Militaristic McCain

by Tom H. Hastings

500 words

We live in a war system. The inputs into any system help to generate the outcomes and war is an outcome of our system, a war system by any measure. We spend more on the military than anyone—indeed, about the same as all other countries combined. We have more foreign bases than any nation in human history. We export more arms than anyone.

We live in a war culture, with all the ham-handed subtleties that implies. Recruitment billboards with Marines in front of massive rippling U.S. flags litter our view along the highways, upon which some drive the ultimate militaristic fantasy vehicle—the Hummer. No political speech can fail to mention how fabulous our warriors are, and how they represent the best in U.S. values and commitment.

As in any ecological system, all subsystems affect each other—either amplifying the next subsystem or mitigating it.

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Tom H. Hastings (pcwtom@gmail.com) teaches in the MA/MS Conflict Resolution program at Portland State University.

Obsession Smells

by Tom H. Hastings

570 words

Today, everyone who subscribed to or purchased their Sunday Oregonian received, unbidden, a copy of Wayne Kopping’s Obsession: Radical Islam’s war against the West, a packaged DVD that purports to show us the threat of worldwide radical Islam. It is disturbing and contains enough fact and truth to spur a logical and correct rejection of the ghastly beliefs and conduct of radical Islamicists.

Obsession is also connected to both the Israeli intelligence service and Christian evangelicals via Middle East Media Research Institute, according to SourceWatch.org.

Naturally, then, it is an hour of pure propaganda funded in part by the rightwing Olin Foundation for a continued and greater Global War on Terror, the current justification for a military budget that—including all military expenditures, many of which are improperly not counted as military—tops $1 trillion in 2009. With the election coming in a month, can the timing of distribution in the Oregonian be coincidence?

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Tom H. Hastings (pcwtom@gmail.com) teaches in the MA/MS Conflict Resolution program at Portland State University.

Five Threatening Character Flaws of John McCain

by Tom H. Hastings

600 words

There seems to be some confusion amongst the pundits about who ‘won’ the first presidential debate on September 26. Winning a debate was once about demonstrating intellectual command over the facts and logic surrounding an issue. Americans are trained to look past the depth of arguments, however, to the shallow ad hominem jabs, and the talking heads reinforced that once again. So, all right. In an attempt to look toward actual, predictable effects of a McCain victory, we key off the debate to five notches in the key of catastrophe being cut and buffed by McCain.

One: McCain is ossified. Almost before he finished his second sentence, John McCain was saying, ‘Again…,’ as though he had no fresh thoughts beyond his rote response.

Two: McCain is reckless. He tut-tutted Obama about the latter’s measured if militaristic statement that if he were president and received actionable intelligence about bin Laden operating at a specific location in the tribal areas of Northwest Pakistan, he would attack al-Qa’ida. “You don’t say that out loud,” said McCain, as though he would do the same thing, but just make it a surprise to Pakistanis. Obama explained and then noted that it was odd to hear such criticism from someone who sang songs about bombing Iran and discussed the “extinction” of North Korea.… (for your exclusive consideration of the original full text, be the first to contact us: PeaceVoiceDirector@gmail.com)

Tom H. Hastings (pcwtom@gmail.com) teaches in the MA/MS Conflict Resolution program at Portland State University.

Anatomy of the Current Conflict over Iran’s Nuclear Program

(843 words)

By Joseph Gerson

Iran’s nuclear program has a complex history. It began in the 1950s with President Eisenhower’s offer of training and technologies as part of his Atoms for Peace program, when it was widely believed that nuclear power could produce electricity “too cheap to meter.” In 1974, the Shah of Iran stated his belief that Iran’s oil reserves would eventually be depleted, and with German help initiated plans for the construction of the Bushehr nuclear reactor.

Building on the Nixon Doctrine, in which Iran became an enforcer of U.S. interests in the Middle East, in 1974 President Ford offered to build a nuclear reprocessing plant capable of producing plutonium at Bushehr. At the time, Dick Cheney was President Ford’s Chief of Staff, and Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense. Following Iran’s “Islamic Revolution”, the U.S. and several European nations ceased nuclear cooperation with Iran, and Ayatollah Khomeini’s government suspended the nuclear program as an unnecessary continuation of the Shah’s policies.

Today, Iran’s nuclear program includes ...[for the full text, contact PeaceVoiceDirector@gmail.com]

Dr. Joseph Gerson is Director of Programs of the American Friends Service Committee in New England.

Democrats Need the Voice of the Dissenters to Confront the Surge Myth

by Marc Pilisuk (578 words)

The Democratic convention in Denver rolls on as if this country were not in the midst of two unpopular wars. The voices calling for traditional democratic goals,-- education and health care reforms, and clean energy play well but will have anemic returns without the promise of redirecting the ungainly military budget. And the Democrats falure to take n the surge will give the republicans a big boost

Important voices from our two wars are missing from the speeches. The soldiers and civilians who have already died were not spoken for. The civilians who have been picked up on streets, “renditioned” by redesigned aircraft to black sites around the world, where they were tortured in a policy sanctioned by the US government were not mentioned. The soldiers and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war who courageously took part in the winter soldier hearings and told of the actual acts of brutality that they witnessed and were told to perform, the women soldiers and contractors who were drugged and raped and then ordered to keep quiet were not heard at the convention. Missing also were the vast number of American leaders and scholars who were correct in trying to prevent an aggressive attack against a country that had not attacked the US and who are continuing to tell us that nobody wins an occupation. We did not hear from the millions in Jordan who have been forced to flee Iraq. or that the women of Iraq have been forced back to the humiliations of Shia law or from those many Shia, Sunnis and Kurds who believe that those who cooperate with an occupying foreign army are traitors... (be the first to examine the full text of this commentary by contacting PeaceVoiceDirector@gmail.com)

Marc Pilisuk (mpilisuk@saybrook.edu), Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus, The University of California, and Professor, Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, Berkeley, and is author, with Jennifer Achord Rountree, of Who Benefits From Global Violence and War: Uncovering a Destructive System (Greenwood/Praeger, 2008).

What Have We Become?

By Michael True

(675 words)

This commentary is unpublished.

The U.S. Constitution is a promise to the American people that we will enjoy freedom of speech and other basic human rights. For over two centuries, that promise has generally been kept, though threatened by forces within and without.

Under the Bush administration, that promise has been broken, in a manner that undermines the welfare of the American as well as the world’s people. “Shock and awe,” torture, and the Patriot Act have been approved and funded by congress and upheld by the courts. Although Americans worry about threats from abroad, we seem less concerned about threats to the Constitution and “the $3 trillion war” on Iraq, originating with neo-conservatives and their think-tanks....

....Americans reveal who we are not by our intentions, but by our relationships and our performance. Rightfully concerned about threats to our country from without, we often forget that how we treat others eventually affects how we define ourselves. To prevent our drifting toward cruelty, we must refuse to tolerate the slighting of any human being....

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Michael True, author of People Power: Fifty Peacemakers and Their Communities, lives in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Racism Embedded in the Political Conversation about Sexism

By Jacqueline Haessly, Ph. D.

(677 words)

This commentary is unpublished.

The national conversation this past week, stimulated by morning and evening news shows, radio and TV talk shows, and local and national newspapers, has centered on the role of sexism during this current primary election season, and its role in diminishing the possibility of nominating and ultimately electing the first woman to the position of President of the United States.

There is ample evidence -- backed up by both media and academic research -- that sexist practices abound during this campaign season. I deplore the focus on the attire of one candidate over two others; the use of language that demeans and denigrates; the inability of investigative and news reporters and commentators to hold candidates to a single standard when it comes to the manner in which candidates express their positions on security threats and war. I further deplore the failure of candidates themselves to speak out against such practices...

...The women who challenge the sexism that permeates this primary season do important work. Now, they need to look deeper into their own language and images and begin to examine and challenge their own assumptions about who decides the needs of all women, and to make certain that their vision goes beyond the needs of only white working-class women, because otherwise their concerns about sexism only serve to cover the underlying racial dimensions and even racial prejudice that continues to surface during this primary race.

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Jacqueline Haessly, President of Peacemaking Associates, Peace Education Specialist, Consultant and Coach. Contact her at jacpeace@earthlink.net