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A group funded by Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen is running a campaign calling for the U.S. to stop providing military support to Ukraine in its war with Russia.
The Eisenhower Media Network has been pitching outlets on claims that the United States is spending too much money helping Ukraine ward of Vladimir Putin.
The EMN is run by a group called the People’s Power Initiative, of which Cohen is president and a major financial backer.
The longtime progressive Democrat and backer of Bernie Sanders has forked over more than $1million to the initiative via the Ben Charitable Trust, according to a report in the Daily Beast.
Ben Cohen (left) and Jerry Greenfield (right) – the original founders of now-Unilever owned ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s. Cohen was recently discovered to be the single largest funder of left-wing foreign policy group Eisenhower Media Network
Ukraine has been battling Russia since it invaded more than a year ago. Though support for the conflict has fallen out of favor with some factions of US politicians, the US continues to send billions of dollars in aid across the ocean
Cohen told the outlet that he thinks ‘the US should use its power to negotiate an end to the war, not prolong the death and destruction by supplying more weapons.’
The project promotes the utilization of a group of military veterans as experts and pundits willing to speak about the ongoing war overseas.
Some have said that continued US military support for Ukraine is extending and intensifying the fighting between Russia and Ukraine and suggesting that expanding NATO was one of the causes of the war.
The position is shared by members of the far-right including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, who believe the fighting in Ukraine is not America’s problem.
They additionally argue that the government is overspending U.S. tax dollars to pay for billions and billions worth of aid in a depressed economy and amid a soaring deficit.
Several candidates and potential Republican presidential nominees recently claimed that the war in Ukraine was not a ‘vital national interest’ to the US in a survey circulated by Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
According to the Beast, during the recent debt ceiling crisis, EMN claimed that spending on the Ukrainian cause was so high that the U.S. government may have to default on its duty to pay members of the military and cut their social security and pension checks.
Former State Department staffer, Marine Corps captain and current EMN associate director Matthew Hoh said: ‘The outrageous federal spending on the Ukraine war is missing from the discussion on the national debt … It’s time to think about pausing funding for Ukraine if we cannot afford it.’
Last month, Hoh was quotes in Newsweek saying that the US agreeing to provide tanks to President Volodymyr Zelensky would escalate the war with Russia.
‘We should expect a reciprocal escalation by Russia that solidifies the stalemate and threatens expansion of the war. Only de-escalation, ceasefires and negotiations will bring an end to the war,’ he said.
EMN’s somewhat isolationist foreign policy philosophy reflects that of some parts of the conservative right wing, including the views shared by Reps. Gaetz and Taylor Greene about the war in Ukraine
Former State Department staffer, Marine Corps captain and current EMN associate director Matthew Hoh said: ‘The outrageous federal spending on the Ukraine war is missing from the discussion on the national debt … It’s time to think about pausing funding for Ukraine if we cannot afford it’
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky has been the beneficiary of billions and billions of US aid and military dollars since the outbreak of the war with Russia
In an interview with the outlet, EMN Director Dennis Fritz – a former Command Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force – spoke about Cohen’s leadership in the organization.
‘I have never talked about that before but it is Ben Cohen, remember him – Ben & Jerry’s – he is our biggest funder. He is the reason we came about,’ he said.
‘We do feel that our military budget is too large in some ways, and he believes that if we just target our budget on what we actually need, then we buy more social programs for the United States of America, more social programs that people might also need in Ukraine.’
‘Ukraine cannot win this war. The bottom line is: It’s done. They are against a mad man and his ego – he will not lose. Whether we like it or not, we have to give Putin something,’ he continued.
EMN has previously opposed bouts of vast US military spending since long before the war in Ukraine began.
In an email, Cohen wrote: ‘The Pentagon budget is insane. Example: The atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima killed over 100,000 people. Today’s nuclear arsenal is the equivalent of 120,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs.
‘I think we’d be a lot more secure if we spent money wasted on Pentagon overkill for Medicare for all and preventing lead poisoning.’
Though Ben & Jerry’s is at this time entirely owned by consumer giant Unilever, its independent board of directors has special dispensation to promote the socially progressive causes for which its original owners were known.
Last year, not long before the war in Ukraine broke out, the company was lambasted for tweeting: ‘You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. We call on President Biden to de-escalate tensions and work for peace rather than prepare for war.
‘Sending thousands more US troops to Europe in response to Russia’s threats against Ukraine only fans the flame of war.’
In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s also unsuccessfully attempted to stop Unilever from selling its ice cream in parts of Israel
In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s also unsuccessfully attempted to stop Unilever from selling its ice cream in parts of Israel.
The company initially announced it would no longed sell its ice cream in ‘occupied Palestinian territory,’ areas of land that are considered part of the modern state of Israel and have been for decades.
However, the founders and their company were ultimately stopped from carrying out their goal by Israeli license-holder Avi Zinger, who has continued to produce the ice cream in his factory in the suburbs of Tel Aviv and distribute it to the Israeli settlements.
At the time, the company was slammed by some for its anti-zionist position, which its critics said reflected anti-Semitic values.
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