[Dialogue] America Programmed for War: Cause and Solution

[Chagnon@comcast.net]

from Lucille Chagnon

Dialogue Colleagues,
As I become increasingly  convinced that the spoiled, naive, ignorant puppet in the White House is a willing Fuhrer, I am haunted more and more by the voices of the Germans, Austrians, Poles who, when I was child, not only did not speak up and oppose Hitler, but also bought his lies and his fight.  Still, lest I be dishonest with you, I am afraid to share with my own siblings the article (URL)  below and the Petition that follows.

The 15-page article by Brian Bogart, "America Programmed for War: Cause and Solution," is an amazing historical overview of the consequences of "A single policy decision made in secluded chambers of the White House after World War II...."  The URL just below the summary is where those of you who wish to can find it on the Information Clearing House website.  I tried in vain to copy it with ever smaller print, but Comcast just couldn't accomodate its length.
Following the summary is the Strike for Peace petition that Brian Bogart is delivering to the White House et al. September 26th.  I have added my signature to it:   Lucille Chagnon, M.Ed., Boston College, 1972 
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America Programmed for War: Cause and Solution   By Brian Bogart
 “What one generation perceives as repression, the next accepts as a necessary part of a complex daily life.” 
Summary:  A single policy decision made in secluded chambers of the White House shortly
after World War II explains why our financial and intellectual creativity
focuses on lethal technologies, why 51% of our taxes go to defense and less than
5% to education, why there are 6000 military bases in the United States and 1000
US bases overseas, why comprehensive agendas support warfighting and weak
agendas address human services and the environment, and why our top industry
since 1950 remains the manufacture and sale of weapons.  See:
      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9831.htm

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Strike For Peace

Petition For Peaceful Priorities

08/19/05 -- This petition will be delivered to the White House and other addresses on September 26, 2005.

President George W. Bush, The White House
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Department of Defense, The Pentagon
President Nils Hasselmo, Association of American Universities
Governor Ted Kulongoski, State of Oregon
President Dave Frohnmayer, University of Oregon

Dear Public Servants,

As University of Oregon's first graduate student in the field of Peace Studies, it is my responsibility to explore the role of the military in society and those conditions that most promote peace and human welfare. In so doing, I have come to understand the nature of America's war industry, and how that industry has flourished in the wake of the Cold War. I have come to find that more than 300 of our universities are developing weapons for the Department of Defense, and that these schools are increasingly reliant on the industry of war to sustain their education programs. Indeed, the Association of American Universities appears to be little more than a lobby for such funding.

As a person of good conscience, I have learned too much about the business of war to remain silent about its overwhelming encroachment in our schools, communities, and global life systems. In promoting this encroachment, I do not believe that you serve in the interest of prosperity and security for the common people. By your consistent actions, in fact, it is abundantly clear that you believe America's top priority is profit from the business of war, not the general welfare of its people.

When America was born a people-first country, the concept of freedom spread rapidly throughout the world without military force. The vision of our Founders was to advance the notion of people living in peace using the freedom that nature provides upon birth. You may feel at peace with yourselves, but I believe you are acting as businessmen instead of servants. And in honoring our Founding principles, I must proclaim that to exploit the fears and prejudices of the common people to maintain the flow of profits from conflict-to perpetuate a state of war for personal gain-is treasonous to our creed.

You say this is a peace-loving nation when you know it is not; America is by far history's greatest peddler of arms, and your business is making war everyone else's business. The people, under this set of priorities, are an expendable resource, and on behalf of those who founded this country and those whose lives stand in peril today-thus, on behalf of all Americans-I reject the notion of our servants serving only themselves and war profiteers.

Therefore, I feel compelled to strike in peaceful but vociferous opposition to your priorities until our national policies reflect our priorities and serve the rights and needs of the common people.

I am a dedicated scholar and University of Oregon alumnus. But I refuse to study inside the classroom of any school that sells itself to the war industry, and I will stand outside and speak my heart as strongly as possible to highlight the obvious hypocrisy that you promote. For I fear that if I do not, America and other countries are very likely to suffer and fall as a result of your cold determination to saturate with weapons a world that stands on the verge of resource depletion.

Developing weapons at our institutions of enlightenment contradicts the inherent purpose of learning. How will we ever learn peace while making war in our schools?

I hereby submit to you this petition for peaceful priorities.

Dutifully,

Brian D. Bogart
Multicultural Studies Certificate, US-Japan Relations, Lewis and Clark College, Portland 1995
International Studies Certificate, Waseda University, Tokyo 1996
B.A. Japanese History, University of Oregon 1997
M.A. Candidate, Peace Studies, University of Oregon

Sponsors of this action include:

Noam Chomsky

Medea Benjamin
Code Pink, Global Exchange

Franklin W. Stahl
Professor Emeritus of Biology
University of Oregon

Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Sociology Department/Project Censored
Sonoma State University

Scott Kerlin Ph.D.
Peace Studies
Vancouver, BC Canada

Madoka Kusakabe M.A.
Japanese Language & Literature
University of Oregon

Oleg Kripkov Ph.D.
Russian Studies
University of Oregon

…and hundreds more. If you are or have been a college-level teacher and would like to sign this petition, please send your name and title as you'd like them to appear (using above examples) to:
bdb92 at hotmail.com

This petition will be delivered to the White House and other addresses on September 26, 2005.

If you would like to support the strike effort with financial or organizational resources, please write to bbogart at uoregon.edu

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)