Is the US addicted to War? Oct. 22, 2021 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet
Tuesday, October 19th, 2021Is the U.S. Addicted to War?
What’s Your Priority?
Funding for Human Needs or the War Machine?
President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better”request for $3.5 Trillion over ten years ($350 Billion a year) has hit a road block. But Biden’s request for $753 billion for this year’s military budget has broad bi-partisan support. How come funding for child care, universal pre-school, paid family leave, medicare expansion, curbing the climate crisis, free community college, plus fixing our crumbling infrastructure –roads and bridges, etc. takes a back seat to funding the US bloated war machine?
Congress even voted to add $24 Billion more than Biden requested for a new military spending total of $777 Billion this year. And there is more military spending hidden in other parts of the Federal budget. One example is $20 Billion a year for nuclear weapons in the Dept. of Energy Budget. By the numbers, the US is clearly addicted to war. The dangers of a growing “Military-Industrial Complex (MIC)” that former General and President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about more than 60 years ago now rules the roost. The “MIC” lavishly funds electoral campaigns of MIC loyalists. Once upon a time, weapons were manufactured to fight wars. Now, enemies and wars are manufactured for weapons industry profits. And who pays for all this? The average working-stiff, the taxpayer, not the super-rich CEO corporate billionaires, and not the corporations making huge profits. We need to tax corporations and the rich. Together, let’s tell space joy-rider Jeff Bezos and his billionaire friends, it’s time to pay their fair share to take care of the earth and fund human needs.
US two-time Medal of Honor recipient, General Smedley Butler, said in the 1930s that “War is a Racket.” The racket keeps getting worse, and now with nuclear weapons, supersonic missiles, killer drones and killer robots, the war racket threatens all life on earth. It’s time for a seismic shift. The US needs to end its addiction to war. We need a local and global people’s movement to de-militarize Hawaii and the world. To eliminate the threat of global nuclear disaster we need to stop building and modernizing nuclear weapons and missiles, and dismantle all existing nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are now illegal under international law. The US needs to stop being an outlaw nation and begin to lead by example. Wage peace not war!
Where do you stand?
1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject violence & war as solutions. 3. Defend civil liberties.
4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, anti-Black, anti-Asian, etc.
5. Seek peace through peaceful means and work for justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawaii 96760
Phone (808) 966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org to receive our posts. For more information www.malu-aina.org
October 22, 2021 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1047– Fridays 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office
-- Jim Albertini Malu 'Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola'a (Kurtistown) Hawai'i 96760 Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org
