In fact, there has been no U.N. authorization for any of the wars in her list above. The U.N. authorized a rescue-from-a-fictional-threat in Libya, not an overthrow. And the Kellogg-Briand Pact does not include the loopholes found in the U.N. Charter that is so often imagined must sometimes apply. But for Ocasio-Cortez to even mention the U.N. Charter is a giant leap forward. Watch what happened when I tried to get Senator Tim Kaine to acknowledge the U.N. Charter's existence. Alexandria goes on:
"America should not be in the business of destabilizing countries. While we may see ourselves as liberators, the world increasingly views us as occupiers and aggressors. Alexandria believes that we must end the 'forever war' by bringing our troops home, and ending the air strikes that perpetuate the cycle of terrorism throughout the world."
Several more breakthroughs here, that is: statements common in the peace movement but unheard of on television or Congressional campaign platforms. She says the U.S. is in the business of destabilizing countries. She cites the world's opinion. She proposes ending the wars (and foreign basing?). She does NOT mean replacing troops with aerial bombing, because she says the bombing must end. And she points out that the bombing generates terrorism rather than snuffing it out. She concludes:
"By bringing our troops home, we can begin to heal the wounds we're opening by continuing military engagement. We can begin to repair our image. We can reunite military families, separated by repeated deployments. We can become stronger by building stronger diplomatic and economic ties, and by saving our armed forces only for when they're truly needed."
And she blows it in the end by proposing that war is sometimes needed. It is not. Yet how far she has come, or failed to retreat, in comparison with the Congress she hopes to join! And think of the legislative actions she must take if she believes in her platform and has the courage of her convictions. She must reintroduce and lobby for long-unseen economic conversion legislation. She must use the War Powers Act to force a vote on each illegal, immoral, disastrous war she has listed and any others like them, she must seek to reduce military funding -- perhaps creating legislation along with her one Congressional backer Ro Khanna along the lines of his recent attempted amendment that would have cut 5%. She must seek to block weapons sales abroad and to local police. She must introduce legislation that would make the U.S. military subject to environmental agreements that everyone else is subject to. She must work to replace military "service" as a means to citizenship with free college as a right of the same. She must support diplomacy even when Trump does it. But she must support impeaching Trump for the reasons she already does plus the reasons included in her "Peace Economy" platform.
One Congress member cannot do any of this without a massive public movement that compels other Congress members to do so too. But part of so moving them must be showing our support for one among them who takes the lead. Right now the future Congress member in the lead is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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