Let’s declare war on war
We should invest in making lives better, not in becoming more mighty
To commemorate the ending of the horrible World War of 1914-1918, it was declared that Armistice Day would be observed each year on Nov. 11, the date on which the treaty ending the war was signed.
Twenty million people died in that war, and 21 million were wounded, my father among them. He fought to defend his German fatherland, while my husband’s father fought in the U.S. army to destroy the German Empire. They never met, but they now share my living room wall in their respective World War I uniforms.
That “war to end all wars” was followed by many more wars. Armistice Day has become Veterans Day, to honor those who have fought for our country. Unfortunately, it also has morphed into a glorification of war, with lots of monuments to wars. To my knowledge, Hiroshima has the only monumentto peace.
In the United States, we have been able to keep our wars off our soil. We don’t think much about war, even though we have been at war almost constantly since the end of World War II — in Korea and Vietnam, in Afghanistan now for 16 years, in Iraq, in Bosnia, in Libya, plus other places, some we know about and some we don’t. Even tiny Grenada.
The United States maintains 800 military bases in 70 countries; 1.3 million U.S. troops are currently in uniform, of which 450,000 are overseas.
We, the people, have no clue as to how much we spend on war — in addition to the toll in lives ended or forever debilitated.
Forty-eight percent of the discretionary federal budget goes to the military — including for wars past and present — at the expense of things that actually would make Americans’ lives better, such as education, housing, health care, public transit, clean air and water, and a safety net for the needy. The $7,700 cost per taxpayer mentioned in a recent article in the Post Gazette is just the tip of the iceberg.
We spend more than the next 20 countries combined on our “defense.” Three percent of what the United States spends on the military could end starvation around the world. President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower pointed out that every bomb we build takes food out of the mouth of a hungry child.
Some people in our country clamor for war. Some profit from war. Military spending is suffused throughout our economy, from university professors, including at Carnegie Mellon University, who get contracts to develop more efficient ways to kill people, to the steel and other industries for the manufacture of weapons, to the garment industry that makes clothes for soldiers, to the construction companies that rebuild things destroyed by our bombs. Eisenhower also warned us against the power of the military-industrial complex.
Countries such as Germany, Sweden, Norway, Japan and many others spend just enough on the military to defend themselves, and they can afford free university education, fast and safe trains, and health care for all. America’s roads and bridges are crumbling. One in five miles of our roads needs repair.
We are mistaken in thinking the United States is No. 1 anymore. According to businessinsider.com, the United States ranks No. 19 in overall standard of living among the countries of the world. Our huge economy does not translate into prosperity for many of our citizens.
Just to name a few benefits that would result from changing our priorities: We could provide more affordable education that would give more people a chance for a better life, with higher earnings, and would help keep many Americans out of trouble and out of jail.
Additional investment in environmental protection and conservation would make us healthier and save us money on health care.
Better roads would save us a lot of money for gasoline and auto repairs while improving the efficiency of our economy.
Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. 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.”
We live in fear that “others” will come and destroy our way of life. As a result, the United States pulls back from the world as many other countries join hands to make the world safer and better. Ours is now the only country that does not support the Paris climate agreement.
As members of the United Nations work to ban nuclear weapons — much as chemical weapons and landmines already have been banned — the United States adds to its nuclear arsenal and boycotts the treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons, which, as of July, had been signed by 50 U.N. member nations. The United States is one of five countries voting against a resolution to keep weapons out of space.
Our adoration of violence and the military might costs us dearly. It is time for our country to join with other nations to create a world beyond wars.
“You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake,” said Jeannette Rankin, a Republican member of Congress from Montana who served from 1917 to 1919 and again from 1941 to 1943. Rankin was the only representative to vote against U.S. entry into both World War I and World War II.