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ENDING U.S. WARS
by Honoring
Americans Who Work for Peace
Michael D. Knox, PhD
www.USPeaceMemorial.org/Book.htm
Introduction
I travel frequently and have
seen the many monuments to soldiers and to wars that occupy our city squares
and parks. In the summer of 2005 my son James and I
visited Washington, DC, after he finished his first year of college. We made
the standard tour of the city, visiting museums, the White House, the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the newly dedicated
World War II Memorial. These memorials exist to reinforce the notion that war
efforts or activities are highly valued by our society. In this and other
visits to the National Mall, I encountered dozens of war veterans discussing
their experiences with their children, grandchildren, and other relatives and
friends. I imagine that most of the listeners are proud of the speaker’s
military record and some view the war veteran as a role model.
Suddenly, with my son present,
I realized that all of my own personal memories and stories in this realm were
of antiwar activities. I was immediately struck by the fact that there are no
national monuments here to convey a message that our society also values peace
and recognizes those who took action to oppose one or more U.S. wars. There is
no public validation of antiwar activities and no memorial to serve as a
catalyst for discussion regarding courageous peace efforts by Americans over
the past centuries. This realization led to the organization of the US Peace
Memorial Foundation in 2005 and my retirement in 2011 so that I could devote
the remainder of my life to creating this monument to peacemakers, initially
online and later as a physical structure in our nation’s capital.
It is time to dedicate a
national monument to peace and those who work for it. Our society should be as
proud of those who strive for alternatives to war that save innocent lives as
it is of those who fight wars and often take innocent lives. Demonstrating this
national pride in peacemakers in some tangible way may encourage others to
explore peace advocacy during times when only the voices of war are being
heard. By presenting the antiwar sentiments of many American leaders—views that
history has often ignored—and by documenting contemporary U.S. peace activism,
the US Peace Memorial will send a clear message to our citizens that advocating
for peaceful solutions to international problems and opposing war are honorable
and socially acceptable activities in our democracy.
War is part of our culture.
Because war has historically featured both personal and collective acts of
valor and sacrifice amidst hellish violence and tragedy, it is understandable
that memorials are erected to acknowledge war’s momentous impacts and honor the
participants’ dedication to causes that were deemed to be in our national
interests. In this sense, war memorials honor the ultimate inability to resolve
conflict and differences through nonviolent means. These memorials recognize
the horrific, deadly, and sometimes heroic results of that failure, results
that are starkly tangible.
By contrast, Americans who
oppose war(s) and who advocate instead for alternate, nonviolent solutions to
conflict help to prevent or end wars. They engage in prevention of war and
create life-saving results that gain little public attention. Unlike wars,
successful peace actions do not create the kind of visceral and emotional
foundation on which war memorials are instinctively built. A similar dynamic
happens in healthcare where disease prevention (which saves many more lives) is
poorly funded and often unrecognized, whereas medicine and surgery that have a
tangible life-saving impact on people and their families is gratefully
acknowledged and well- funded.
Fortunately, the horror and
tragedy that mark war are not usually components of working for peace. Yet like
war, peace advocacy does include dedication to cause, bravery, serving
honorably, and making personal sacrifices, such as being shunned and vilified,
losing friends, a job or promotion, putting oneself on the line in communities
and in society, and even being arrested and jailed for antiwar actions. The
honor that antiwar activists merit is long overdue. So
too is a healthy respect for the cause of peacemaking.
In April 1967, Martin Luther
King Jr. condemned U.S. militarism, referring to “a society gone mad on war.”
He labeled the U.S. government as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the
world today.” Nothing has changed since then, except
for the focus of our unbridled and incessant aggression. We continue to unleash
the horror of our war-making toward persons living in devastating poverty in
other parts of the world.
The need to end our culture of
war is more urgent than ever. In 2019 the U.S. unilaterally pulled out of the
historic Iran nuclear deal and Congress passed the largest war budget ever in
the history of United States, giving
the military $738 billion for the 2020 fiscal year. That’s over $84 million an
hour for war. And, this figure may be grossly
inaccurate. At $1.21 trillion, the actual national
security budget is much larger than what the Pentagon reports.2 Also consider the costs associated with
C.I.A. clandestine wars— expenditures that are kept secret from the American
people.
We saw the release of the
Afghanistan Papers,3 which make it clear how much our
government lies to us, just as it did when we waged war against the people of
Vietnam. A December 2019 State Department report4 found that the
U.S. is responsible for 79 percent of the global arms trade, or an average of $143
billion annually, with the United States exporting four times more arms around
the globe than the next nine countries combined. As 2019 ended, President
Donald Trump signed a bill establishing the United States Space Force as the
sixth branch of the military. During the signing ceremony he said, “Space is
the world’s newest war-fighting domain.” As 2020 began, the president brought
the nation to the brink of war with Iran, a country that we have attempted to
dominate during most of my lifetime.
After decades of creating
police officers and departments with a war mentality, rather than a guardian
mentality, the murder of George Floyd ignited months of nationwide
demonstrations. The military was brought in and used against our own citizens
as they protested widespread police brutality against black people. Today we
continue to kill, maim, and make refugees of innocent impoverished people in
Africa and the Middle East, to take hostile actions against Latin American
countries, and to threaten Iran, China, North Korea, and Russia.
The inadequacies of our
healthcare and public health systems and the persistent shortages of equipment,
supplies, hospital beds, and timely testing during the COVID-19 pandemic
underscore the fact that military related activities are the highest priority
of our government. That’s where the tax dollars go and that’s where the
resources are; spread around the world to intimidate and do harm, rather than
good. It’s interesting to note a recent observation by Jimmy Carter: “China has
not wasted a single penny on war, and that’s why they’re ahead of us. In almost
every way.”
In July 2020 Democrats and
Republicans worked together to defeat a bill that would have cut the Pentagon
budget by ten percent ($74 billion) and redistributed the money to fund much
needed domestic programs. The nation’s priorities are clear.
In a culture that funds and
esteems war-making, the overdue respect for peacemaking must be taught and
modeled. A national monument to peacemakers can help do that. The US Peace
Memorial can change our cultural mindset so that it will no longer be
acceptable to label those who speak out against a U.S. war as un-American,
anti-military, disloyal, or unpatriotic. Rather, they will be recognized for
their dedication to a noble cause.
The US Peace Memorial
Foundation is providing education about living peace activists and thoughts
about our nation’s long history of brave citizens and leaders who have actively
opposed U.S. wars. The memorial will help decrease the social barriers that
Americans must overcome before they publicly oppose a war. Active public
opposition to war is crucial to world peace and to ending U.S. war and
militarism. If we as Americans don’t end it, other countries might take action.
The results of another world war, with current technology, are unthinkable.
It has been seventy-five years
since the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Japan. On August 9, 2015, during a
ceremony to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki,
the Foundation awarded the US Peace Prize to the Honorable Kathy Kelly. The
event was held on the stage at Ashley Pond, Los Alamos, New Mexico. This is the
place, geographically, where the first atom bombs were constructed.
As I prepared my remarks for
the award presentation, I realized a personal connection that had never
registered before. On August 9, 1945 our military bombed Nagasaki. Exactly nine
months later, on May 9, 1946, I was born. I have tried to imagine how my
parents, stationed at an Army Air Force base in Texas on that day, must have
felt. Perhaps there was real hope for peace; time to get on with their lives,
start a family, and conceive their first child.
Unfortunately, peace was not
the direction the U.S. chose to take after World War II. I say chose,
because war is not a natural phenomenon like a hurricane or pandemic—it is
aberrant human behavior. It requires thought, planning, public support,
resource allocation, training, and implementation. If people refuse to support,
fund, kill, or participate in the process at any level, there can be no war. We
have an obligation to change the course that our country has chosen to take
during much of its existence. We need to take responsibility, reset, and have a
fresh start. I hope that this book will contribute to the discussion.
If you want world peace, your
first obligation should be to demand that your own country stop destabilizing,
invading, occupying, and bombing other countries. As you will read, there are
many peaceful alternatives to aggression, and we must be willing to advocate
for them. You will learn about the actions of courageous Americans who have
spoken out publicly against war and worked for peace. Follow their lead and
example. Significant contributions to peace on earth are within our power.
We
hope that you will join us as a Founding
Member. Founding Members of
the US
Peace Memorial Foundation
are listed on our website, in my book ENDING U.S. WARS by Honoring Americans Who Work for
Peace, and eventually, at the National Monument we will build in
Washington, DC. Please donate or join at paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/1416309 or go to www.USPeaceMemorial.org/Donors.htm for additional details.
US Peace Memorial Foundation is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) public charity.
Donations to the
Foundation are tax deductible to the extent provided by law.
Copyright 2005-2021, US Peace Memorial Foundation,
Inc.