Beyond NATO: Time To Break The Silence, End NATO's Militarism

A coalition of more than 100 organizations that are calling for an end to NATO describes its devastating impact:

"NATO has been the world's deadliest military alliance, causing untold suffering and devastation throughout Northern Africa, the Middle East and beyond. Hundreds of thousands have died in U.S./NATO wars in Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yugoslavia. Millions of refugees are now risking their lives trying to escape the carnage that these wars have brought to their homelands, while workers in the 29 NATO member-countries are told they must abandon hard-won social programs in order to meet U.S. demands for even more military spending."

Dr. King's Clarion Call Needs to be Acted On

In 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr., warned, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." He described how militarism was destroying the soul of the United States and called for an end to the Vietnam war. He described in excruciating detail the US destruction of Vietnam, mass bombings, napalm, poisoning of their water and land and the killing of more than a million Vietnamese. He said a foreign policy based on violence and domination abroad, leads to violence and domination at home, and he urged "we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values."

Time has shown the truth of his message as militarized police terrorize poor communities and are used to silence dissent, creating a war at home. Other aspects of the war at home are the injustice system, mass incarceration, the lack of social supports and the exploitation of workers and the environment.

King described how war degrades US soldiers who realize "we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor." King said he could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor "as poor blacks and whites" from the United States were "burning the huts of a poor village" 8,000 miles away. The dehumanization and contempt of "other" people, he noted, leads to the persecution and death of black people in the United States.

King saw war as "a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit." King accurately predicted that if we did not face this reality, US militarism would spread throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Today the US has 883 foreign military bases with troops deployed in 149 countries and sells or gives weapons to 98 countries. He described how the US keeps troops in foreign lands to "maintain social stability for our investments accounts." He described US imperialism as based on "refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment. "

King connected the extreme materialism of capitalism to militarization and racism, describing a "thing-oriented" society rather than a "person-oriented" society and how "profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people." King described the new hopes in the nation as the government confronted poverty with new programs to uplift the poor, but how he "watched this program broken and eviscerated" as war funding stole from funding the necessities of the people.

Today, US military spending of more than a trillion dollars - the Pentagon alone is $717 billion - accounts for more than 65% of discretionary spending while poverty and homelessness rise. King called for a transformational change as an "edifice which produces beggars needs re-structuring" and urged us to "look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth." The wealth divide today has worsened with three people having wealth equal to half the population. King criticized "capitalists" who sought to take the wealth of nations across the globe.

The Insult of NATO Celebrating War-Making In Washington, DC on April 4

On April 4, NATO will be holding meetings in Washington, DC. This is an insult to the memory of Dr. King and what he stood for. The Peace Congress, which was held in place of Trump's cancelled military parade, called for people to unify around protests against NATO during their meetings.

The No2NATO2019 coalition, which is organizing protests against NATO, writes:

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).