Plenty Peace Statement

In 1976 when Plenty was in Guatemala immediately following an earthquake that had killed 23,000 people, it certainly seemed like a war zone. Tens of thousands of people had been left homeless and were living in the streets. The hospitals were filled to overflowing with the sick and wounded. Once picturesque towns had been reduced to rubble. The earth was still heaving and cracking with aftershocks. The whole country was terrified and in mourning.
In response to this horrendous disaster, the world's relief organizations had mobilized their resources and come to the rescue. Red Cross, Salvation Army, governments, churches, C.A.R.E., UN, you name it, they were there with bells on. The roads were crawling with four-wheel drive vehicles with relief agency logos painted on the sides. Most were running around like the proverbial headless chickens. Where to begin to address this catastrophe? In the midst of the chaos, however, one agency was conspicuously effective in solving two of the larger scale problems: the need for potable water in rural towns and the need for emergency medical care in inaccessible regions. They solved the water problem by erecting five-thousand gallon rubber water reservoirs and hauling water to them in tanker trucks. They provided medical care in inaccessible regions by parachuting in field hospitals and staffing them with surgeons and medics. The agency? The U.S. Army. As we witnessed the efficiency and competency of this crack outfit, we began to appreciate the untapped potential of the American military machine for peaceful, constructive endeavors. We hope to see the day when such activities are its primary function.
As an aid and development organization, dedicated to assisting disadvantaged communities and promoting justice and cooperation in the world, Plenty cannot condone war for any conceivable political, economic or moral reason. The term "just war" is one of the most ludicrous oxymorons in the current debate about the war on Iraq. War is never just. War results from human failures. In fact, as Cordell Hull said, "War is the great failure of man." War breeds horror, anger, resentment, bitterness and reprisals, not to mention the death and devastation of innocents, and more wars. Wars are never "necessary," because all wars can be prevented when humankind decides that war is no longer an option for resolving conflicts. The more individuals who reach that decision, the closer we are to that day.

        Our political leaders help create "monsters" on the international stage by failing to address legitimate grievances of whole populations, by putting economic and political interests in front of human interests, by ignoring or even propping up demagogues until they become dangerous to populations beyond their own borders, and by providing high-tech weapons of mass destruction through free-market arms trade to anyone who can pay. To then have to turn around and fight someone who now has such weapons should alert us to the intolerable lunacy of the arms trade.
     When our own government in the U.S. attempts to sway public opinion by pointing out the civil rights violations of adversarial governments it might be helpful to remember some history. The greatest holocaust ever perpetrated on an indigenous population was committed against the native people of this land we call America. Ninety-nine percent of their population was obliterated by war, massacre, European diseases and relocation. More recent holocausts such as those experienced by the Mayans, Tibetans, Cambodians and Salvadorans have attracted pitifully little response from the U.S. Government, and in fact, some of these man-made catastrophes were encouraged, aided and abetted by the U.S. Government. The Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq looks brutal and indeed it is, but it would be educational to apply the same media magnifying glass to scores of other brutal regimes around the globe. Should the U.S. invade them all? As John Quincy Adams once said, "It is not the role of the United States to roam the world "in search of monsters to destroy."
   In the eyes of some political world leaders, war is not only one option in a given set of circumstances, but it may be the preferred option. Whether to assert power, kick-start a sluggish economy, divert public attention, carve out a place in history or fulfill some personal vision of manifest destiny, war may appear singularly attractive to unenlightened despots, be they elected or self-appointed. Having committed themselves to this extreme option, the leaders must rationalize it to themselves and to the world.
   In a world bristling with both weapons and people willing to use them to get what they want, self-defense would seem a valid reason to wage war. But military self-defense is also a self-defeating phenomenon of the old world order. The family of nations has got to raise itself to a whole new level of agreement, courage and trust. (Not a "New World Order" based on military power.)
   Granting that war is not going to be erased from the face of the earth overnight, we must begin now to defuse the war option in a number of practical and feasible ways: 1.) End the arms trade (that includes the technological and chemical ingredients for weapons development). 2. Ban nuclear weapons testing. 3.) Base foreign policy on justice and need rather than self-interest. 4.) Make protection of human rights a priority affecting relationships with all countries. 5.) Develop renewable energy options. 6.) Divert bloated military budgets to resolving domestic and international problems. 7.) Support community-level efforts to achieve economic self-sufficiency around the world. 8.) Work for universal health-care. 9.) Get serious about addressing the threat of global-warming, ozone depletion and environmental degradation. 10.) Eliminate capital punishment. 11.) Study and visit other cultures. 12.) Vote and run for office and apply local pressure to national policy-makers. For openers.