Bring an end to ‘triple evils’ by abandoning war

[bigtree]

Saturday marked the tragic anniversary of the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but also the anniversary of his “Beyond Vietnam” speech one year earlier. In that 1967 speech at the historic Riverside Church in New York City, one of the most inspiring anti-war speeches ever delivered, King decried the “triple evils” plaguing our country —- “racism, extreme materialism and militarism.”

Were he alive, we believe King would urge President Obama to use his political and rhetorical skills to call on our people to cure these ills still so prevalent in our society. A first step would be ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq and, instead of sending an additional 21,000 troops, begin bringing home the troops in Afghanistan.

And we humbly suspect that King would have been with us Saturday in Manhattan when we and other peace advocates marched to Wall Street to call for an end to war and corporate bailouts and for investing in our communities and human needs, environmental restoration and a green economy for all. Or as King so concisely phrased it, to “rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.”

Most of the people of this country, and around the world, want Obama to succeed. However, his escalation of the war in Afghanistan, as well as the ongoing occupation of Iraq, threaten to make a shambles of his domestic economic agenda, as well as his presidency, as the Vietnam War did to President Lyndon Johnson’s presidency.

Haven’t we had enough of war?


read more: http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/04/05/equaled0405.html

[midnight]

1. Succeed Mr. President and bring them home.

[Mari333]

2. we shall see if this becomes his version of Vietnam

right now, its not looking good.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6036512.ece

[azul]

3. Switch from warring on peoples and beliefs to a war on poverty.

It is a winnable war, and I think that we all should be pleased with the results of poverty's defeat.

[chimpymustgo]

5. A real war on poverty could revive the economy, as well.

Robert Reich's solution:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/robert_...

-snip-

Energy independence and a non-carbon economy should be the equivalent of a war mobilization. Hire Americans to weatherize and insulate homes across the land. Don't encourage General Motors or any other auto company to shrink. Use the auto makers' spare capacity to make busses, new wind turbines, and electric cars (why let the Chinese best us on this?). Enlarge public transit systems.

Meanwhile, extend our educational infrastructure. So many young people are out of work that they should be using this time to improve their skills and capacities. Expand community colleges. Enlarge Pell Grants. Extend job-training opportunities to the unemployed, so they can learn new skills while they're collecting unemployment benefits.

Finally, accelerate universal health care.

[LWolf]

4. K & R nt

[Gregorian]

6. Never befoe in the human history have we had a better opportunity to end war than now.

We have the ability to communicate like we've never had. Yet there are other forces that make war more inevitable than ever. And never before have the consequences been higher.

End war now. It's not a luxury. It's not some silly concept. It's survival.