Now, I'm not arguing that paradise on earth must be achieved before a Department of Peace can be created. If a President had eight advisors urging her to bomb a village, it would be significant for there to be a ninth urging food and medicine instead. But in such a situation, an advocate for peace would be like an ombudsman or an inspector general informing an institution of its crimes and offenses and available alternatives as it went along. A Department of Peace releasing a plan for sane productive action would resemble the Washington Post releasing an account of its deceptions and distortions. Both would be odd footnotes. But both might do some good and might hurry the arrival of that day when honest journalism and foreign policy without murder become mainstream in halls of power.
One way for a Department of Peace to not be at odds with a Department of War is to turn "peace" into something other than an alternative to war. For whatever combination of reasons, that's a lot of what we find in current advocacy for a Peace Department (not to mention in the rest of the peace movement): peace in your heart, no bullying in schools, restorative justice in court systems, etc. -- most of it wonderful stuff tangentially related to ridding the world of war. We also find well-meaning support for generally pro-war measures, such as the presidential creation of an "atrocities prevention board" that will seek to identify non-U.S. atrocities to be dealt with by the U.S. government, including the Department of War.
The Department of Peace proposed in current legislation has been subtly changed into a Department of Peace Building that, according to its advocates would:
- Provide much-needed assistance to efforts by city, county, and state governments in coordinating existing programs; as well as develop new programs based on best practices nationally
- Teach violence prevention and mediation to America's school children
- Effectively treat and dismantle gang psychology
- Rehabilitate the prison population
- Build peace-making efforts among conflicting cultures both here and abroad
- Support our military with complementary approaches to peacebuilding. [Try to read that aloud with a straight face.]
- Create and administer a U.S. Peace Academy, acting as a sister organization to the U.S. Military Academy.
I think Benjamin Rush's proposal was far superior to what it has gradually evolved into -- and it involved ladies in white robes singing hymns. But it also suggested a real alternative to the military madness that has engulfed the U.S. government. Of course I'd say yes, rather than no, to passage of the above bill. But it presents the duties of the Secretary of Peace as principally advising, not the president but the Secretaries of "Defense" and State. That's a step in the right direction. But so, I think, is working to inform people of what a real Department of Peace might do.
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