Strike for Peace campaign protests ‘deadly priorities’
The action I’m taking is not about political parties. It’s about deadly priorities that have been ruining this country for 55 years and creating a world of suffering for those here at home and our soldiers abroad. In fact, after all I have learned about foreign policy, I have come to admire General Dwight Eisenhower the most among recent presidents. He was a Republican and the only president since World War II to warn the American people about the greatest cause of the many symptoms we suffer today.
In January 1950, the United States had more than 250 atomic bombs and the Soviet Union had just tested its first. Without the consent of Americans, the administration of President Harry Truman, a “Democrat,” decided to adopt a military- rather than people-based economy and launch the Cold War. Since then our nation has dependended on conflict, and the world has suffered numerous wars.
The breadth and depth of the Pentagon’s reach in our schools and companies, in addition to the fact that the manufacture and sale of weapons has been our top industry since 1950, should stand out in one’s mind when hearing claims that we are a peace-loving nation or debating the validity of federal priorities after a poor response to a hurricane.
The Pentagon is pressuring Japan to rescind Article 9 of its constitution The first nation to use WMDs, the United States, is urging Japan, the only nation to suffer nuclear attacks, to re-establish a military and arm itself with nuclear weapons. The Pentagon’s plan for the next 20 years is an arms race, despite the fact that we are on top. We are telling the rest of the world to build up for war because we are the world’s Wal-Mart of weapons.
Strikeforpeace.org attempts to highlight the dominant role of the military industry in America’s economy. We stand for a future of shared resources instead of a future of resource wars. The weapons we help the Pentagon develop in our schools will be used in such wars unless we step away from the microscope to see the macro view and change America’s priority from war-industry profit to the founding vision of prosperity for all.
Strikeforpeace.org is not anti-research or anti-weapons research. We stand against wasteful Pentagon contracts at public expense. Strikeforpeace.org is not anti-nanotechnology. We believe nanotechnology in a people-based society can solve many problems if we stop living like warriors.
Strikeforpeace.org is nonviolent. We believe our servants in Washington should respond to popular demand, and we seek to broaden awareness to foster stronger interaction.
Strikeforpeace.org hopes Americans will recognize the suffering our way of life engenders in the world. The American people did not necessarily choose this way of life and should have the knowledge, the right and the courage to correct it.
If we do not unite to advance peace, we will perish by advancing our war technology. The CampU.S. Campaign focuses attention on statistics revealing America’s disordered priorities in hopes of instigating change. This campaign will not end until America adopts a reasonable defense and declares an end to the age of war for profit and the beginning of an age of prosperity for all.
Brian Bogart
Graduate student