Military Math

Thanks to markfiore.com

Rep. Hilty introduces priorities resolution to Minnesota House of Representatives

On March 21, state representative Bill Hilty (8A) introduced a resolution to the Minnesota House urging the federal government to cut military spending and re-invest the savings into cash-strapped states. House File 1249 calls on President Obama and the Minnesota congressional delegation "to shift federal funding priorities from war and the interests of the few, to meeting the essential needs of us all."

Current MN budget shortfall:

$5,028,000,000

MN taxpayers' projected contribution to the military budget over the next 2 years:
$26,000,000,000

HF1249 is co-authored by Kerry Gauthier, Mary Murphy and Tom Huntley of Duluth, and Range representatives Tom Rukavina and Tom Anzelc. A companion resolution has also been introduced to the Senate.

You can read the full text here.

Please help NAWC build support for HF1249 and educate our community about the cost of war. NAWC would like to bring this resolution to unions, faith communities and other civic groups around our region and ask for their endorsement. If we can come to the next meeting of your organization, please contact Joel at northlandantiwar[AT]gmail[DOT]com, or by phone at 218-340-4356.

Coleen Rowley at St Scholastica 3/22

UPDATE 3/22: Coleen Rowley's lecture has been POSTPONED on account of the blizzard. It has been rescheduled to TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 7:30pm

Tuesday, March 22  April 12

7:30 pm

College of St Scholastica - Mitchell Auditorium

"Obama's Response to Terrorism"

         with Coleen Rowley

Free and open to the public

Sponsored by the Alworth Center 

         for the Study of Peace and Justice

 

Our friend Coleen Rowley is returning to Duluth to give the closing lecture of the Terrorism and Human Rights series at the College of St Scholastica. A retired, 23-year veteran of the FBI, Rowley was honored by TIME Magazine as a Person of the Year in 2002 for blowing the whistle on pre-9/11 intelligence lapses. We don't want to give away her talk, but it's safe to say she'll tear U.S. war policy and intelligence gathering to shreds as anti-democratic and counter-productive. Don't miss her... we're sure you'll learn something new from our favorite agent-turned-activist.

While you're at it, check out these other fine speakers coming to our area:

Thursday, March 17

7:30 pm

College of St Scholastica - Mitchell Auditorium

"Dying to Drive the Foreigners Out"

      with Robert Pape

Dr. Pape is the director of the University of Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism and a leading international authority on the psychology of suicide terrorism. Check out his article "It's the Occupation, Stupid" for Foreign Policy here.

Saturday, March 26

7:00 pm

College of St Scholastica - Burns Wellness Center 249

"The Perils of Military Presence in Our Urban Communities"

      with Art Laffin

Art Laffin is an author, longtime peace activist and member of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Community in Washington, DC. He has participated in numerous nonviolent actions for disarmament and upholding the rights of the homeless, prisoners, immigrants and victims of torture. Sponsored by the Duluth chapter of Pax Christi - the international Catholic peace movement. Free and open to the public.

Cravaack defends NASCAR, defunds peace

On Friday, the House of Representatives passed a temporary government funding bill that included massive cuts to social security, heating and food assistance, infrastructure, environmental protection and non-military foreign aid. But is this really about fiscal restraint in the face of a growing deficit and debt? Consider the antics of Duluth's new Tea Party-backed representative, Chip Cravaack:

Cravaack's contribution to the bill was a amendment to strip all federal support for the U.S. Institute for Peace (USIP). The Reagan-era program is tasked with promoting global conflict resolution. Gutting it would "save taxpayers $42 million," Cravaack touted on his website. (For the record, $42 million is roughly .005% of the Pentagon's annual budget). The measure passed.

But when Cravaack had the opportunity to "save taxpayers" a similar amount of cash by supporting fellow Minnesota Representative Betty McCollum's amendment to stop U.S. military sponsorship of NASCAR, Cravaack all of a sudden got less stingy. Arguing that NASCAR sponsorship was in important recruiting tool, Cravaack, along with the House majority, voted no. 

But even when his Tea Party colleagues bucked Speaker Boehner and cut $450 million in funding for a second F-35 engine that the Pentagon didn't want (but happened to be made in Boehner's district by his buddies GE and Rolls Royce), Cravaack again showed his knee-jerk support for all things military and voted to protect Boehner's earmark. 

Cravaack's public statements would make it seem like he cares about balancing the federal budget. But his votes to date show a disturbing trend to oppose any funding for programs he ideologically opposes, while lavishly showering arms merchants with hundreds of millions of dollars in handouts. And sadly he has a lot of company on the Hill. The vote on the F-35 engine was a rare victory for common sense: both Obama and House Republican budget bills actually increase military spending while decimating or outright eliminating programs that millions of people depend on. The current budget "debate" between pro-war Democrats and the Tea Party are a ruse. Until people power changes the tide, we'll continue to see resources shifted from common good toward corporate profits and war.

Contact Rep. Chip Cravaack

Take action: Congress to vote on Pentagon cuts

Within a few weeks Congress must pass what's called a continuing resolution to fund the federal government. If the legislation fails, government will shut down. House Republicans are using this opportunity to push drastic cuts to domestic programs and non-military international relations. Alarmingly, their plans include an increase in military spending. This is only a more draconian version of the budget plan put forward by President Obama in his State of the Union address, in which he called for a 5-year freeze on domestic spending even as his administration put forward the largest military budget in history.

This week, Representative Pete Stark (CA) will introduce an amendment to the continuing resolution that would insist that the Pentagon budget be put on the table. Your Congressman needs to know that you support reining in military spending. If you live in Duluth/NE Minnesota, your representative is Chip Cravaack. If you live in Superior or NW Wisconsin, your representative is Sean Duffy. Urge him to support Rep. Pete Stark's amendment to the continuing resolution requiring immediate cuts in the Pentagon budget.


For more information about the amendment, including a list of 10 reasons why military spending should be dramatically reduced, visit Friends Committee on National Legislation.

A gift from the U.S. to the Egyptian police state

As popular uprisings sweep North Africa and the Middle East, new light is being shed on the U.S. government's role in propping up regional dictators and proliferating weapons around the globe. Egypt in particular has benefited from Washington's war chest, receiving an average of $1.3 billion in military aid every year. That's more than $50 billion since Hosni Mubarak came to power. All the while, State Department officials in Egypt were sending home regular reports that Egyptian security forces routinely tortured members of the political opposition and media, as Wikileaks revealed today.

Congressmen Chip Cravaack and Sean Duffy have called for deep cuts to domestic spending in order to balance the federal budget. Perhaps they should be asking themselves what the people of Egypt are asking today: Why is there always enough money for guns, but never enough for butter?

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr Day

(Left: King and Dr Benjamin Spock lead an anti-war march on the UN in 1967).

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood

---------------------------------------Martin Luther King, Jr
April 4, 1967 in a speech to Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam
Read the entire speech here.

Pentagon budget cuts? Don't believe it!

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently announced plans to trim $78 billion from the Pentagon budget. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives increased the Pentagon's budget to a whopping $725 Billion for 2011! What gives?!?

Here's the scoop: US military spending has surged every year since 2001, including a 65% growth to the Pentagon base budget and more than $1 trillion in additional funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The "cuts" we're hearing about represent a modest slow-down to this trend over a 5-year period. Instead of enjoying a 10% increase to its budget next year, the Pentagon will have to make do with a 3% pay raise. But make no mistake: military spending is going up, not down -- even as spending on roads, schools and other programs that benefit our communities is frozen or slashed.

Take action:

Newly-elected Congressmen Sean Duffy (WI-7) and Chip Cravaack (MN-8) gave a joint press conference in Duluth on November 30th, during which they repeatedly called for cuts to "non-defense" discretionary spending. In other words, they want to balance the war budget on our backs.

Call or write your Congressman today. Tell him to balance the budget by cutting war.

If you live in NE Minnesota, contact:
Congressman Chip Cravaack
6448 Main Street, Suite 6
North Branch, MN 55056
888-563-7390

If you live in NW Wisconsin, contact:
Congressman Sean Duffy
208 Grand Ave
Wausau, WI 54403
715-842-5606

Duluth Antiwar Protest - OCTOBER 11

PROTEST THE ONGOING WARS! Bring the Troops & War Dollars Home NOW! Money for Jobs & Education - Not War & Occupation!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 5-7PM

-Part 1: A "Books Not Bombs" picket from 5-6pm in front of the Old Duluth Central High School at Lake Ave. & 2nd Street. After which we'll march to City Hall.

-Part 2: From 6:15 - 7pm we'll hold a rally on the steps of City Hall. There'll be an antiwar poetry reading, and a skit titled "War Pigs" which will feature war profiteers & Uncle Sam attempting to auction off City Hall and gut social programs to pay for their unjust wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You're invited to join us in a protest against the ongoing wars, and the costs that our local communities are paying for it. While so many are loosing their homes and jobs, and government programs are being cut to the bone, Wall Street and Washington continue to wage these bloody, unjust and unjustified wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are holding this protest on the steps of City Hall on the same evening as a City Council meeting to highlight just how much our communities are paying for this war - in terms of lives and dollars. Enough is enough! Join us in raising our voices for peace! Everyone is welcome, and encouraged to attend!

> Sponsored by the Northland Anti-War Coalition and endorsed by UMD Students for Peace, CSS Center for Just Living, Lake Superior Greens, Socialist Action, Grandmothers for Peace and others TBA.

Report on the Tax Day Anti-War Protest

by Adam Ritscher

"Bring our war dollars home!" was the message of more than 120 people who participated in the Northland Anti-War Coalition's April 15 Tax Day protest. The event was held to highlight the fact that hundreds of billions of dollars of our tax dollars are being wasted every year on the unjust wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. At the same time this is going on federal, state and local governments are being forced to cut social programs due to budget shortfalls. The NAWC protest called for our tax dollars to be spent on human needs, rather than war.

The protesters who attended represented a broad swath of people - young and old, Black and white, white collar and blue collar workers. And in addition to the Northland Anti-War Coalition, a number of other local groups endorsed the protest and participated in it, including the Duluth AFL-CIO Central Labor Body.

The event began at 4:30pm with a rally at the MN Power Plaza. There were three powerful speakers at the rally - former Wisconsin State Assemblyman Frank Boyle, community activist Brandon Clokey, and FBI whistle blower Coleen Rowley. Singer and song writer Rachael Kilgour shared several songs, and student activists Margaret Nelson and Steve Wick were the co-chairs.


After the rally, the protesters set off on a long march through downtown over to the Bayfront Park - where a Tea Party rally was being held at the same time. Protesters held a 50 foot banner that illustrated the portion of tax dollars that goes to the military, and handed out fliers to the folks attending the Tea Party event. From the Bayfront Park the march continued on through Canal Park, and then back to the MN Power Plaza.

Other coverage of the rally:

• Dueling Duluth rallies target taxes -- Duluth News-Tribune
• Anti-war rally protests war spending on tax day -- Fox21
• War Protesters: Bring the money home! -- DNT and MichaelMoore.com
• Report on the Tax Day Anti-War Protest -- Perfect Duluth Day
• A common call from a divided nation: we can't afford war -- DNT

Also, following the protest, at 7:30pm, Coleen Rowley gave a presentation up at the University of MN-Duluth about her role as a whistle blower in the FBI who spoke out against torture and the invasion of Iraq. Thirty five people attended this event.

This Tax Day protest was the culmination of a Spring campaign by the Northland Anti-War Coalition to speak out against military spending. Each Wednesday at noon, for the past several weeks, vigils were held in front Congressman Oberstar and Senator Franken's offices, and activists delivered letters and petitions from local activists and organizations on the issue.

Thanks to everyone who participated in these events for helping to keep the issue of the war front and center. Special thanks to all of our speakers, co-chairs and to Rachael. Also, special thanks to Josie Johnson for leading the chants during the march, to Bob Kosuth for leading the collection, to Mike Solon for the sound system, and to Joel Kilgour and Adeline Wright for making the 50 foot banner (and for the 101 other things that Joel did for the protest!). We have a lot of wondering people in this area who have done a lot to keep the local anti-war movement alive and kicking! But the struggle continues, so I hope to see you all at the next NAWC planning meeting, which will be on Sunday, May 9 at 2pm at the Duluth Unitarian-Universalist Congregation. I hope to see you there!

Labor says Bring Our War Dollars Home

Knowing that out-of-control military spending bankrupts our communities and kills jobs, delegates to the Duluth AFL-CIO Central Labor Body voted unanimously yesterday to endorse NAWC's tax day march and rally.

DCLB president Dan O'Neill and delegates from across the trades will be marching with us on Thursday. Will you?

BRING OUR WAR DOLLARS HOME
Thursday, April 15, 4:30pm
Gather at the MN Power Plaza
(Lake Ave & Superior St, Duluth)
Featuring FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley; Duluth Fathering Project's Brandon Clokey; singer-songwriter Rachael Kilgour and former WI State Assemblyman Frank Boyle

Join us and help NAWC and the DCLB bring a strong, progressive message to Congress and our neighbors on tax day:

YES to jobs, YES to education, YES to health care, NO to war.

Franken needs to hear from you!

Yesterday, 50 "Minnesotans for Peace" visited the St Paul offices of Senator Al Franken to ask him to vote NO on the new war supplemental. Franken's staff were courteous, and Franken himself called to speak with the activists. But his answer was disheartening: he supports the escalation of war in Afghanistan and Pakistan and plans to vote YES on the supplemental.

In the end, 6 people were arrested for peacefully refusing to leave his office, including Vicki Andrews of Grand Rapids.



"The common people," reflects Coleen Rowley after the meeting, "seem to be the only ones who remember Vietnam and know the awful truth of being in an 'unwinnable' quagmire."

But we don't have to give up. With a little people power, we can get our representatives on the right track and defeat this war bill. In the coming week, please take a moment to call the offices of your representative and senators. Be polite, and ask the person answering the phone to send a message to their boss to vote NO on the $33 billion war supplemental. Remind them:

--- $708 billion of our tax dollars are already going to the Pentagon in 2011. This is more than enough to keep our nation safe;

--- On the campaign trail, Obama pledged to end the practice of "back-door" war funding. After Congress passed his 2009 back-door war funding package, Obama swore it would be his last. Congress should hold him to it;

--- Our communities and families are suffering the effects of budget cuts and joblessness. We need this money at home, not buried in endless wars.

MINNESOTA
Representative James Oberstar (CD8)
(218) 727-7474

Senator Al Franken
(218) 722-2390

Senator Amy Klobuchar
202-224-3244

WISCONSIN
Representative Dave Obey (CD7)
(715) 398-4426

Senator Herb Kohl
202-224-5653

Senator Russ Feingold
202-224-5323

TIME Person of the Year headlines tax day rally

NAWC is honored to host FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley as the keynote speaker for our April 15 rally in Duluth.

Coleen Rowley worked with the FBI for more than two decades, assuming the position of Chief Division Counsel for the Minneapolis Division in 1990. In 2002, she blew the whistle on pre-9/11 intelligence lapses, sparking a 2-year Department of Justice investigation of the agency and propelling Rowley to the cover of TIME magazine. You might also remember her as the agent who rankled the Bush Administration in 2003 by repeatedly warning of the dangers of invading Iraq.

Rowley retired from the FBI in 2004, but continues to speak out for transparent and ethical government. On April 15, you'll have two chances to hear her in Duluth. She'll be the keynote speaker at our Bring our War Dollars Home rally, starting at 4:30 pm at the Minnesota Power Plaza in downtown Duluth. Later that evening, she'll give a more in-depth talk on Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense: Restoring America's Promise at Home and Abroad at 7:30 pm in room 120 of the UMD Solon Campus Center ("the Wedge"). The talk is sponsored by NAWC, UMD Students for Peace and the UMD Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

April 15 -- mark your calendars

$33 billion more for war? Don't let it happen!

On or around tax day, Congress will debate yet another "emergency" supplemental appropriation for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That's $33 billion in back-door funding on top of a record-breaking $708 billion general budget for the Department of Defense in 2011. If you include non-DoD military programs and interest on war debt, US military spending could hit $1.4 trillion next year -- half of the discretionary budget.

The consequences of endless war are all around us: bankrupt local governments, pared down public services, and decaying infrastructure. In the past decade, our national war addiction has cost more than Bush's tax cuts and corporate bailouts COMBINED.

Last year's war supplemental was nearly defeated in Congress -- that is, until the White House pressured Jim Oberstar and other anti-war Democrats to flip their votes. Let's make sure this doesn't happen again. Please contact your representative TODAY. Remind her that a bloated war budget takes money away from public infrastructure, health care, education and job creation. Ask her to go on record opposing any new war supplemental.

MINNESOTA
Representative James Oberstar (CD8)
(218) 727-7474

Senator Al Franken
(218) 722-2390

Senator Amy Klobuchar
202-224-3244

WISCONSIN
Representative Dave Obey (CD7)
(715) 398-4426

Senator Herb Kohl
202-224-5653

Senator Russ Feingold
202-224-5323

After you've made the call, hit the streets! NAWC will be holding weekly "Jobs not War" pickets at the Duluth Federal Building every Wednesday from now until tax day. Join us on March 24, March 31, April 7, or April 14 from noon to 1pm. Or, if you live in Wisconsin, join Peace North at a "Healthcare not Warfare" vigil in front of Congressman Obey's office (1401 Tower Ave, Superior) on April 21, 12 noon to 1pm.

And mark your calendars now for NAWC's Tax Day march and rally. It starts at 4:30pm on Thursday, April 15 at Lake Ave and Superior St in Duluth. The theme is "Bring Our War Dollars Home," and will feature FBI whistle-blower and 2002 Time magazine Person of the Year Coleen Rowley.

Report on the Feb. 17 Picket at Congressman Obey's Office

On Wednesday, February 17, a group of about 20 concerned citizens gathered in front of Congressman Dave Obey's office in Superior. The protesters came from Trego, Shell Lake, Spooner, Hayward, Duluth and Superior, and half a dozen came from the University of WI-Superior. After holding signs along Tower Ave. from noon to 1pm, the group went up to Obey's office, and left a letter, signed by the whole group, expressing their opposition to the ongoing funding of the two wars.

The picket was part of a national campaign to protest in front of Congressional offices on the 3rd Wednesday of every month. It's main sponsors were Peace North and the Progressive Democrats of America. The next picket will be on the 3rd Wednesday of March, same time and place.

Where Have All the Billions Gone?

By Bob Kosuth

The public is justifiably angry about the hundreds and hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars that have gone to bail out the big bankers. Compared to them, honest working people got very little in the way of stimulus dollars to create jobs. Few Americans, however, pay attention to the $700 billion that was recently passed by President Obama and the Congress for current wars and other military spending. More important, this kind of money is being spent every year. That's nearly $2 billion per day and that's a lot of money. Do the math. If your full-time job was to spend $10,000 per day, it would take you 274 years to spend a billion dollars. The military machine does it in a single day, every day.

We often hear that no price is too high to pay for "national defense" but if the US spent this kind of cash to create jobs and improve the livelihood of people at home and abroad, we'd be better off here and we'd have far fewer enemies and lots more friends. Someone might say that a military career is a great opportunity, especially for minorities. Well, I remember when my plane full of draftees took off from Chicago to Fort Polk LA in 1971. It was largely full of inner city Blacks and they were on that plane not because they were particularly patriotic but because like me they had no other options.

Unfortunately, elections don't change much when it comes to military spending and war making. That's something we've learned in the past year. Bush is gone but we still have Bush's wars. The Northland Anti-War Coalition is still around too. Check us out at northlandantiwar.blogspot.com and look at our ad in this issue. Please join us to stop these wars and build a better democracy.

This article above was submitted to the Hillsider newspaper. Be sure to pick up the March issue of the Hillsider to see the NAWC ad inside!

Twin Ports Anti-War Protest THIS SATURDAY!

October 17 Duluth Anti-War March & Rally
NATIONAL DAY OF LOCAL ACTIONS TO END THE WARS

Saturday, October 17 is a national day of local actions against the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Around the country over 40 cities and towns will be holding protests, among them will be Duluth, Minnesota.

To give local citizens an opportunity to demonstrate their opposition to the ongoing wars this country is waging, we'll be holding a march and rally in downtown Duluth starting at noon. We'll be assembling at the Clayton, Jackson & McGhie Memorial at the corner of 2nd Ave. E. & E. 1st Street. From there we'll march to the Duluth Federal Building.

The theme of the protest is FUND HUMAN NEEDS: MAKE JOBS NOT WAR! The speakers will be talking about where we should be spending our tax dollars, as opposed to war and occupation.

Among the speakers at the rally will be Eric Blomstrom from Community Action Duluth, Scott Yeazle of the Twin Ports Action Coalition, Kathy Anderson of the Northland Anti-War Coalition, Rev.Cathy Schuyler of the Duluth Congregational Church and CHUM, Todd Erickson of Workers United Local 99, health care activist Charles Gessert and a spokesperson for the group Earth Action of the College of St. Scholastica. Ellie Connolly will be the MC and Peter Provost of the band Clear will be sharing some songs.

This event is being organized by the Northland Anti-War Coalition, and is endorsed date by the Duluth Central Labor Body, Veterans for Peace, Women in Black, Peace North, the Duluth Area Green Party, Grandmothers for Peace, Socialist Action, Lake Superior Greens, Duluth Unitarian-Universalist Peace & Justice Committee, UMD Students for Peace, CSS Center for Just Living, Twin Ports Action Coalition, Workers United Local 99, CSS Earth Action, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, Rice Lake People for Peace, the Nortland Center for Art & Ecopsychology and a host of individual activists and concerned citizens!

We Can’t Afford Health Care? You Lie!

by Tom H. Hastings

We see the spectacle of the US Congress unable to manage decent health care reform that will actually enable the American citizenry to join the rest of the industrialized world in having health care for all. The problems, it is clear, come from those who are lying.

why spend $16.5 billion just on the Department of Energy nuclear weapons budget for FY 2010 with 50 million uninsured citizens?

Death panels? That’s true—we already have them. Insurance companies deny care to Americans who then die as a result. It happens every day, Sarah Palin—but ascribing that to the Obama plan is untrue. In fact, those corporate death panels would be outlawed.

Find the language in Obama’s bill that says that illegal aliens are covered or admit it’s a canard—God forbid we should help some migrant worker who is stricken by illness or accident while laboring in service to Americans. South Carolina’s Joe Wilson is just the Tourette tip of a dissembling iceberg.

We can’t afford the plan? That is a whopper. It’s all choice.

If every child in America doesn’t have health care but we own more than 6,000 nuclear weapons, more than half of them on board a fleet of 18 extremely expensive Trident submarines ready to fight the Soviets (hey! Where’d they go?), isn’t it time to ask some fundamental questions? One is: why spend $16.5 billion just on the Department of Energy nuclear weapons budget for FY 2010 with 50 million uninsured citizens? Does US Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) speak for us all when he calls health care a privilege (and presumably threatening life on Earth is a human right for the US military)?

When our working poor are so often without either the money to pay for health insurance or the high costs of health care for ailing family members and yet we somehow manage to justify spending in excess of $915 billion on the so-called War on Terror, shouldn’t we engage in some national discussion about priorities?

$1 trillion for war while unemployment pushes 10 percent in more and more states is unconscionable. Unemployment means a loss of health care for a high percentage of those who lose jobs and more foreclosures on the American dream of home ownership every month. Historically, it naturally correlates with increases in crime. The US is the last of the so-called developed countries to fail to insure the unemployed and underemployed, and we have the highest crime rates. So many thousands of us are shot each year that we more than qualify to be considered at war inside our own borders. Much of that carnage relates to social problems like unemployment, lack of health care and simple hopelessness.

Does it not seem that when the US can afford and not question nearly 1,000 military bases on other people’s sovereign soil—287 of them in Germany alone—that we can afford to create jobs? Rather than have our young people learning how to hurt others in the military, we could end economic conscription, lower the crime rate, drastically reduce the numbers of uninsured, reverse the home foreclosure numbers and enhance our nation’s productivity by offering minimum wage jobs to anyone willing to work. Those jobs would include housing in some cases, health care benefits in all cases, and on-the-job training and supplementary education for those needing it. Closing foreign military bases until these programs were paid for would be a giant leap for the US back toward the health of our workforce, our economy, our educational system and our very citizenry.

No one is talking about this? True. So it’s time to start.

Tom H. Hastings used to live in the north country of Wisconsin and coordinate the Peace, Conflict and Global Studies program at Northland College. He's currently a core faculty in the Portland State University Conflict Resolution graduate program. This essay was originally published in the Huffington Post on September 12, 2009

Where has all the money gone?

national priorities project

This is on top of the more than half trillion doled out to the Pentagon each and every year! Check out the National Priorities Project to see just how much of our national wealth is spent on war.