Don’t go to war with Iran: Cleveland Peace Action’s Norman Robbins published by the Cleveland Plain Dealer

Published: Friday, March 30, 2012, 10:52 AM     Updated: Friday, March 30, 2012, 11:26 AM

 By Plain Dealer guest columnist 

View full sizeMichael Kamber, The New York TimesU.S. soldiers salute as flag bearers exit during a symbolic flag-lowering ceremony marking the end to U.S. military involvement in Iraq, in Baghdad, Dec. 15, 2011.

As the late Barbara Tuchman, the eminent historian, explained in “The March of Folly,” certain types of belief have consistently led to national disasters. These include “not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts,” self-imprisonment in the “we-have-no-alternative argument,” and “underestimation of the opponent.” Are these themes operative with respect to war with Iran, as they were in the run-up to the disastrous Iraq war?

Just prior to the Iraq war, most Americans were convinced by press and government accounts that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that it was ready to use, even though U.N. inspectors were reporting negative findings. Today, most Americans believe Iran is building a nuclear weapon, even though American and Israeli intelligence report that Iran has not yet decided to do so.

Enrichment of uranium (at levels useful only for energy) and development of missiles (necessary for defense) are certainly elements of nuclear “capability,” but most experts believe Iran would need one to two years to make a single effective bomb if and when it decided to go ahead. For what it’s worth, Iran’s supreme religious leader has staked his reputation on a fatwa condemning nuclear weapons.

Bombing Iranian nuclear facilities because, at some time in the future, Iran may decide to build nuclear weapons, is a flagrant violation of international law.

A major difference from the Iraq war run-up is that so many military leaders have spoken out against war. Most former or present Israeli military and intelligence leaders oppose an attack, one or more pointing out that: Iran is not an “existential threat” to Israel; an attack would push Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon; the attack would only delay such development by one to three years; and the repercussions could be disastrous.

Many American military leaders agree, adding that an Israeli attack could drag the United States into a bloody and protracted war with a country three times the size of Iraq that has already united once against a powerful aggressor (Iraq). And polls show that Americans have seen enough death, injury and psychological damage to our troops to be more careful about putting them in harm’s way once more.

Again, unlike the Iraq war run-up, Americans already feel the pain of conflict with Iran in escalating gasoline prices. Neither domestic oil production nor conservation would greatly impact world oil prices. Three-fourths of our gasoline costs are directly related to global oil prices, which respond dramatically to uncertainty. Threats of an attack on Iran, and Iran’s counterthreat to close off Persian Gulf oil shipments, increase this uncertainty. If war breaks out, gasoline prices could easily double, with major damage to our economy.

It is unconscionable that otherwise progressive American politicians, who genuinely care about Americans who are struggling, so dutifully line up to vote against the interests of these Americans when it comes to laws and resolutions that could lead to a draining war with Iran.

Lastly comes the “no-alternative-to-war” argument, which claims that neither sanctions nor diplomacy will work. For sure, they won’t work if we continue to demand that Iran cannot enrich uranium even to the low levels necessary for nuclear power (about 17 times less than necessary for a bomb). Anyone who knows Iran’s sad historical experience with colonial powers will understand why Iran’s insistence on the right to enrich uranium has become a national rallying point. That domestic opinion enables Iran to withstand “crippling” sanctions, and to stall negotiations.

Demanding indefinite cessation of any enrichment, as in current Senate and House resolutions, is an absolute deal-breaker.

If we really want to prevent Iran from building a bomb, a “don’t trust, but verify” approach has a far greater chance of success than military action, which could backfire and do just the opposite. Unfortunately, Americans have seen little coverage of proposals by arms control experts that allow Iran to enrich uranium to low levels for nuclear power and under strict controls, in exchange for more intrusive inspections and transparency.

So why aren’t we pursuing this important diplomatic option instead of our March of Folly? If our best military minds tell us an attack on Iran will solve nothing and make things worse, why isn’t the majority of Congress paying attention? Is their fear of offending powerful interests greater than their commitment to America’s chances for peace and prosperity?

Norman Robbins is an emeritus professor at Case Western Reserve University and Iran consultant to Cleveland Peace Action.

More Prolific Peace Actionistas Published on Prospects of War on Iran

Whew! Hard to keep up with all the great articles being published by grassroots leaders in the Peace Action network. Here are two for you today, both on the lunacy of a war with Iran:

National Peace Action Board Co-Chair Jean Athey and Peace Action Montgomery (in Maryland, just outside the nation’s capital) Steering Committee member Alex Welsch had an op-ed in yesterday’s Baltimore Sun titled “Overstated Iranian ”threat’ puts U.S. on path to war”

New Jersey Peace Action Executive Director, on Op-Ed News, asks “Can the U.S. Afford Another War?” (Of course we can’t, but her article is full of facts, figures, links and news you can use!)

Peace Action Statement on Humanitarian Crisis in Syria

Statement by Peace Action Calling for a Halt to the Military Violence and

Human Rights Violations in Syria

March 6, 2012

 

Peace Action deeply deplores the military action taken by Syria’s armed forces to violently suppress opposition to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.  This military action is largely responsible for the deaths of thousands of Syrians – with estimates ranging as high as 7,500 deaths – mostly of civilians.  In the midst of this violence, an estimated 70,000 Syrians have been displaced from their homes and over 20,000 have become international refugees.

 

The Syrian government’s brutality was justly condemned by the UN General Assembly on February 16, 2012, in a resolution that was supported by 137 of 149 nations voting.  Peace Action also applauds the overwhelming vote by the UN Human Rights Council on March 1, 2012 to condemn “the continued widespread and systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities” and the action by the UN Security Council that calls on the Syrian government to allow “immediate, full and unimpeded” humanitarian access to its country.

Peace Action supports the recently-announced UN plan for a mediation process in Syria that includes all political factions.  According to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan – the newly appointed special envoy for Syria on behalf of the United Nations and the Arab League – this plan is supported by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

 

Meanwhile, Peace Action warns against precipitous military intervention in Syria by foreign powers.  “Unfortunately,” notes Kevin Martin, Peace Action executive director, “we have seen how violence has escalated when other nations intervened militarily in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Even when the United Nations authorized the use of force in Libya under its `responsibility to protect’ policy, outside powers overstepped the boundaries of the UN authorization and created a broader military conflict.”

 

Peace Action also calls attention to the fact that, as the Syrian situation demonstrates, when a nation maintains substantial armed forces, it not only threatens the security of other nations, but the human rights and lives of its own citizens.  This threat provides yet another reason for reducing the massive international arms trade.

 

Peace Action believes that the people of the world would have greater security and freedom in a demilitarized world.

 

Founded in 1957, Peace Action (formerly SANE/Freeze), the United States’ largest peace and disarmament organization, with over 100,000 paid members and nearly 100 chapters in 36 states, works to abolish nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs, encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights and support nonmilitary solutions to the conflicts with Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. The public may learn more and take action at http://www.Peace-Action.org. For more up-to-date peace insider information, follow Peace Action’s political director on Twitter. http://twitter.com/PaulKawika

 

Cleveland Rocks! City Council Passes Resolution Calling for New Spending Priorities!

From Cleveland Peace Action:

Cleveland City Council, at its regular February 27th meeting, joined other U.S.cities and the National Conference of Mayors, to call for Pentagon spending cuts and to bring our tax dollars home to struggling Ohio communities.

Council overwhelmingly passed – 18 to 1 – a strongly worded resolution for new national priorities that address needs of our cities and states now facing serious financial shortfalls and cuts to essential services and personnel. The resolution noted that in this time of austerity, tax payers in Cleveland, one of the nation’s poorest cities, will pay over $500 million this coming year as their share of the Pentagon budget. It also calls attention to the deaths of 4400 troops inIraq, plus 1140 more inAfghanistan, with over 39,000 seriously wounded in both conflicts, according to the Pentagon’s own figures.

Cleveland Peace Action initially worked with Councilman Jay Westbrook to craft City Council’s resolution modeled on those of 15 other U.S. cities, including Portland ME, Durham NC, Binghamton NY, Los Angeles, Richmond and San Francisco CA. Councilman Westbrook introduced Resolution 219-12 which will be sent to U.S. senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman and to Representatives Marcia Fudge and Dennis Kucinich.

Visit Cleveland Peace Action’s website to download a copy of the resolution and for news, events, action alerts, and find out what you can do for peace.

More Good Local Media Work by Peace Actionistas on Cutting Pentagon Spending

New Jersey Peace Action Executive Director Madelyn Hoffman in the Bloomfield Life

The Pentagon cuts would account for nearly half of the total of automatic cuts mandated by the debtdeal. If the Pentagon is immune from cuts, it will force greater cuts in domestic programs, like education, environmental protection, health care, veterans’ benefits, college scholarships and more.

The Pentagon already spends almost as much on the military as the rest of the world combined. The total budget for the military in 2011 was almost $800 billion. A modest 25 percent cut in those funds would free up $200 billion, enough to eliminate every state’s budget deficit with funds left over! This is the time for these mandatory cuts to take the pressure off federal and state budgets.

A recent announcement by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta suggested that American combat troops could be withdrawn from Afghanistan as early as mid-2013. That move could save hundreds of billions of dollars while keeping our troops in Afghanistan for one more year will have minimal impact on the Afghan Security Forces.

According to a Jan. 27 article in The Hill, through draw-downs in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and reductions of troops in Europe, the United States should be able “to reduce our 1.5 million member active-duty military by much more than the roughly 100,000 troops stated as a goal.” It costs almost $1 million per year per soldier, so these reductions would also save significant money.

NJPA urges you to contact U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell at 973-523-5152; U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg at 888-398-1642; and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez at 973-645-3030 to tell them not to shield the Pentagon from spending cuts. Genuine security depends on towns like Bloomfield having enough money for education, affordable housing and health care, and clean air and water. It’s time to prevent the military-industrial complex, warned of by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, from draining dry the rest of the economy.

Let’s advocate for our communities, move the money and make our communities the nation’s top priority.

The writer is executive director of New Jersey Peace Action, based in Bloomfield.

Powerful Op-Ed on the Iraq War in the Kansas City Star by Peace Action national board Co-Chair Dave Pack

Posted on Tue, Jan. 03, 2012

 

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/03/v-print/3350801/the-iraq-war-was-our-greatest.html

Iraq War Was the United States’ Greatest Foreign Policy Disaster 

By DAVID J. PACK
Special to The Star

We should all stop to take solemn note that the last U.S. combat troops left Iraq on Dec. 17, 2011, nominally ending a war that was started by President George W. Bush in March 2003, almost 9 years ago.

I say “nominally” because the war continues in many very real ways for all Iraqis, but especially for some 3.5 million who are either internally displaced within Iraq or refugees in another country. It also continues for many of the 1,500,000 Americans who have served in Iraq and suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and other physical and mental health problems that have contributed to more of our troops committing suicide than dying in combat in recent years.

I view the Iraq War as the greatest foreign policy disaster in the history of the United States to this point in time (though the War in Afghanistan is running a good race here). It was an unprovoked act of military aggression against a nation that had not attacked us and posed no meaningful threat to us.

We were lied to about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction. We were told it was about democracy and saving Iraqis from Saddham Hussein.

Tell that to the 100,000 or more Iraqis who have died during the war. Tell that to the Texans whose congressional districts were gerrymandered to elect more Republicans to Congress in 2004, or to voters in Ohio who saw voting machines placed abundantly in conservative areas but sparingly in liberal areas by a GOP state administration.

If we care about democracy, we need to look to the home front because our own democracy is increasingly an empty sham.

What is the reality of present day Iraq after our expenditure to date of over $800 billion, some 4,500 U.S. combat deaths, over 1,000 U.S. troop suicides and over 30,000 injured? The war has left a ruined country that was formerly one of the most advanced in the Middle East in terms of health and education:

Up to 70 percent lack access to clean water.

Up to 80 lack access to sanitation.

Half of the doctors are either dead or have emigrated.

Average electricity availability is 14.6 hours per day.

The $800 billion will grow substantially despite the war’s nominal end because as a nation we must keep our commitment to care for the veterans of this war.

To understand the magnitude of the potential costs, note that the Department of Veteran’s Affairs has a proposed budget of $132 billion for 2012.

Sadly, the number of suicides will also grow with passing years.

While damning this war as a moral, humanitarian, financial, and foreign policy disaster for this country, let us affirm the sacrifices of the 1,500,000 who have served in Iraq. Their sacrifice is no less for them having been placed under false pretenses in a war that should not have been.

Indeed, for many of them the sacrifice has been overwhelming as they have returned to Iraq for additional tours of duty. So let’s honor those who served. Let’s be certain they receive the benefits they deserve for their service.

The sad reality is that the people who get us into misguided wars like this are inclined to deny war’s terrible consequences and seek to get out of paying for them so they can get on with their next war.

Don’t let our politicians break the promises made to our veterans.

David J. Pack, of Lenexa, is co-chairman of the board of the national peace group Peace Action, is on the board of their local affiliate PeaceWorks Kansas City and is a member of the Kansas City American Friends Service Committee Program Committee.

Ending Iraq War: Op-ed in Bloomfield (NJ) Life newspaper by New Jersey Peace Action Executive Director

 

BY MADELYN HOFFMAN

GUEST COLUMNIST

Bloomfield Life, December 28, 2011

 

As 2011 ends, it is time to reflect upon continuing U.S. involvement in overseas wars and the impact that involvement has here at home. It is a good time to reflect on the role that protest played in getting us here and what those protests still want to achieve so the U.S. is genuinely safe and secure.

On Dec. 17, the last U.S. soldier was photographed leaving Iraq and the media proclaimed an end to the war which began on March 19, 2003 – almost nine years ago. The war cost the U.S. taxpayer more than $800 billion and claimed 4,483 U.S. soldiers’ lives. At the war’s height, the war in Iraq was costing taxpayers $12 billion each month.

Additionally, more than 1 million Iraqi civilians died, and 4.5 million became refugees. And during the last two years, more U.S. soldiers died by their own hands than in combat. On average, we lose 18 veterans to suicide each day.

So while it is important to mark the “official end” to the Iraq War, it is difficult to muster many cheers. Instead, it is critical to conduct an honest assessment of what happened.

First, we must acknowledge that U.S. presence in Iraq has not ended. The Project On Government Oversight argues that taxpayers will now provide funding for 14,000 to 16,000 contractors in Iraq. According to POGO, some of the companies who will provide contractors in Iraq – KBR, DynCorp and Blackwater – are in the POGO Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (www.contractormisconduct.org). All three contractors have extensive misconduct histories, yet they continue to operate.

Second, U.S. presence in Afghanistan remains – and may extend past 2014. According to a Dec. 20 article in the New York Times, the senior American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John R. Allen, suggested that American forces could remain in the country beyond 2014, despite increasing public opinion to withdraw forces from Afghanistan at an accelerated pace.

Lastly, we need to acknowledge the role that “The Protester,” Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year,” played in changing the course of this war, and what these protesters would like to see in 2012.

Bloomfield-based New Jersey Peace Action opposed the war in Iraq starting in the summer of 2002, many months before the war began. More than 800 protesters marched in Newark in December 2002, drawing the connection between the tremendous costs for war and how each dollar spent on the war would be a dollar taken away from programs and services that cities like Newark require.

Hundreds participated in national marches in Washington, D.C., and millions rallied worldwide on Feb. 19, 2003, trying to prevent the war in Iraq from ever beginning. That anti-war movement continued even after the first bombs were dropped, in an effort to end the war as quickly as possible.

Bloomfield residents started a weekly peace vigil in front of the Bloomfield Public Library shortly after the war began and continued it for years, as part of this national and international effort to stop the war.

While the consistent activism did not stop the United States from starting a war against Iraq, the ongoing activism did influence public opinion to the point where, by 2006, the majority of those polled were against the war. The 2006 elections, when many pro-war elected officials were beaten by anti-war challengers, were seen as a reflection of this shift.

Public opinion against the Iraq war deterred decision-makers from authorizing an invasion of Iran.

Protests to end the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and to treat returning veterans well upon their return continue today. NJPA is part of a national “Move the Money” campaign to take at least 25 percent of the money from the military budget and move it into funding programs that address community needs.

According to the National Priorities Project, war spending for Iraq and Afghanistan for 2011 was $169.4 billion. This is more than enough money to erase every state’s budget deficit. No deficits mean more money for towns like Bloomfield and a lighter burden on local taxpayers.

NJPA, joined by Bloomfield residents, recently participated on day 170 of the People’s Organization for Progress’ Campaign for Jobs, Peace, Equality and Justice. The campaign honors the 381-day, 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., which led to the desegregation of city buses. POP’s call is for jobs – with the understanding that the overseas wars must end, so that money can be used to help create much-needed jobs.

All are invited to participate in the these efforts to end the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring the war dollars home for our communities – for education, housing, jobs, health care and more.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

The author is executive director of Bloomfield-based New Jersey Peace Action.

Bring the War Dollars Home! Terrific Op-ed by NC Peace Action Director Betsy Crites in the Durham Herald-Sun

Bring the war dollars home

By Betsy Crites

Herald-Sun guest columnist

The withdrawal from Iraq is to be celebrated like a migraine that finally subsides. It is what the majority of Americans have long asked for through pollsters and by their election of a president who promised to get us out.

It is what peace advocates have marched and lobbied for since before the invasion began. So, yes, it’s wonderful to have those troops come home.

The sacrifices of our military personnel are to be applauded; they gave their all when asked to serve. Yet, out of respect for them and future vets, we must be honest with ourselves. This was not a “good war.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicolas Burns, who initially supported the invasion of Iraq, writes that “any good from it was far outweighed by the sacrifices of our soldiers and the significant damage to our international credibility.”

We lost 4,484 young American men and women and an estimated 100,000 were wounded. Human rights groups estimate 114,000 Iraqis were killed and several million displaced.

The economic toll, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, was close to $6 trillion not counting the “opportunity costs.”

“If not for the war in Iraq”, he asks, “would oil prices have risen so rapidly? Would the federal debt be so high? Would the economic crisis have been so severe?” His answer is “probably not.”

But at least the war is over now, right? Probably not.

There remain 16,000 “contractors and embassy personnel,” and reinforcements are just across the border in Kuwait. As if to be reassuring, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared: “We still have a robust continuing presence throughout the region.”

Apparently the war has not ended. We’ve just ended a phase, the Iraq war … sort of.

We remain at war in Afghanistan, of course, which also tends to dampen the celebration, especially when one hears officials talk of extending that to 2024.

The war drums are now beating for Iran. And beyond the Middle East, the U.S. is expanding its military presence in the Pacific and Africa.

We are enmeshed in a state of permanent war. Theaters of war open and close, but are not won or lost. They are wars to maintain geopolitical domination and project power. We may not be used to thinking of America in this way, but these are the characteristics of an “empire.”

We all pay for this permanent war, euphemistically called “security.” The complex of “security related programs” consumes 60 percent of the federal discretionary budget. The cost since 2001 to North Carolina taxpayers of the wars alone has been $31.7 billion. Durham City taxpayers share of the wars amount to $794.4 million.

When Congress cuts payments to doctors serving Medicaid and Medicare patients, or raises the age of Social Security, or cuts community block grants, or refuses to fund job generating projects, or declines to invest in clean energy, but protects “security spending,” we are paying for permanent war and, it must be added, tax cuts to the wealthy.

When financially strapped state governments subsequently cut education services, libraries, environmental protection, universities and health services, we are paying the tab for war.

But our nation is not broke; it’s making bad choices. Such decisions to fund wars-without-end cost us our true security, i.e. a sustainable economy, a well-educated citizenry, and energy independence.

In President Eisenhower’s farewell address he issued a warning for us all: “Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

Fortunately, we have some alert local leaders who are clearly stating that decisions about war spending have local consequences.

The Durham City Council recently passed a resolution calling upon the president and Congress “to bring these war dollars home to meet vital human needs, promote job creation, rebuild our infrastructure, aid municipal and state governments, and develop a new economy based upon renewable, sustainable energy and reduce the federal debt.”

Similar resolutions were passed this fall by the Durham County Board of Commissioners and the Durham Board of Education.

Twenty General Assembly officials likewise asked Congress to “redirect tens of billions of dollars from excess military spending and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq toward meeting urgent domestic needs.”

It will take this kind of leadership, plus many citizens challenging the assumptions of empire, if we want to reset our priorities. Bringing the troops home from Iraq gives me hope that in the coming year we may also bring at least some of the war dollars home and restore our communities.

Betsy Crites is director of NC Peace Action.

Read more: The Herald-Sun – Bring the war dollars home

Move the Money! From Endless Wars to a More Sustainable, Flowering Republic!

The following is excerpted from recent speeches I gave at the Nebraskans for Peace annual conference in Lincoln, NE and the Chicago Area Peace Action annual dinner in Wilmette, IL.

Move the Money! From Endless War to a More Sustainable, Flowering Republic!

-by Kevin Martin

Peace Action’s Move the Money campaign is our most exciting work at this time.  In my opinion, we have the best chance in a generation for serious cuts in the  military budget. Our Move the Money campaign, at the national and local level, is a serious coalition and alliance building project, creating strong relationships with  unions, human needs and economic and racial justice advocates,environmental and consumer groups, and local elected officials, who deal with the harm our out of control war spending has done to the national economy and to state and local budgets, among other constituencies.

Veteran peace activist Tom Hayden has a very good analytical tool he calls the Pillars of War, looking at constituencies or sectors of society that have perpetuated U.S. wars in the last decade. The news media, general public opinion, Republicans, Democrats (which need to be further divided into the party elite, those in Congress, and the party’s base) and corporate interests are key pillars to examine, especially in terms of leverage the peace movement may have in moving or, better yet, removing some of these pillars.

I would argue we have made significant headway pushing on some of these pillars (certainly public opinion and the Democratic base are now solidly anti-war, and we’ve made progress with Congressional Democrats and even the media to lesser degrees), but that perhaps the biggest impediment to ending the wars is corporate power, or the good old military-industrial-congrressional complex.

A recent example is the reaction of Lockheed Martin, the planet’s largest weapons contractor, to a proposed non-binding resolution in the Montgomery County, Maryland Council (just outside Washington, D.C., where both Lockheed and Peace Action’s national office are located). The resolution, pushed by our local Peace Action chapter, is simple, calling for an end to the wars and cutting military spending in order to fund jobs and human, community and environmental needs – a position supported by an overwhelming majority of the U.S. public.

Lockheed felt so threatened (evidently) by this non-binding county resolution that it called the governor, congressman (Chris van Hollen, to whom it had contributed $10,000 in the last campaign cycle) and county council president to scuttle the resolution. They succeeded in getting the resolution withdrawn, temporarily, but got a black-eye in the local media, including the usually reliably war-mongering Washington Post.

Frankly, Lockheed did us a favor in exposing the lengths to which it will go to stifle democracy (if the resolution had passed, we would have celebrated, but it would not have gotten an iota of the media coverage LM’s strong-arm tactics generated).

In this exciting year of the Arab Spring, Wisconsin and other state budget showdowns and Occupy Wall Street (and Omaha and Lincoln and Kansas City and Chicago and everywhere!) opportunities abound for peace activists to make common cause with allies demanding a more peaceful, just, democratic society.

In addition to the ongoing (such staying power!) Occupy movement, there is still time to demand the congressional “Super Committee” protect Social Security, Medicare and human needs programs and find their budget savings in the gargantuan ($1.2 trillion per year!) national security budget (there’s a link to the Super Committee on our home page at http://www.peace-action.org/).

Two important opportunities next year will be the NATO/G-8 Summit in Chicago, where they are linking the wars and the economy for us! Peace Action, along with local, national and international allies, will organize an educational conference and street actions demanding an end to NATO and U.S. war-making and a more just, equitable U.S. and global economy.

Finally, next year’s elections will present us an opportunity to press candidates for all levels of government to Move the Money from war and militarism to jobs, human and environmental needs. Our Peace Voter campaign will help give activists the tools to do that, from candidate briefings and endorsments, bird-dogging, voter guides, voter registration, education and Get out the Vote (GOTV) efforts.  President Obama’s and the Democratic Party’s vulnerability (over 80% of registered Democrats want to end the wars) matches up very well with our strength in the peace movement’s grassroots base (not that we are all Democrats, we certainly are not, but we have many connections with grassroots Democratic activists and structures).

Ending the wars, cutting military spending, abolishing nuclear weapons and creating a more just society are all central to Peace Action’s mission, but so is recognizing and framing a larger vision of the historic moment we inhabit, and the opportunities it provides. I like the framework Norwegian peace studies expert Johann Galtung uses – the Decline of the U.S. Empire, and the Flowering of the U.S. Republic.

All empires have ended, all of them. It’s our job to help end the U.S. Empire as quickly and nonviolently as possible, and to use the resources freed up (a “peace dividend” if you will) to help empower people to create the flowering Republic – peaceful, equitable, sustainable and just — that comes following the Empire’s demise.

A few years ago a dinner table conversation with my children, now aged 17 and 13, revealed that they thought the United States is always at war. And why wouldn’t they think that, as it has certainly been the case for nearly all their lives (and frankly for the majority of our country’s history)? It’s unacceptable to me that children in this country, or in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Congo, Somalia or anywhere should have to live with that expectation, or even worse, that daily reality. For their futures, we cannot continue on the unsustainable path we are currently on. As the great pacifist A.J. Muste taught us, “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.”

Kevin Martin is executive director of Peace Action, the country’s largest peace and disarmament organization with 100,000 members and nearly 100 affiliates and chapters around the U.S.

Interview on Chicago Public Radio from Monday

This program, Worldview, with host Jerome McDonnell, is one of the best on public radio. It’s on five days a week, focusing on international affairs. I’ve known Jerome for over 20 years, he’s a good egg, very sharp, asks good questions, good politics. Not a bad segment I don’t think, we covered a lot of issues of import to the peace movement. Feel free to give me feedback on my “performance” if you like!