Declare War!

[tecelote]

...on the indiscriminate killing of millions of people by America's War on Terror.

I'm a Dove and, although we are nearly extinct, we still have a voice.

Does anyone remember when we used to say that "Sending doctors, teachers and engineers will turn enemies into allies faster than a bullet"?

How can you vote for Hillary and justify the killing of millions of innocent people in the name of war profits?

You can't. It's a sin.

---

Don't tell me Bernie supported... He's not perfect but much better.

And, my hope is that we can make "Peace" an important topic during this election.

I'd love to hear Hillary flip-flop on this. "Stop the killing" needs to be an American priority.

Here are our current American Priorities:

[Katashi_itto]

1. K&R

[Paka]

2. K&R

I date back to Vietnam days. Without the internet we little people didn't know what was really going on for a long while. Once we did, the protests started, but it was already too late. It was full-blown and heartbreaking by then.

We foolishly thought we could stop it in 2003, when they flagrantly flaunted their intent to blow-up the entire middle east. The masses of humanity that took to the streets worldwide didn't phase them, but they did learn not to give us enough heads-up to protest like that again.

So now they are going to do it via the back door like they did with Vietnam and try to down play it, but this time we have the internet. Let's not let them get away with it.

Great graphic. Pretty disgusting, but thanks for posting.

Stop the killing and "Give Peace a Chance."

[tecelote]

4. Stop the killing and "Give Peace a Chance."

Imagine!

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. I'm from that era too. The Vietnam protests did eventually help stop the war, but now

the government has MILITARIZED all of our police departments. As we saw in Ferguson, they WILL use military force against protesters now. Remember what they did to OWS? THAT and Ferguson will be spread across this country.

The next Revolution will be a bloody one. The Oligarchs have made sure of it.

One more reason we need Bernie! Hillary would call in every police department and the National Guard to kill people. She likes killing people; endless wars, death penalty, Patriot Act...

We NEED Bernie!

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. That's just CRIMINAL! And Congress just voted to take Social security disability benefits away from

disabled people.

Bernie is right. We need a REVOLUTION in the good old USA. Reset!

K&R!

[w0nderer]

6. thanks for making this an OP n/t

[McKim]

7. Thanks to You Tecelote

Thank you Tecelote for bringing up The Most Important Issue of Our Time in the US, the military budget and our unmet domestic needs.
This is the essence of any election, War or Peace. Until we wrest control of this country from the MIC we will see our hard earned resources going for death and destruction. This issue overshadows everything else. I am voting for the one that voted against going to war in Iraq.

[JaneyVee]

8. That's not really the budget, this is:

[tecelote]

9. Why the disparity?

[salib]

12. Well, there are lies, damn lies,

And then there are statistics.

[Kip Humphrey]

13. Discretionary spending vs. total federal spending. Of course SS & Medicare are not

considered part of the general fund, having their own funding via payroll withholding. But throw them into the mix so the military budget looks more palatable. That's a typical third way/republicon trick, now apparently employed by Hillarites to justify war mongering and Hillary's hawkish views.

[Victor_c3]

15. you put it better than I would have put it n/t

[tecelote]

16. Thanks!

[Dustlawyer]

26. We could cut enough fraud, waste and abuse from the Pentagon budget w/o compromising

our military, yet fund infrastructure, raise SS, education... The corporate control allows them to steal our tax money, cut their own taxes, and take more of our "entitlements."

Publicly Funded Elections (PFEs) attack the root problem, campaign bribes, which provide the control the Plutocrats use on the politicians. We need to get Bernie elected and force the Congress to pass PFEs. After that, bust up Wall Street and the media oligarchies, appoint heads of Regulatory agencies that are not industry insiders and give them budgets big enough to satisfy their mandates, regulating capitalism!

I no longer accept corporate rule! Living under corporate control means that the elderly will be shunted aside as no longer useful. It means a race to the bottom for wages and forget benefits. It means non-stop propaganda and the eventual loss of the Internet freedom we enjoy currently. If we do not do this now, we will have squandered our best chance at regaining control of our government. There are no other respected leaders willing to do what Bernie is doing, so if Bernie fails it will be a long time before we have the necessary focus that a leader brings to our cause. OWS suffered for the lack of a central leader, now we have one lets get behind him and PUSH!!!

[Kip Humphrey]

28. Thank you, Dustlawyer. An excellent post!

[tecelote]

32. Exactly.

There are no other respected leaders willing to do what Bernie is doing, so if Bernie fails it will be a long time before we have the necessary focus that a leader brings to our cause. OWS suffered for the lack of a central leader, now we have one lets get behind him and PUSH!!!

[Admiral Loinpresser]

39. +1 n/t

[Admiral Loinpresser]

40. + One googool! n/t

[salib]

10. Has the debate progessed to the point that "peace" is the new "librul" ?

[Moliere]

11. This won't change now that the NSA has dirt on everyone

So (insert politician of your choosing) you want to cut military spending by 30%? Let's talk about that (insert scandal or crime of your choosing)

[jomin41]

14. I don't see the CIA, NSA, DEA, FBI, etc

The "military" figure is way lowballed. The rest (another half-trillion?) is hidden.

[Scuba]

17. If we can't afford to educate our children, to heal our sick or care for our elderly ...

... just what is it the defense budget is defending?

[zeemike]

22. The profits of the 1%

Because war is a racket.

[MrMickeysMom]

18. Great pie chart...

Just look at the portion that is "served" to Food & Agriculture, rather than who are the most likely to keep churning the war machine.

War never works like these hawks have enabled it to.

[Live and Learn]

19. K&R nt

[mountain grammy]

20. The MIC is a jobs program..

building huge, expensive military hardware that often the military doesn't want. It's way past time to replace the military industry jobs with clean energy jobs, you know, peace.

[tecelote]

21. Another post of importance from RKP5637 - Eisenhower 1961

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017305020

[cantbeserious]

23. Know Thy Enemy - Oligarchs, Corporations, Banks And Their Media Minions And MIC Henchmen

eom

[newfie11]

24. K&R #FeelTheBern2016. NT

[FairWinds]

25. Your chart is good, but not accurate . .

Our government hides a lot of additional military spending under
energy, international affairs, veterans benefits and elsewhere . .

In other words, you are being lied to.

This chart is better . .



Veterans For Peace

[Frustratedlady]

27. How much of that military spending is due to the lifetime healthcare/pensions for

those vets who were severely injured and their dependents during Bush's wars? Or does that show up somewhere else that isn't so noticeable?

[FairWinds]

29. It is hidden under "veterans benefits."

and counted as "social spending."

A big, fat accounting LIE.

Actual, total military spending amounts to around $ 1.2 TRILLION !!

[tecelote]

30. I didn't know this. Thanks.

So, our veterans' health and welfare are not a cost of war?

Figures. They'll try to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood but don't give veterans who fought their war the same priority.

American priorities need to change.

[Frustratedlady]

31. Figures. Once they are no longer of use, they are disposable for accounting purposes.

Hmmm, now, I wonder where those pallet-loads of money are listed that disappeared during the Iraq War? Oh, yeah. Since they disappeared, they no longer have to be counted. You can't count what isn't there. You could probably add the millions of dollars given out to repay Iraqi's for loss of life of family members and houses during misguided missiles. Didn't we dole out compensation early on?

How many years has it been since the military balanced their ledgers?

[UglyGreed]

33. K/R

[FairWinds]

34. And it is worth noting that all the money to fight the wars . .

in Iraq and Afghanistan was borrowed. Dubya never asked for
any appropriations . .

Which means that a big chunk of what we pay in debt service on the
national debt each year (about $ 200 billion) ought to properly be
counted as military spending.

Veterans For Peace

[bvar22]

38. The RICH got a big, fat tax cut.

That is the first time any President has cut taxes during a WAR.
It is clear they knew exactly WHO was going to pay....us.

[Thinkingabout]

35. And we have the war going on in the USA, gun violence has killed more Americans than was killed

in the Iraq war, we don't seem to want to do anything about this. It would be nice to stop the killing on all fronts, there are lots of things we could do to get the gun violence under control but the NRA has too many congressional members in their pockets. Just KILL KILLL KILL.

[tecelote]

36. Great point!

Why are the MIC and NRA so powerful when a majority of Americans obviously want action taken?

O'Malley seems to be best candidate as far as this is concerned.

[Thinkingabout]

37. The crosshairs the TP was pushing some time back should be put on every congressional member who

Does not have a F rating by the NRA. Too many brag about their rating, it is terrible.

[Admiral Loinpresser]

41. How about Annie Oakley?

She loves the Second Amendment. Ooops, sorry, wrong campaign! And she loves PoC again!

[YoungDemCA]

42. The military-industrial complex...

...was originally intended by Eisenhower to be called the military-industrial-congressional complex.

snip:

In his farewell address in January 1961, Pres. Dwight Eisenhower famously cautioned the American public to “guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”

Today it’s routine for critics of wasteful military spending to cite Eisenhower’s warning. Unfortunately, Eisenhower did not warn us that the military-industrial complex would become increasingly malignant as it morphed into less obvious forms.

The “complex” is no longer just “military” and “industrial,” and it has extended far beyond just its congressional branch, which Eisenhower also intended to include.

It’s now deeply embedded in the fiber of the American political system, academia, the civilian leadership of the Defense Department and—increasingly—the White House itself.

snip:

Taking in corporate money during government service does not define the extent of the problem. Just as (Ashton) Carter traded in his high-level Defense Department positions for entry into a number of defense-interested firms, so do innumerable other former Pentagon officials, senior military officers and members of Congress and their staffs.

The behavior is rampant among senior generals and admirals. In a seminal article in 2010, the Boston Globe found that 80 percent of retiring three- and four-star generals went to work for defense related firms—and one year, 34 out of 39 did.

The issue is not that all these beneficiaries of the revolving door receive obscenely large compensation to enhance their already generous government pensions, it’s that the prospect of future pay can and does alter their decision-making while in government.

Much, but not all, of this behavior is perfectly legal. That the laws governing post-government service are so full of loopholes is not an accident. In fact, it’s the effect of the strong preferences of the military-industrial-congressional complex.

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-triumph-of-the-military-industrial-congressional-complex-a27d6e5fb1a8#.vjnz1hol8

[tecelote]

43. Thanks for that.

Eisenhower knew and we didn't listen.