United States policy makers have chosen to exploit fears of threats to our National Security, to increase Military Spending, to expand Nuclear Proliferation and to deprecate International Cooperation. Our responsibility as advocates for justice demands that we take action to change these misguided policies.
The US is now contemplating expanding the seemingly never ending war from Afghanistan and Iraq into Iran, and is presenting a more threatening military posture toward Latin America. We have allowed the doctrine of preemptive force to become the heart of our Foreign Policy:
“Perhaps the most threatening document of our time is the U.S. National Security Strategy of September 2002. Its implementation in Iraq has already taken countless lives and shaken the international system to the core. In the fallout from the war on terror is a revived Cold War, with more nuclear players than ever, across even more dry-tinder landscapes around the world...As old pretexts collapsed, President Bush and his colleagues adaptively revised the doctrine of the NSS to enable them to resort to force even if a country does not have WMD or programs to develop them. The "intent and ability" to do so is sufficient.Just about every country has the ability, and intent is in the eye of the beholder. The official doctrine, then, is that anyone is subject to attack.”
-Noam Chomsky Information Clearing House, October 2, 2004
Future wars threaten to be more horrific if we continue to ignore the danger of Nuclear Proliferation:
“Measured in "real dollars" (that is, adjusting for inflation), this year's spending on nuclear activities is equal to what Ronald Reagan spent at the height of the U.S.-Soviet standoff. It exceeds by over 50 percent the average annual sum ($4.2 billion) that the United States spent—again, in real dollars—throughout the four and a half decades of the Cold War...President Bush is trying to persuade other nations—especially "rogue regimes"—to forgo their nuclear ambitions. Yet he is shoveling money to U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories as if the Soviet Union still existed and the Cold War still raged.”
-Fred Kaplan, Slate April 23, 2004
As we state in our Platform: “The United States needs to recommit itself to the elimination of nuclear and other major weapons systems.”
The US Federal Budget for 2007 includes over $700 billion for military spending. The National Priorities Project’s Cost of Iraq War calculator is set to reach $315 billion September 30, 2006. They estimate Cincinnati’s share of the cost could have hired 4,888 additional public school teachers for one year. source: costofwar.com
We continue to rush toward military solutions endangering our morality as well as our security:
“If Americans persist in these misconceptions, America will share the fate of all those who in ages past have looked to war and military power to fulfill their destiny. We will rob future generations of their rightful inheritance. We will wreak havoc abroad. We will endanger our security at home. We will risk the forfeiture of all that we prize."
The New American Militarism - Paul Craig Roberts, 2005
The Peace movement in the US has gathered momentum. Mass mobilizations, nationally and locally, continue give a personal face to the movement. Veteran and Military Family organizations continue to speak out and adapt techniques of nonviolent direct action to the struggle. Policy makers seem to find opposition whenever they travel beyond Washington, DC. Military recruiters often fail to meet even relaxed goals. Poll after poll report decreasing public support for these and future wars. Yet, members of the US Armed Forces and Iraqi civilians continue to die in escalating numbers. This disconnect between citizens’ wishes and policy makers decisions leaves the protection of our democracratic traditions in our hands.
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