A Department Of Peace? BY WALTER CRONKITE

[goodhue]

http://www.yankton.net/stories/081204/opE_20040812035.shtml

Web posted Thursday, August 12, 2004

A Department Of Peace?
BY WALTER CRONKITE
King Features Syndicate

With this nation embroiled in what threatens to be an interminable "War on Terrorism," an idea put forward last year by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich has, for me, considerable appeal. Kucinich, who was the one candidate in the Democratic primaries to unfailingly promote the party's traditional Franklin Roosevelt liberalism, proposed the establishment of a Department of Peace.

Now he has introduced in the House HR 2459, a bill that would establish a Peace Department, adding a new cabinet post to the executive branch of government. The Department of Peace would "advise the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State on all matters relating to national security, including the protection of human rights and the prevention of, amelioration of, and de-escalation of unarmed and armed international conflict."

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The department would act not only in an international context, but also in those areas of domestic policy that endanger the nation's well-being: the proliferation of automatic weapons and the violence in our schools, our homes and in our streets, where the intolerant prey on those whose lifestyles they find offensive. It might well come up with some new strategies for turning around our losing war on drugs, and it might also lobby Congress to put an end to the cruel and unusual punishment of small-time drug offenders called "mandatory sentencing." It would also advise the attorney general on matters of civil rights and labor law. But its primary importance, it seems to me, would be in international affairs, demonstrating to the rest of the world, to borrow the old motto of the Strategic Air Command, that "peace is our profession."

Now, to some, this is going to sound terribly naive, given the current state of things and the very real, hard-edged dangers that face us. But the naiveté just might lie on the other side with those who believe that military force and our policy of pre-emption are alone sufficient to make us safe. The fact is that there is nothing in this proposal that would weaken our military posture or our ability to strike terrorists and their havens and to do whatever is necessary for the defense of the United States.

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http://www.yankton.net/stories/081204/opE_20040812035.shtml

[demnan]

1. Good article

Hey that's one federal agency I'd love to work for!

[MuseRider]

2. Wonderful article!

Thanks for posting this.

[PATRICK]

3. Someday

this idea might not only be idealistic but maybe a alternative to the withered impracticality of military Intel and war.

That is more likely, I believe than in the relentless stupidity of the pragmatists surviving the century with same old same old military chess board. They cannot conceive of a future. Only the past and sustaining the present, no matter how changing or dangerous it is.

It is to our shame as human beings that this is a vision, or derided, instead of a seriously considered necessity for this "wondrous" "advanced" age- an age we well may not survive.

[eridani]

4. The real fluffy bunny idealists who refuse to recognize reality--

--are those who refuse to look at the 21st century's most important stratgic reality, namely that Fucking Shit Up (FSU) is extremely cheap, and domination is extremely expensive.

Walter invites us to e-mail him ...
[e-mail]

[sonias]

5. I support a Dept. of Peace too Mr. Cronkite

Thanks for the link. Great article from a great journalist. That's the way it was.

Wage peace, not war.

Sonia

[G_j]

6. thank you Walter

& I agree with you. :toast:

[yelladawg]

7. I have posted this on other boards

Thanks for getting it to us.

[BridgeTheGap]

8. Go Dennis!

A great endorsement for Kucinich's idea from someone who should know!

[MISSDem]

9. violence, even well intentioned,

always rebounds upon oneself - Lao-tzu. What a great and novel idea for a Department.

[Xipe Totec]

10. Unfortunately The Name is Tainted By Echoes of 1984

The four ministries in George Orwell's novel, 1984:

Ministry of Truth - In charge of propaganda

Ministry of Love - In charge of torture

Ministry of Peace - In charge of war

Ministry of Plenty - In charge of rationing

I don't thing the proposal will survive the comparison.

[LWolf]

13. It's not the proposal that invites comparison.

If the Bush administration and everything they've said and done does not echo Orwell, nothing does.

We're in a terribly unhappy condition if we cannot focus as much time, care, $$, attention, and action on peace as we do conflict.

[JohnKleeb]

11. wow very neat

[goodhue]

12. kick for the most trusted voice in America

eom