Here's what I'd really like to hear a presidential candidate say about "keeping Americans safe"

[PatrickforO]

13. Simply nations.

Nations are made up of people. People never want war. Only governments, and that usually to promote business interests.

If we took just half of the $1.1 trillion we spend of OUR tax money each year on war and 'security' and instead funded policies that encourage social, economic and environmental justice, then these nations would BE allies and terrorism would die on the vine.

If, instead of worrying that the nations we call 'enemy' will somehow hurt us by taking something of ours, if we worried about making sure everyone had enough, then we would be a light on the hill and have no enemies.

If instead of worrying that corporations like Halliburton, Raytheon and General Dynamics need war for continued profits, we should be worrying about whether workers everywhere are making enough to make ends meet.

If, instead of worrying about maximizing value for shareholders, corporations were re-chartered to maximize value to all stakeholders, and at the same time eliminate the concept of 'externalities,' the world would be a much better and cleaner place, and we wouldn't have to worry about global warming. Consider Somalia. Somalia doesn't even have a government now, just warlords. Why?

Well, the Somalis used to be fishermen. That's how most made their living. Unfortunately, Russian and Japanese trawlers fished out their waters. So the Somalis turned to piracy to make a living. Then, as if that weren't enough, European corporations began dumping toxic waste off the Somali coast because it is cheaper for them to dump there illegally than it is for them to get rid of the toxic waste in according to environmental regulations.

Tell me, are the Somalis less than we? Do their lives not matter as much? How about the workers in Indonesia and Vietnam being exploited by Nike and other corporations, forced to work for LESS money than it takes to live? Are their lives 'worth' less than ours? Or on a more sensitive note, how about the family that is wiped out by drone attacks and our government pays off the survivors and apologizes for the 'collateral damage?' Are their lives somehow 'worth' less than ours?

See, this is the rub. Our corporations and our government seem to work on the notion that the lives of foreign workers and persons in other countries, particularly in the Third World, are NOT as valuable as ours. This is why terror organizations exist, Nye, and why we have enemies.

I'm not saying we should unilaterally disarm by any means, but I AM saying we need to rethink our entire approach to foreign policy and our definition of 'business interests.' It won't happen overnight but it could happen if we began doing the right things, and then made a habit of it.

There is an essay called 'regenerative capitalism' that I read recently and was much heartened by. It points out many good things being done and that can be done at the local level to make peoples' lives better. Things like micro-lending, slow money, slow food, employee cooperatives and the new B Corporations.

But, as to the original post, I believe it to be true, and you must not fall for the first fallacy the right wing pundits promote: working for economic, social and environmental justice does not mean we all of a sudden will unilaterally completely disarm. It's a process.