Peace Letter of the Month

Each month in the newsletter section of our website, we will publish the best peace letter that was published in the KC Star in the previous month. We will award the winners with free membership in PeaceWorks for one year, and they will be invited to our Annual Meeting.

APRIL 2010

World Without Nukes

In coming months, as U.S. senators debate the provisions of the new START Treaty, they would do well to listen to the wisdom of Gen. George Lee Butler, former commander of all U.S. nuclear forces 1992-94.

Gen. Butler said: "As to those who believe nuclear weapons desirable or inevitable, I would say ... accepting nuclear weapons as the ultimate arbiter of conflict condemns the world to live under a dark cloud of perpetual anxiety. Worse, it codifies mankind's most murderous instincts as an acceptable resort when other options for resolving conflict fail ..."

"We can do better than condone a world in which nuclear weapons are accepted as commonplace. The price already
paid is too dear, the risks run too great. The task is daunting, but we cannot shrink from it. The opportunity may not
come again."

Bill Wickersham
Adjunct Professor Peace Studies
University of Missouri
Columbia

MARCH 2010

Israeli-U.S. Tension

It seems that the Israeli tail is wagging the American dog again. I think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no intention whatsoever of supporting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict. He has clearly said that while he appreciates Vice President Joe Biden's statement of unequivocal support for Israel's security he is pursuing policies that are only in Israel's self-interest.

It is natural for a leader to say that. But of course it means taking more Palestinian territory for constructing more homes for Israelis, especially in the disputed area of East Jerusalem - thereby diminishing any Palestinian hope for part of that city as their capital.

The Israelis have repeatedly kept up enlarging settlements in the West Bank. Why? Because they can get away with it.

Even Gen. David Petraeus is worried that the continued failure to reach a two-state settlement negatively affects the entire Middle East region. One solution is to stand up to the Israelis and discontinue the military and humanitarian aid program until they get serious about a Palestinian settlement.

That's not anti-Semitism. It's putting some spine in our foreign policy.

Leslie Page
Blue Springs

FEBRUARY 2010

Time to Click Heels Again, Dorothy

President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address announced a three-year freeze on non-military discretionary funding.  The economic crisis is real, but the target for savings is wrong.  Real savings and real security are to be had in cutting the military budget, getting U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and investing in job creation and meeting people's needs here at home.
 
Since Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. military spending including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has increased by 78%.  That money now accounts for more than half of "discretionary spending" -  that portion of the budget that Congress makes decisions on annually.  Next year's military spending will be the largest ever.
 
A reduction in military spending would slow down the worldwide arms race, show the international community we are committed to diplomacy and dialogue, and demonstrate to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan that conflict can't be solved through the force of arms.

Nancy Roberts
Fairway

JANUARY 2010

Money for Wars but Not for Health

All of the debate and wrangling that has gone on since health care reform was introduced during the present session of Congress is amazing.  Health care reform is aimed at helping people by providing them with the means to have decent medical care, something that millions of Americans do not have.  Many are willing to pay for insurance but have been denied it because of pre-existing medical problems.
 
What is so puzzling and frustrating is that it is hard to find the money for people to live and so easy to find the money for people who die.  There has been no trouble finding billions of dollars to spend on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Maybe a little debate, but nothing of the passion and intensity of those who oppose national health care.
 
It is time for members of Congress to get a backbone and stand up for living people they represent and say no to the killing machine known as the military-industrial complex, the bomb makers and bomb droppers who have no respect for human life.  If money can be found for them, it can be found for American citizens who need health insurance.

David Shipp
Nevada, Missouri

DECEMBER 2009

Obama's Mixed Message on War

How can one reconcile the "realistic" war and peace philosophy that President Obama presented in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech with the "dovish" one he proposed to the Muslim World 10 months earlier?
 
In the latter, Obama preached to the Palestinians to "abandon violence, because "resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed." "Violence is a dead end," he unequivocally added.  He rubbed the Palestinians' face with the examples of South Africa and the "black people in America" who "suffered the lash of the whip" but won by peaceful means.
 
In justifying America's wars, the examples of South Africa and black America seem not to be all that absolute.  "To say that force may sometimes be necessary" is "a recognition of history, the imperfections of man and the limits of reason."
 
This double standard is nothing new.  It is precisely the source of frustration and anger in the Muslim world toward U.S. foreign policy.  If Obama seeks to turn a new leaf in the relationship between the U.S. and the Muslim world, he needs to close the gap.

Rami Saffarini
Platte City

NOVEMBER 2009

What We Owe the Afghan People
 
I appreciate Mary Sanchez's concerns expressed in her column "U.S. owes Afghans full shot at peace, stability" (10/27, Opinion).  She is correct that we failed the Afghan people after massively arming the mujahedin.  The failure then and now is that we did not and are not using diplomacy to improve the lives of the Afghan people.
 
What is needed today is not more U.S. military support for a corrupt government unconcerned with the well-being of its people. 
 
Instead of listening to a professor receiving contracts from the U.S. military, Sanchez would be better off reading the resignation letter from Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain Matthew Hoh.  He observed the bulk of the Pashtun insurgency "fights not for ... the Taliban, but rather against the presence of foreign soldiers and taxes imposed by an unrepresentative government in Kabul."
 
What we owe the Afghan people is to withdraw U.S. and NATO troops and apply a surge of wisdom.

Ira Harritt
Local Program Coordinator
American Friends Service Committee
Kansas City

MARCH 2009

War is not the answer

As the antithesis of anti-war is pro-war, I choose fervently and confidently to be anti-war. For me, that means I am against death and destruction that we, the American people, are inflicting on those who live in war-torn parts of the world where we employ our combat troops. We should bring our combat troops home now. Really, we should have never sent them in the first place. We're not eradicating terrorists. Rather, we are destroying livelihoods and lives of innocent women, children and families. I believe in God's commandment "thou shall not kill."

We human beings, regardless of nationality, race, creed, sexual orientation or other differences. have the God-given ability to find a peaceful manner of getting along in the world. I choose to love all of God's people equally, no matter where they are in the world or to what religion they ascribe. I continue to pray that we'll all learn to do the same. Imagine what the world will look like when that prayer is granted.

I don't claim to have the final answer, but I do know, without any grain of doubt, that war is not the answer.

Sarah Cool
Cherith Brook Community member
Kansas City

FEBRUARY 2009

Stopping the Violence

I have read with great interest your feature articles on the violence in Kansas City's 64130 zip code. As I read the article "Working toward a solution" (1/27, A1), it occurred to me that the prescription for healing in Kansas City is the same prescription needed in troubled areas in the world, including Gaza:

Give our children a strong education.
Encourage commerce and jobs.
Teach people to value life.
Reach the at-risk youths and them love, not hate.

These are just a few of the solutions offered by The Star's article. I, for one, plan to help Kansas City and any other troubled area to the best of my ability.

Dan Kass
Leawood

JANUARY 2009

Conflict In Gaza

The disproportionate bloody incursion into Gaza confirms the loss of morality by Israel and its supporters.

Feeble rockets from Gaza were an attempt at resistance to decades of humanitarian abuse. Edward Said put it best back in 2002: "Every Palestinian has become a prisoner. ... Gaza is a human nightmare. ... Hope has been eliminated from the Palestinian vocabulary so that only raw defiance remains." And so those Israeli outposts and the enduring military occupation of Palestine, coupled with the de facto prison called Gaza, all provided tinder for the conflagration playing out in Gaza.

Now fearsome and thunderous F-16 raids and computer-guided missiles overwhelm innocent women and children in Gaza. Any peaceful resolution has thus been pushed way, way into the future, and the American taxpayer once again must pay dearly for yet another reckless military sortie with armaments purchased by our tax dollars while further damaging our prestige.

Richard Phalen
Parkville

DECEMBER 2008

Slow Down on Nuclear Plant Proposal

Kevin Collison's article on plans to build a new nuclear weapons parts plant in south Kansas City (12/18, Business, "Proposals for weapons plant in for review; Decision on which developer will build south Kansas City project is expected next year") raises important questions.

First, what's the rush? President-elect Obama has pledged to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons. If he makes progress on that goal, we may not need a spanking new nuclear weapons plant.

Second, we need more information about the companies involved. What are their health, safety, and environmental records? What is their financial condition? By refusing even to name the bidders, the General Services Administration is preventing the taxpayers from considering these questions before a winner is chosen. We need more transparency and accountability before this project goes forward.

William D. Hartung
Director, Arms and Security Initiative
New America Foundation
New York