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!
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