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The Weekly GAB Friday, March 31, 2017
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition | www.usglc.org
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USGLC Military Letter Press Round-Up

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ignoring Diplomacy's Past and Its Future Promise |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=_ZiItPlo9Qiorscu8acrGQ

The Editorial Board

The State Department and foreign aid have long been targets for budget
cutters because many Americans don't understand what these
programs do. American interests are also advanced by helping other
countries become more stable. Last month, more than 100 retired
generals and admirals, in a letter to congressional leaders, argued
that the State Department and the United States Agency for
International Development are "critical to preventing conflict
and reducing the need to put" American troops in harm's
way.

USA TODAY
State Department Cuts Risk Lives: Our View |

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The Editorial Board

Some State Department programs could undoubtedly be run more
efficiently, but it's disappointing that Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson didn't push back harder against the magnitude of the cuts
targeting his department. As more than 120 retired admirals and
generals argued in a letter to Congress last month, "Elevating and
strengthening diplomacy and development alongside defense are critical
to keeping America safe." For a president who never served in the
military, and who likes to say he'll listen to the generals, that's
advice worth taking to heart.

GLOBAL CITIZEN

Foreign Aid: Let's Not Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=3eFOYe1gLNhyzzBkLqKLDA

Judith Rowland

The President's budget requests for 2017 and 2018 have sparked a
strong dialogue about the importance of foreign assistance. A hundred
and twenty retired generals and admirals have weighed in with Congress
calling foreign assistance vital to national security. And over 100
faith leaders joined together to draft a letter in opposition to cuts
to foreign assistance citing verses of scripture that call for
Christians to feed the poor, clothe the naked, and provide shelter to
the homeless.

Development & Diplomacy

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

In Theory: Trump's Proposed Budget Includes Cuts to Foreign Aid.
What Does Religion Have to Say About That?

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=Pwv8hZWJqDk7pedZArYYAg

President Trump's proposed budget includes cuts to foreign aid
- a move that threatens to harm the country's
"critical role in fulfilling the moral responsibility of all
Americans to help those less fortunate," write Richard Stearns,
president of World Vision U.S., and Sean Callahan, president and chief
executive of Catholic Relief Services. In their opinion piece,
"The Christian, conservative case for foreign aid," they
write about the achievements America has made in helping people and
nations less fortunate around the globe. One effect of helping those
in crises, they say, is that it may lead to stabilizing situations and
building diplomatic relations.

JEWISH INSIDER
Panel at AIPAC Blasts Trump's Proposed Foreign Aid Cuts |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=8sekUCW8317j0mqmTfEQpw

Aaron Magid

At an AIPAC panel on Sunday, the highlighted speakers assailed the
Trump Administration for its massive reductions in the proposed
foreign aid budget. The speakers also noted that American aid to
Israel's neighbors who have maintained peace treaties with the
Jewish state such as Jordan and Egypt significantly benefits
Jerusalem. "The assistance we give to others for instance Jordan
is in Israel's interest as well," noted Lindsay Plack,
Director of Government Relations at the US Global Leadership Coalition
(USGLC).

THE HILL
How This Little Known Government Agency Helps Put America First

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=4aMsIFa-I7i055OcxZun4Q

Robert Mosbacher, Jr., President and CEO of OPIC, 2005-2009

Here is a simple question for those working on next year's
federal budget: what sense does it make to eliminate a U.S. government
agency that costs just $70 million a year to run, but returns an
average of $350 million each year in revenue to the U.S. Treasury to
reduce the federal deficit? The answer: none. And yet, there are some
in Washington who want to do precisely that. They want to eliminate
the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), an independent
agency of the U.S. government, because they believe it has a
distortive impact on markets, and is unnecessary.

AP
Worst Humanitarian Crisis Hits as Trump Slashes Foreign Aid |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=uwqTjzhAyye5hSIF8yeajQ

Justin Lynch

The world's largest humanitarian crisis in 70 years has been declared
in three African countries on the brink of famine, just as President
Donald Trump's proposed foreign aid cuts threaten to pull the United
States from its historic role as the world's top emergency donor. If
the deep cuts are approved by Congress and the U.S. does not
contribute to Africa's current crisis, experts warn that the
continent's growing drought and famine could have far-ranging effects,
including a new wave of migrants heading to Europe and possibly more
support for Islamic extremist groups

FOREIGN POLICY

To Save Peacekeeping From Trump's Budget Ax, Will the U.N.
Embrace Fighting Terrorism? |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=EqtaQqCD1g5mttfXI8wj9A

Colum Lynch and Ty McCormick

Since U.N. peacekeepers deployed to Mali in 2013, they have become
enmeshed in an increasingly deadly campaign by jihadis...The
mission's counterterrorism focus has made it the U.N.'s
most controversial. But as the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping
Operations stares down potentially debilitating budget cuts proposed
by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, what made the
Mali mission a lightning rod for criticism could be what ends up
saving it - at least for now. The White House has instructed
State Department officials to find at least $1 billion in cuts to U.S.
funding for the U.N.'s 16 peacekeeping missions, but U.S.
planners have so far left Mali off the chopping block.

MSNBC MORNING JOE
Former Amb. Pushes Back Against Proposed Cuts |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=5Z3fV_4nDYGKYmZxcwXa2A

[Video]

Fmr. Amb. Nicholas Burns testified to the House Foreign Affairs
committee on Trump's proposal to slash funding to the State Department
and USAID. Amb. Burns discusses with Morning Joe.

THE WASHINGTON POST

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Spends His First Weeks Isolated From
an Anxious Bureaucracy |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=GvnGs8lbk0LhCn7Xa1LYvA

Anne Gearan and Carol Morello

Eight weeks into his tenure as President Trump's top diplomat,
the former ExxonMobil chief executive is isolated, walled off from the
State Department's corps of bureaucrats in Washington and around
the world. His distant management style has created growing
bewilderment among foreign officials who are struggling to understand
where the United States stands on key issues. It has sown mistrust
among career employees at State, who swap paranoid stories about
Tillerson that often turn out to be untrue. And it threatens to
undermine the power and reach of the State Department, which has been
targeted for a 30 percent funding cut in Trump's budget.

Politics & Foreign Policy

THE HILL
Tillerson Gives NATO Two-Month Deadline on Defense Spending |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=eORczCp-64h-CYc6gia8sA

Tristan Lejeune

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday reportedly gave NATO allies
a two-month deadline to either meet the group's defense budget
guidelines or offer up a schedule for doing so. "Allies that do not
have a concrete plan to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense by 2024 need
to establish one now. Allies that have a plan to reach the 2 percent
guideline need to accelerate efforts and show results," Tillerson said
in Brussels, according to the Associated Press.

REUTERS
China's Xi to Meet Trump in Florida Next Week |
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=1rt1HJKdG7H0t-K7EOatFA

Christian Shepherd and Michael Martina

Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to the United States to meet
President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida on April
6-7, China's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, its first official
confirmation of the highly anticipated summit. It will be Xi's first
meeting with Trump, whose presidency began on Jan. 20, and comes as
the two sides face pressing issues, ranging from North Korea and the
South China Sea to trade disputes. The summit will follow a string of
other recent U.S.-China meetings and conversations aimed at mending
ties after strong criticism of China by Trump during his election
campaign.

CNN
Venezuela's High Court Dissolves National Assembly |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=JNRf63KFXWbI43OBZWKE2Q

Rafael Romo

In a surprising move the Venezuelan opposition is calling a coup, the
Venezuelan Supreme Court has stripped the country's National Assembly
of its powers. The court ruled that all powers vested under the
legislative body will be transferred to the Supreme Court, which is
stacked with government loyalists. The ruling effectively means the
three branches of the Venezuelan government will be controlled by the
ruling United Socialist Party. The opposition has been taken out of
the picture. Prominent opposition leaders are already calling the
government of President Nicolás Maduro "a dictatorship."

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Pillars of the West Shaken by 'Brexit,' but They're
Not Crumbling Yet |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=wXeIhBlBvnxEGT05j3mIGw

Steven Erlanger

On a day that blended dull ritual with undeniable historic import,
Britain formally began its departure from the European Union with the
delivery of a letter to Brussels...For the first time, the European
bloc is losing a member, not to mention its second-largest economy.
The multilateral architecture that has shaped the Western world since
the aftermath of World War II has taken a severe blow, and questions
abound about whether this pivot toward nationalism and self-interest
marks the beginning of a more volatile global era.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
U.S., Turkey Set on a Collision Course |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=lhaK8MgCF5XX3qMgMXwcyQ

Yaroslav Trofimov

Turkey expected a honeymoon with President Donald Trump. Instead, it
increasingly looks like Ankara and Washington are heading for a
squabble, if not a divorce. For now, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
has bitten his tongue and avoided attacking the Trump administration
with the kind of inflammatory statements that he routinely hurls at
European and regional leaders. The White House, too, has kept largely
mum about Turkish affairs. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is holding
meetings in Turkey on Thursday, aiming to maintain a bond that U.S.
officials continue describing as vital.


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