peace is funded by the US taxpayer, to the tune of approximately $40 million per year. Recently the organization took up residence in its new, $186 million headquarters in one of Washington’s prime locations. The concept of the USIP is simple: the United States should become endlessly involved in conflicts overseas as the “benevolent global hegemon.” According to the organization’s website the goal is to “…manage international conflict.” It trains “peacebuilders” in the US military and in NGOs. Its goal is to literally be the world’s policemen: “We therefore must do more, even more capably, to prevent and resolve violent conflicts around the globe.”
In places like Syria, the US Institute of Peace directly supports those who make war. As Josh Rogin pointed out in Foreign Policy:
For the last six months, 40 senior representatives of various Syrian opposition groups have been meeting quietly in Germany under the tutelage of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) to plan for how to set up a post-Assad Syrian government.
Serving as a sponsor of the Syrian rebels whose violent war has killed thousands, ruined the lives of millions, and has left a Syria on the verge of being overtaken by ISIS is quite an achievement for a “pro-peace” organization.
Among those the Institute’s Iran policy think tank counts as its “experts” are Patrick Clawson, Michael Eisenstadt, and Matthew Levitt — all from AIPAC’s think tank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Because no group pushes peace with Iran like AIPAC…right?
Now, thanks to an excellent article this week in The Intercept, we see just how macabre USIP has become. The Chairman of the Board, Stephen Hadley, was President Bush’s National Security Advisor during the disastrous US attack on Iraq. He was deputy national security advisor as Bush’s neocons were cooking up the lies that fueled the US attack. As such he directly participated in planning one of the cruelest and most pointless wars in US history.
If that is not enough, Hadley is paid nearly $300,000 per year to sit on the board of top military weapons manufacturer, Raytheon! A US Institute of Peace Director who literally profits from war! No wonder he fully supported the Iraq war, has called for massive US airstrikes against Syria, and calls for the US to become military involved in Ukraine.
In a speech this June, Hadley argued that the United States needs to directly arm Ukraine so that Kiev could produce “body bags of Russian soldiers who have been killed.”
It’s probably not surprising to hear Hadley call for Russians to be killed. He’s well-paid to do so. The PR firm Hadley founded after leaving the US government represents the Ukrainian prime minister and ministry of finance.
The damage caused by the US Institute of Peace is far beyond the $40 million hit taken by the taxpayers each year. Interventionists pushing war under the guise of peace literally steals our language from under us. As Orwell wrote in Politics and the English Language, “…if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” Corruption is a most appropriate word when thinking of the US Institute of Peace.
