There's some interesting talk stirring about how it may be necessary to cut defense expenditures to decrease the deficit. Even though the $533 billion budget is the elephant in the room and the $200,000 spent every minute on the endless war on terror is the gushing, bleeding wound of America, this has been the taboo secret, the idolatrous sacred cow. But folks are beginning to whisper.
Maybe people have grown tired of militarism and war. After all, war hasn't gotten the best press over the past few years. Maybe the recession has created a desperation that has led us to rethink the status quo, where nearly half of every tax dollar goes to militarism. Maybe we are starting to realize if we don't stop spending all our money on a defense shield soon we won't have much left to need to defend. Or maybe it's all the above, the perfect storm for peace.
As a Christian, I am convinced in the power of non-violence by the greatest nonviolent act in human history: Jesus dying on the cross, even for his enemies. You'd think we Christians would be the hardest folks in the world to convince that violence is necessary, but that hasn't always been the case. In fact, much of the world seems confused by Christians who are so quick to abandon the cross of Christ and pick up the sword of Rome.
I'm reminded of a dinner conversation I had recently with Ben Cohen, founder of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, who has become a friend I deeply admire (and not just because he makes good ice cream). We talked about how this moment in history may very well be perfectly poised for Christians and non-Christians to work together for peace, and to eat some ice cream together with the money we may have spent on guns. And it is Ben who put together one of the coolest demos about the federal budget, using cookies as measuring units to show us how the dollars stack up. Check it out:
Martin Luther King said more than 40 years ago that every time a bomb goes off overseas, we can feel the second impact of that bomb as we watch our schools crumble and our health care system go up in flames. As Dr. King said, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
So let us hold up our glasses of milk and toast to another world -- Christians and non-Christians, Muslims and Jews, all who would rather see ice cream dropped from planes than bombs -- and let us put our hands together and build a world where the schools have enough money and the militaries have to sell cookies for their uniforms.
Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. Ron Paul: Why We Must Reduce Military Spending
Serious Fun: TrueMajorityACTION.org
TrueMajority - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
YouTube - Ben Cohen Explains the Federal Budget
Ben and Jerry's Co-Founder Ben Cohen Protests Pentagon Budget
Bryan Bissell: Ben and Jerry's Co-Founder Serves Up Call to ...
The TH Interview: Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's : TreeHugger
You Have the Power and Responsibility to Build a Better World, Ben ...
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. -- Ike
Let's look at Wal-Mart. It goes to a vendor of shoelaces and says, "Hey there, we're going to buy 100 million cases of your shoelaces and we're going to pay 10 cents each." The vendor usually sells for 20 cents each, but since Wal-Mart is buying 100 million cases, it means big profit for the shoelace company so they go with it. Wal-Mart sells the shoestrings for 20 cents and they make profit too.
Now the DoD, buys the same 100 million cases of shoestrings, but it's the other way around. The vendor says, "We got 100 million cases at 20 cents," and the invoice is signed and paid.
I think the bulk purchasing power of the DoD should be able to demand deals on the hardware.
DoD to Boewing: "We need 500 F-22's. I know ya'll list them at 2.5 Million each, but we're going to pay 1 million each. What's that you say? Profit? Okay, how bout this, We'll pay 2.5 Million, minus a 1.5 million surcharge for keeping your corporation safe from enemy invasion. Oh, you'll sell to the enemy? Okay, well our friends over at the tarriff department would like to let you know that there is now a 6 million dollar tarriff on sales to that country."
Yeah, I know, free market folks are gonna rail. Free market is tyranny; thank God we've never had it.
Friedrich engels, one of the foudners of the communsit ideology was the son of one of the very few people who had a factory at this time. He saw the exploitation, how the rich were getting richer while the poor were getting poorer.
I think God has an awesome sense of humor. Look at me for God's sake, or the platapus, or that dumb expression we get as we try to tell someone to look out. O.o
If we had world peace, I would give prayers of thanks and ask God to help us maintain it.
Those are my three cents.
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex."
How sad that we as a nation prefer war and therefore our own death.
Just leaving a university where departments have become department, vice president and president and each make 5 time more than the professors do.
I think throwing money is the problem. How long does it take to teach reading, writing and arithmetic. 3 bone head course teach these in 15 credit hours.
Baby sitting, Getto cleaning or preferential treatment and advantage are problems that not an educational problem.
P.S.: Have you thanked a vet or active member today? They do not want your worship, but they might like a "thanks for your service."
I served in the AF and am a Christian and the waste in the DoD surpasses any welfare or entitlement program ever could. Our corporate welfare to defense contractors needs to be brought under control.
If we were to quit being the enforcer the order would unravel and there would be a contest between the nations for a new way to enforce order. Our most feared and favored economic status would disintegrate along with the banking system that favors the U.S. and we would experience an abrupt decline as did the USSR after their losing the cold war.
The supposed lack of money to support the social safety net, education and health care come from our selfishness that spends 100's of billions on entertainments and luxuries while ignoring the basic needs of the poor. It would take a deep commitment on the part of the upper/ruling/leader classes to erase the gross income inequalities both domestic and international.
A lessening of income/power inequality would lessen the need for underclass violence and the counter force of imperialistic armed force worldwide. Only then would it be safe to reduce military spending and economic reliance on arms production in the U.S.