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The Peace Vision
By Peter G Cohen
We are losing the war. Not just the War in Afghanistan, but the war against war itself - The Peace War.
The very idea of "Global Dominance" is obscene. The idea that any one country should dominate the Earth is dangerous hubris -- a sick fantasy that is being proved wrong in Central Asia and is squandering the future of our nation.
Pentagon spending has run up a debt that will burden our grandchildren. In towns and cities across the nation we are cutting back on health, education, libraries, maintenance and infrastructure, which means that we are stealing from our children and their future to pay for the effort of dominance. Who benefits, if the Afghanistan War were to succeed? The international corporations and their free market access, the same elite that has discarded our workers and emaciated the Great American Market. I sometimes think of the United States as a Thanksgiving pumpkin with a fierce face, but the inside hollowed out to make juicy pies for the military, corporations and the wealthy.
Ending the wars and the giant Pentagon budgets they encourage, must be the first priority of every concerned American. We must stop the killing of Americans and Afghanis and end the flow of dollars that increases the corruption of their society and ours. We need to focus our energies on limiting the increasing dangers of climate chaos; and create jobs building the neglected and half-starved future of the United States. If we are to burden our children with weight of debt, let it at least be created by investments to improve their lives and our national future.
114 congress people voted against the Afghanistan supplement. To secure the end of these unnecessary wars we must change that number to a majority in the House of 218. The others who voted billions for more war will be encouraged by campaign contributions from individuals and corporations that benefit from the war budget and the spending it makes possible. Many incumbents run unopposed. Their challengers must come from the people they are supposed to represent, the people of their election districts. Every single one of those who have voted for the wars should be challenged in elections until they are defeated.
The Vision
Recent surveys show that the War in Afghanistan is not an important issues with those who plan to vote in November. We are accustomed to being at war and are far more concerned with the state of the economy. This is a terrible insult to those who fight and die. It is up to the peace movement to make the war an issue at least the equal of the economy, and to show the connection between them!
The whole peace movement needs to be far more active, visible and vocal, while reaching out to the unemployed, to all who are being cut back, threatened and laid off as a result of this huge military boondoggle. We must work far more diligently to form coalitions that enhance our clout and our partners.
I Imagine a peace movement that is as influential as AIPAC or the NRA. A movement that can remove the hawks from Congress and prune the military budget down to a basic defense budget.
I imagine a peace movement that works in every community to reshape the Congress to better serve the American people and their needs, not corporate greed -- a transformation that is absolutely essential for the preservation of democracy.
I imagine a peace movement that is regarded as an essential partner of the environmental movement, because in addition to depleted uranium and other extensive military pollution, we urgently need the money that is now being lavished on missile defense, weapons and foreign conquests to be invested in greater energy efficiency, a smart grid and alternative sources of clean energy to bring our atmosphere below 350 parts per million of CO2.
A peace movement that is a friend of labor because we must invest in jobs, in our people and their education, our roads and bridges, our water supply and the future of our industry. The rising cost of fossil fuels will make the transportation of foreign manufacturing too costly and risky for future needs. Our future security lies in being as self-reliant as possible for our needs.
A peace movement that encourages the development and effectiveness of the United Nations. Recently the U.S. has relied upon NATO to support its international activities. The expansion of NATO is a shortcut to legitimize questionable operations and increase our arms sales, while avoiding the censorship of the far broader United Nations. As the GDP of the European NATO nations now exceeds that of the U.S., it is irrational for the U.S. to continue to be the main support of European security.
A peace movement whose actions are not limited to the East Coast, but can organize a Peace Day Strike across the nation, when the issue deserves such action.
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