News Across the Spectrum that May Help Explain the Mess We're In. Or Not.
December 16-the good stuff edition
Dear Peacemakers,
Well we got all kinds of good responses to our request for " 50 things that we want the new administration to do that costs nothing". We also got lots of good news and good links so we'll try to bring it altogether here for your consideration. Keep in mind that this good, hopeful stuff doesn't come without a lot of work and sacrifice on our part. We have to get past this notion of hope being wishful thinking for happy endings. Most hope that is worth anything involves lots of hard work with no guarantee of what the outcome will be. So, in no particular order of importance, here comes a cacophony of the good stuff. May it get us all on our feet marching, protesting, resisting, helping, caring, sharing, feasting, dancing, hoping, hoping, HOPING!!
Mike and Barb Northwoods Peace Initiative Go to Neil Young's Living with War Website and click on #5-- Shovelin' Shit. It will take you to our band website (Relative Minor) and you can listen to great political techno folk while you are reading this newsletter. That would be #5 out of over 3000 songs submitted from people all over the globe! I may be full of gloom and doom but if we can't sing we don't want to be part of the revolution.
On December 29, a group of people will be meeting at the TeePee Restaurant between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. in downtown Tomah, WI for lunch, then going to the main gate of Ft. McCoy to protest and resist war and the killing of innocents. Join us. more info contact Nukewatch at
or 715 472 4185
Subscribe to The Good News Service from the Ottawa Monthly Meeting of Friends. Receive monthly good news about peace and justice all over the globe. Murray Thomson.
Go to this website and see a wonderful slide show from Syria. Our friends Gabe and Theresa live in Damascus and work with Iraqi refugees and students. They are true grassroots diplomats. The more this happens the harder it will be for the US to go places we don't understand and kill their people.
Encourage private business and private citizens to budget responsibly and reduce their dependence on credit.
Encourage private citizens to help fight rising food costs and petroleum consumption by planting "Victory Gardens" and growing some of their own food.
Require that children be taught about budgeting and managing their money in school.
Develop a "micro loan" program, similar to programs that have been successfully implemented in developing countries, for use within the United States. Encourage small-scale local investment within local communities that benefits entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Favor treatment over prison when adjudicating drug users.
Cancel NAFTA
Organize a complete and total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within nine months of taking office. (Ending the costly and counterproductive occupation is essential.)
Accelerate negotiations and begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan while avoiding escalating U.S. military involvement in Pakistan. No country in history has successfully occupied Afghanistan. The U.S. lured the Soviet Union into invading Afghanistan in the hopes of bankrupting the Soviet Union. It worked. We are in route to a self-inflicted similar fate. Further militarization of the conflict in Pakistan is also dangerous and thoroughly counterproductive. (Concern: Obama has framed Afghanistan as the good war and promises to redeploy U.S. soldiers from Iraq to Afghanistan. Doing so could derail his presidency. Further military engagement in Pakistan would likely do the same).
Renounce the Carter Doctrine which says the U.S. has the right to use “any means necessary, including military force,” to maintain unrestricted access to Persian Gulf oil. Developing renewable energy sources that reduce our use of oil is a far better strategy than fighting wars for oil.
Commit the United States to policies of nonintervention and respect for international law. (Concern: Obama has indicated that he would approve unilateral military strikes in pursuit of al Qaida terrorists. This is a slippery slope. The United States must play by the same rules as other nations or it invites hostility and chaos.)
Recommit the United States to support and strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (countries with nukes agree to work towards eliminating them; countries without them agree not to develop them).
Abandon plans to deploy a missile defense system and engage Russia and China in efforts to reduce the size of nuclear arsenals. (Note: the missile defense system is a boondoggle for military contractors but it is an unworkable system that threatens to ignite a new arms race that neither the United States nor the world can afford.)
Abandon U.S. plans to militarize space. Join with other nations to keep space for peaceful purposes.
Commit the United States to strengthen the United Nations.
Acknowledge that the gravest security threat to the United States and the world is climate change. (Concern: Barack Obama is so much better than his predecessor on this issue that we may be so relieved that we fail to see that he and fellow democrats, although better, are not even close to advocating real solutions. Time is short).
Convene a global conference with the goal of significantly reducing global military spending and redirecting funds to address climate change and to end global poverty. The U.S. should commit to a 50% reduction in military spending as part of this international effort. (Concern: Barack Obama has pledged to increase military spending and the size of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps.)
Begin dismantling many of the more than 750 permanent foreign U.S. military bases. Doing so will both save money and be a visible sign of a U.S. commitment to transition away from foreign policies aimed at global domination to those based on global partnerships.
Help to stabilize the Middle East by working with nations in the region to have the Middle East declared a nuclear weapons free zone.
Engage in serious negotiations with and stop U.S. efforts to scapegoat, vilify and destabilize Iran. Iran has legitimate security concerns that need to be addressed as part of a broader effort to reduce tensions in the Middle East, enhance security for Israelis and Palestinians, and secure Iran’s help in stabilizing Iraq. (Concern: The good news is that Barack Obama, unlike John McCain, expressed a strong commitment to address disputes with other nations through face to face dialogue and diplomacy. The bad news is that he refused to challenge the dominant narrative that Iran is a grave threat, that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons, and that it must be stopped. He also hasn’t addressed the elephant in the room which is the fact that Middle Eastern nation’s are troubled by U.S. double standards when it comes to nuclear proliferation and the fact that Israel has more than a hundred nuclear weapons.)
Engage in determined and balanced diplomacy to address the Israel-Palestine conflict. (The U.S. must change its one-sided approach to this conflict or much of the goodwill of the Muslim world towards Obama will quickly dissipate. The Obama administration must demonstrate concretely that it is committed to both the creation of a viable Palestinian state and to Israeli security.)
Abandon the “war on terror” and commit the nation to policies that address the root causes of terrorism. (The Obama administration must demonstrate clearly that it understands that terrorism is a tactic used by frustrated people not a target that can be eliminated through military violence. There are many ways to lessen terrorism including ending unwise and illegal occupations, promoting economic development, addressing political grievances, and approaching terrorism through a lens of criminality rather than war.)
Confront the “disastrous rise” of the Military Industrial Complex (President Eisenhower’s words.) This complex involves weapons producers, private military contractors, and mercenaries that promote and profit from wars and threats of war. It also includes the costly and inefficient Homeland Security bureaucracy that arose post 9-11. Hundreds of billions of dollars are wasted in this sector each year and any effort to achieve authentic security and to revitalize the economy will depend on shifting resources away from this sector. (Concern: There is no indication that Barack Obama or the democrats generally have any plans to significantly reduce military spending).
End the disastrous equation of freedom with free markets and disentangle U.S. foreign policies from imposition of failed neoliberal economic policies. The present global economic crisis offers further convincing evidence of the failure of the dominant economic model imposed through “free trade” agreements, IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programs and the World Trade Organization.
Close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and the CIA secret prisons, end the practice of rendering prisoners to third countries to be tortured, and issue a blanket U.S. policy affirming international laws and principles that preclude torture or degrading treatment of prisoners.
Take steps to improve relations with Latin American nations, including closing the U.S. Army School of the America and normalizing relations with Cuba.
Create a cabinet level Department of Peace.
Outlaw Corporate Personhood.
Enable Instant Runoff Voting.
Adopt Proportional Representation.
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