How to end the wars? Budget cuts or civil resistance?
Two stories are dominating world news headlines this week. One is the latest WikiLeaks release of secret U.S. government documents, which has rocked international diplomacy channels. The other regards North Korea, in reaction to last week’s missiles fired at an island held by South Korea in the midst of major military exercises. Both of these situations have inflamed foreign policy debates, and renewed hawkish calls for armed solutions to the conflicts.
Meanwhile, the White House and Congress are in the midst of their own “war” of words about the massive budget crisis in the United States. Tomorrow, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform (aka the Bowles-Simpson Commission) will release its proposal for making changes to the national economy. Yet the proposal will do little to change the most outsized piece of our national budget: the money spent on militarism (estimated by some analysis as more than 50% of the federal budget). It’s worth checking out two progressive proposals that have been released this week, one titled “Our Fiscal Security” by three liberal policy organizations, and the other by a coalition called the Citizen’s Commission on Jobs and Deficits.
Time and again, we know that military responses to global conflicts do not provide lasting solutions (and rarely short-term ones, for that matter). With growing tensions on the Korean peninsula as well as continued pressures on Iran, in particular, this lesson must be kept in mind. And, at the same time, we are called to do more to end the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Therefore, the Fellowship of Reconciliation invites you to join FOR and other national peace organizations in Washington in mid-December for a national action to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On December 16th, join Daniel Ellsberg (who leaked the Pentagon Papers), Chris Hedges (former long-time New York Times foreign correspondent and author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning), Ray McGovern (former CIA analyst & U.S. Army officer), and many other veterans and peace activists from over 20 different organizations, including Veterans For Peace and the War Resisters League, at the White House for a nonviolent act of civil resistance to say no to war.
Here’s a brief synopsis by our allies at VFP:
Plans call for an organizational meeting on the 15th, a short rally at 10:00 am on the 16th at Lafayette Square, followed by a march to the White House and an attempt by some participants to chain ourselves to the White House fence.
By participating in this action, we will carry forward a flame of resistance to the war machine that will not diminish as we effectively begin to place ourselves, as Mario Savio said, “upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus.” and we will make it stop.
Author Chris Hedges, who will be risking arrest for the first time writes: “If we resist and carry out acts, no matter how small, of open defiance, hope will not be extinguished— Any act of rebellion, any physical defiance of those who make war, of those who perpetuate corporate greed and are responsible for state crimes, anything that seeks to draw the good to the good, nourishes our souls and holds out the possibility that we can touch and transform the souls of others. Hope affirms that which we must affirm. And every act that imparts hope is a victory in itself.”
We believe that the power of courageous, committed people is greater than that of corporate warmongers. But we will only see our power when we use it collectively, when we stand together. With courage, persistence, boldness and numbers, we can eventually make this monstrous war machine grind to a halt, so that our children and all children everywhere can grow up in a peaceful world.
Join us at the White House on December 16th! Go to www.stopthesewars.org to register and to find out more about this important action.
