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Department of Peace: More than a
Dream Current US military expenditures are roughly equal to the
rest of the world combined. Martin Luther King Junior said, in his speech
explaining why he opposed the Vietnam war, "...A nation that continues year
after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social
uplift is approaching spiritual death...." Clearly we spend more on defense
than any program of social uplift. But what many do not know is that our
government routinely spends more on the military than all other discretionary
spending combined. Clinton’s proposed 2000 discretionary spending continues
that routine. Here’s the year 2000 breakdown (courtesy The Defense
Monitor). Military, $281 billion Military related
spending, such as military aid to other countries, the needs of Veterans, and
the military share of interest on the national debt, nearly doubles the amount. During the course of the Twentieth Century, over 100
million people died in wars, and we’ve seen that bombs and guns are not
very effective instruments of peace. The world hungers for alternatives to war,
but few have taken the courageous stands needed for peace. Representative Dennis
Kucinich of Ohio has made such a stand. Representative Kucinich has brought a proposal for a
Department of Peace to Congress. He deserves our full support. Many
will oppose him, including the largest lobbying force in the country, the
Pentagon, which has a full-time salaried lobbyist for every member of
Congress. But those who oppose a Department of Peace face a tough battle,
because this proposal is not some wooly idea concocted by dreamers. It is
a precise legal framework for a lasting institution. Title 1 begins: There shall be established a Cabinet-level Department of Peace, which shall be of the Executive Branch of the Government. The Department of Peace shall hold peace as an organizing principle, coordinating service to every level of American society...A Secretary of Peace shall be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate.... The Department of Peace would be financed based on a mere one percent of the total annual budget of the Department of Defense. John F. Kennedy said "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." When our tax dollars are so lavishly spent on war, why not spend such a small fraction on peace? Instead of paying salaries for pro-war lobbyists, our government can enable peaceful revolution. We can follow the example of the EPA. Remember those
who opposed the now established and successful Environmental Protection Agency?
Vice President Gore rightly says, “For a quarter of a century now, the EPA has
stood for the very best in America….By nearly every measure, our environment
is cleaner and safer than before EPA got on the job.” Can you imagine the enormous
commendations a Department of Peace would earn? This is not about relinquishing our right to defend
ourselves. The United Nations charter protects a nation’s right to
defend itself. But our current war system has little to do with
defense. In 1947 the War Department euphemistically changed its name to “The
Defense Department.” Since that time, we’ve essentially engaged only
in attacking. Let’s look at some of our “defense” over the century. From 1899-1902 our government killed 250,000 Filipinos. In Korea, 3 million killed. Vietnam, 3 million killed, mostly civilian. In Panama, 14,000 became homeless from the neighborhoods we leveled, and estimates are as high as 4,000 dead. Is the world more peaceful as a result of these invasions? In Grenada, the medical students supposedly rescued testify they were safer before the US invasion. Iraq is in ruins as bombing intermittently continues; yet Saddam Hussein is still in power, and over a million Iraqi women and children are dead, so far. And what will be the effect of our involvement in Yugoslavia? An empowered Department of Peace will intelligently examine these questions and propose possible alternatives. Since we maintain our goals are peaceful, why not have a department designed specifically to help achieve these goals? From 1954-1990, US military aid resulted in the death of
200,000 Guatemalans. President Clinton recently apologized. This is too little,
too late. Under Reagan, Congress approved $82 million a year to the military
junta in El Salvador that murdered 75,000 of its own people. Our actions in Nicaragua
created the infamous Iran-Contra Scandal, and 40,000 Nicaraguans died for no
reason. The World Court has ruled that the United States owes Nicaragua $17
billion for the damage our operations caused. This is your tax dollars at work.
By scrutinizing these misuses of taxpayer money, a Department of Peace would
easily pay for itself. If you’re tempted dismiss Representative Kucinich as a peacenik, it might help to remember that Abraham Lincoln's bid for the presidency was almost thwarted by those who called him a peacenik. In the same way the institution of slavery was abolished, we too can reform our current system of war. Just remember those well intentioned but unrealistic dreamers who felt that under no circumstances should one human being enslave another. At the time it seemed impossible to remove such an entrenched institution, but now we see the decline of slavery was inevitable. Future generations will say the same of our system of war. The time for a Department of Peace is now. The House
of Representatives has passed a bill including $1.7 billion in military aid to
Colombia, ostensibly to fight the drug war. Amnesty International has documented
the diversion of our Drug War aid to counter-insurgency operations. There is
very good reason to believe this money will continue to be used for violent
suppression of legitimate political dissent. Why didn’t the House
scrutinize this aid package more closely? Let’s hope the Senate stops this
appalling misdirection of resources. Past military aid to South and
Central America has failed miserably. There is no reason to believe this
is aid package is somehow different. The UN is ready and able to mediate peace in Colombia, so why does Congress prefer a costly military solution? Could it be related to Textron and its employees, who donated $1 million to both Republicans and Democrats? Textron subsidiaries will receive $400 million of the aid package for 63 of their Helicopters. Could it be related to multinational corporations such as Occidental Petroleum, BP Amoco and Enron, who have lobbied congress for an expensive aid package that would serve their interest in Colombia? The UN office in Bogotá, Colombia has the resources to begin the peace process today. The alternative is our escalation of a blood bath. Later in his Vietnam War speech, Martin Luther King Jr.
said, ... I am convinced that if we are to get on the right
side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution
of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a
person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and
property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets
of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
... Let’s rectify our priorities and build a Department of Peace. To find out more about the
proposed Department of Peace, and how you can help make history, visit the
following website: http://www.house.gov/kucinich/action/peace.htm.
Or you may contact Representative Kucinich at the following. Representative Dennis Kucinich |