The US government spend over $100 billion annually on fighting terrorism – God, I wish I could be Dr. Phil just for one day and ask them the question: ‘Well, and how's that working for you?’
All I can see as a result of this 'War on Terror', is that terrorists are getting angrier and angrier at the US, at the Western World, and are thus becoming more inclined to extremist actions.
In the Vietnam days we used to say that Fighting for Peace was like F**king for Virginity...
There is a simple solution... I got the idea from Lebbis, a dutch stand-up comedian. He said that all the next president of the US has to do, is simply end this War on Terror... And spend those $100 billion (in smaller portions of - let's say - $2 billion a week), on resolving the true global issues.
The first week, we could spend $2 billion and give free medication to all HIV patients in Africa. And the next week another $2 billion might be spent on ending the troubles in Darfur, and the week after that we could end certain forms of female cancer, one week later we could put an end to famine in some parts of the world, etc.
That way, most of the world’s serious problems could be solved within 50 weeks! No more reasons for anyone to become a terrorist, and everybody in the world would LOVE the US.
Not a bad idea, I think.
Some may believe that this would not work, because it would be doubtful if that money would be truly spent where needed. You may recall American food donations to the African famine that never reached the needy because the rebels stole the supplies for their warring causes. Well... then let's just spend another 2 billion on making sure the money always goes where it's needed.
Wouldn't that be better than blowing $100 billion away in trying to ‘shock and awe’ an enemy that we are potentially creating ourselves?
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Fighting for Peace
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3 Comments:
You make some great points! It is too bad that the government spends so much money fighting terrorism with guns. It would be so much more effective to fight it with kindness and create a new image of our country.
Although this sounds fine and dandy, and I would love to see things like this happen rather than a fight for oil. I do not think that throwing money at these problems would solve them. The government is still a huge bureaucracy and will probably spend the 2 billion on trying to spend it one helping the world. But I do agree with you entirely, we are wasting time, resources, and lives just to give Bush a smile. There needs to be something done about the war.
Way back in 2003 Robert Jensen
(School of Journalism, University of Texas) 'Why we keep fighting for Peace' wrote
"So we need to keep fighting. In the short term our goal is to limit the damage of this war. In the long term we must fight to derail the Bush plan for global and domestic domination based on the rule of force. That is not hysterical JUST rhetoric. The administration’s national security strategy documents make it clear that the goal is to make sure nothing -- no nation, alliance nor international institution -- can challenge U.S. power.
We cannot allow policymakers to pursue these mad dreams of unchecked power. If we stay committed to a global movement for peace and justice, another world is possible -- one based on human needs not corporate greed, on people not profits, on justice not power.
The choice is clear. The war has come and the immediate battle is lost, but there is still a world to win."
and sadly this is still so true today
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