· Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, which from 2000-2004 received $33 million from the State Department and more from the Defense Department.
· Current Prime Minister Al-Maliki, who has long played Iranians, Iraqis, or anyone he could to acquire money and power and was known as al-Irani ("the Iranian") by Iraq's distrustful Sunnis.
· A Douglas Fife, Paul Bremer, or those of that ilk who have never served in the fields of economic development or warfare, where one's hands are callused or bloodied from hard work, but who had plenty of simplistic, silver spoon-fed theories to foist on public policy unaware Americans.
Americans trusted the hollow words from these types rather than field-tested words from Marines like Scott Ritter, Four Star General Anthony Zinni, and those numerous other generals, commanders, and intelligence officers who resigned at the time of our entry into an Iraqi quagmire.
Solution? Have a lot more Americans learn from indelible learning experiences in the field, which will spread to other Americans, so that our nation will undertake smarter public policies that will strengthen, not weaken, our military and economy.
How do we do that? Implement a strategy that builds a peaceful, productive army that meshes with our military. The 21st century needs this robust, peaceful, nation-building army, so life becomes safer and saner for our troops and nation.
A strategy is developed by defining:
· What are your values?
· What you want to accomplish?
· How do you design a plan, not just a series of tactics, to accomplish your goals and spread your healthy values?
The idealized America most of us envision has a peaceful, educated world where everyone has a healthy, middle class life. Involving citizens in lawmaking that moves Americans toward that ideal is the initial strategy that can help the anti-war movement produce the desired healthy world.
Imagine if JFK had lived and just his Peace Corps strategy had been implemented as he envisioned it. Instead of having less than about one hundred and fifty thousand Americans gaining indelible Peace Corps service experiences since 1961, twenty, thirty, or more million Americans would have served in organizations such as the Peace Corps and Volunteers in Service to America (a buried VISTA) by today.
Those robust, peaceful Peace Corps and VISTA armies, and the related do-good brigades they would have energized, would have implemented a doing and learning strategy that would have bettered America and the world. We wouldn't be involved in another debilitating war quagmire. We wouldn't have terrorists and terrorism sprouting throughout the world. We wouldn't be watching dumb public policies shrink the middle class and bloat the poor.
"This country runs on laws. If you want to change the country, write its laws."
The People's Lobby mantra is its strategy, and it provides the anti-war movement the strategy they need to wage peace successfully. It provides the mechanism – citizen-initiated Congressional law – that stops America from being conned into devastating fiascoes. It builds understanding, grassroots economies, and in the process spreads peace worldwide.
If enacted in this Congress, each year for the next seven years approximately 140,000 Americans would voluntarily choose to serve in their choice of the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Habitat for Humanity, Head Start, Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, OxFam, Mercy Corps, State Conservation Corps, etc. By the seventh year one million American World Service Corps volunteers of all ages, or less than .4 of 1% of those aged 18-70+, would annually serve for a year or two at home or abroad in the aforementioned and other existing governmental and non-governmental organizations. After 20 years, Congress could consider sunsetting the AWSC legislation.
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