Den amerikanske offentligheten lengter ikke etter en amerikansk krig i Ukraina.
Seven percent want military options considered (poll by McClatchy-Marist, April 7-10), up from six percent a bit earlier (Pew, March 20-23), or 12 percent for U.S. ground troops and 17 percent for air strikes (CNN, March 7-9).
Polling is similar on U.S. desire for a war with Iran, or for U.S. military involvement in Syria. Many more Americans believe in ghosts and UFOs, according to the polls, than believe that these would be good wars.
Den amerikanske offentligheten kom aldri bak krigen mot Libya, og i årevis har et flertall sagt at krigene mot Irak og Afghanistan aldri burde vært lansert.
The search for a good war is beginning to look as futile as the search for the mythical city of El Dorado. And yet that search remains our top public project.
Det amerikanske militæret svelger 55.2 prosent av føderale skjønnsutgifter, ifølge National Priorities Project. TV-amerikanske sportsbegivenheter takker medlemmer av militæret for å se fra 175 nasjoner. Amerikanske hangarskip patruljerer verdens hav. Amerikanske droner surrer himmelen til nasjoner tusenvis av kilometer fra kysten vår.
No other nation spends remotely comparable funds on militarism, and much of what the United States buys has no defensive purpose — unless “defense” is understood as deterrence or preemption or, indeed, aggression. As the world’s number one supplier of weapons to other nations, ours may be said to extend its search for a good war beyond its own affairs as well.
A 2006 National Intelligence Estimate found that U.S. wars were generating anti-U.S. sentiment. Former military officials, including Stanley McChrystal, say drone strikes are producing more enemies than they are killing. A WIN/Gallup poll of 65 nations at the end of 2013 found the U.S. far ahead of any other as the nation people believed was the greatest threat to peace in the world.
It is the ethics of a coward to believe that safety justifies all, but of a fool to commit immoral acts that actually endanger oneself. And what is more immoral than modern wars, with deaths and injuries so massive, so one-sided, and so heavily civilian?
Military spending produces fewer jobs than spending on education or infrastructure, or even on tax cuts for working people, according to studies by the Political Economy Research Institute. It is the ethics of a sociopath to justify killing for economic gain, but of a fool to do so for economic loss.
Militæret er vår største forbruker av petroleum og skaper superfondsteder, i tillegg til at det er hullet som vi senker midlene i som kan adressere den reelle faren for klimaendringer.
Krig rettferdiggjør hemmelighold og erosjon av friheter: rettløs overvåking, lovløs fengsel, tortur og attentat, selv om kriger markedsføres for å forsvare "frihet".
Og selvfølgelig risikerer vedlikehold av atomvåpen og andre våpen for krig forsettlig eller utilsiktet katastrofe.
The downsides to war, even for an aggressor nation with overwhelming fire power, are voluminous. The upside would seem to be that if we keep fighting wars, one of them might turn out to be a good one.
But ask people to name a good war, and most will go back 73 years to World War II. A few will express badly misinformed views about Yugoslavia or Rwanda, but most will focus right in on Adolf Hitler. Think about that. Our top public project for the past three-quarters of a century has to go back that far to find a popular example of its use.
We live in a vastly changed world, and public opinion reflects that. The power of nonviolent action to resist tyranny and injustice is dramatically more realized, as is understanding of nonviolent conflict resolution and wise conflict avoidance.
Winston Churchill called World War II “the Unnecessary War” claiming that “there was never a war more easy to stop.” That war would not have happened without World War I, which nobody claims was itself unavoidable.
Just as the U.S. sells weapons to abusive nations today and prioritizes militarism over aid to refugees, Western nations helped fund the rise of the Nazis and refused to accept Jewish refugees. There are ways to prevent situations from ever reaching the point of war.
Eller rettere sagt ville det være hvis vi ikke var så investert i det militære industrikomplekset som president "Dwight Eisenhower" advarte om.
David Swanson’s books include War No More: The Case for Abolition and projects include WorldBeyondWar.org. David Swanson wants you to declare peace at http://WorldBeyondWar.org Hans nye bok er Krig ikke mer: Saken for avskaffelse. Han blogger påhttp://davidswanson.org og http://warisacrime.org og jobber for http://rootsaction.org. Han vertene Snakk Nation Radio. Følg ham på Twitter: @davidcnswanson ogFaceBook.