Whenever SOME REALLY BIG earthquakes, typhoons, tsunamis, genocides, starvation camps, etc., fill the headlines we usually send a flotilla of do-gooders and truckload of money to those devastated nations making headlines. Increasingly, most of the do-gooders and money come from increasingly strapped non-profits and Middle Americans. Unfortunately, most of the long-term profitable rebuilding contracts then go to tax-skirting multi-national corporations. And then this broke nation returns to stumbling around looking for investments in cost effective policies that will benefit world and country.
The AWSC Congressional Proposals provide the inexpensive investment that produces and builds jobs for Middle Americans, fixes present and prepares for future disasters, wins hearts and minds and thereby deprives terrorists of recruits" In addition, it keeps Americans (and other nations' world service corps --urged upon other nations in the AWSC Congressional Proposals) involved in fixing problems long beyond the corporate media's titillating disaster headlines disappear.
At the beginning of the Iraq war, we were investing about $600,000 per soldier (http://www.worldservicecorps.us/revsawsccosts.xls ) to wage war in the country that had no Al-Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction. Today, that investment is up to $1 million per soldier. This myopic investment policy is breaking our economy, afflicting our troops with PTSD, and building the wrong army for the 21st century.
Such myopic working class destroying investments doesn't build the army needed to address the increasing number of devastating attacks that are and will continue raining down upon Mother Earth and its inhabitants.
When the earth's population grew from 2 to 7 billion, observation and common sense should have driven policy makers to the common sense solution -- building an army of Jedi knights involved in preparing for and answering the death, dying, and destruction that shadows our increasing number of disasters.
If invisible aliens, hidden Dark Forces, or evil Avatars from a Hungry Pandora were melting our glaciers, causing earthquakes, sending twisters, drying our lakes, polluting rivers, destroying homes, breaking levies, starving people, etc., wouldn't smart leaders build an army to repair and prepare for such destructive acts?
Where is that standing, ready, and robust army?
America doesn't have that army. America has a military industrial mercenary army that dwarfs that of the next hundred nations combined. It doesn't, however, have an army to thwart or correct the aftermaths of what looks just like the destitution and destruction of war.
The world's other 180 nations don't have that army either, but they too need to build such a corps.
We and other nations have platoons of do-gooders who could grow into that army. We call many of them NGOs. But the military-industrial-corporate estate that Eisenhower warned us of has America willing to accept more resources going to Black Hawkish mercenaries than to rewarding enlistees who serve nation and world through doing good, increasing understanding, and building security.
With a larger and larger portion of the resource limited Earth's 7 billion struggling more and more, we need to field an army that positively reverses our march toward" killing species, flooding islands, sifting weather patterns, starving tribes of humans, attracting suicide bombers, bombing cities, testing strange weapons in contested civilian areas, etc.
Visuals of Haiti as are those of Darfur, Palestine, Asian '04 tsunami, New Orleans '05 hurricane, Pakistan '05 earthquake, Bangladesh's '07 cyclone, China '08 floods -- are recent reminders of what more and more 21st century battlefields will look like. They are snippets of what the smart 21st century army we should be fielding must deal with. Look closely at Haiti's visuals and you will see the likes of Doctors sans Borders, Oxfam, Mercy Corps, International Rescue Committee, Red Cross, etc" serving. These are the million sandaled soldiers a year that we should be fielding through the American World Service Corps (AWSC).
Now look at People's Lobby's American World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposals, which includes those existing platoons and other established organizations of do-gooders in an army that cost effectively fields 21 million AWSC volunteers into service over the next 27 years.
In October of 2009 on CNN, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated what is obvious to those who have served in the real world or have common sense and humane concerns"
"Our diplomatic tool box needs more than hammers."
Here, here! Hooray, for Secretary Gates' words. Meanwhile, back in the real world of peaceful doers, America's action on Gates' words has it struggling to field 8,000 Peace Corps volunteers (PCV), when back at its meager height in 1969, the Peace Corps was too small at 14,000.
Since the visionary inception of the Peace Corps in 1961, how did that visionary approach help our struggling Haiti neighbor?
Since 1961 over 4,000 PCVs have served in the Dominican Republic, over 3,600 have served in the neighboring EastCaribbeanIslands, and as many in Jamaica.
On the other hand, poor Haiti has had 507 PCVs serve there since 1961.
Imagine how much better prepared Haiti's agriculture, water, infrastructure, housing, and building systems would have been had 4,000 PCVs served there since 1961. Imagine if 20,000 had been there in the last 49 years.
If the AWSC Congressional Proposals had been implemented when People's Lobby started pushing it in Congress years ago, 5-10,000 Americans would be ready for reassignment and deployed tomorrow to start rebuilding that nation.
Here's the AWSC web site where you can find out more and see which Congressional representatives need to hear from you to help us employ peaceful nation builders and build a better world through People's Lobby's American World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposals.
Tags
NGO, military-industrial-corporate estate, Eisenhower, Avatar, aliens, killing species, Haiti, tsunami, earthquake, American World Service Corps Congressional Proposals (AWSC), People's Lobby, national service, Secretary Defense Robert Gates, earthquakes, typhoons, tsunamis, genocides, starvation camps.
