A Farewell to Arms: What You Can Do

By Tom Shea

Simply put, in this Peace-on-Earth time of year, doesn't peacemaking begin by not shooting people? Or even paying other people to shoot people?
As our government goes up in arms during this winter of our discontent, can we afford to languish, as Tom Paine put it in Common Sense, among the sunshine patriots. Or will we heed the call to face the chilling cost in lives and dollars of the seasonal military-spending epidemic by our Congress?

When I was in high school, I was told peacemaking takes three steps:

1. Observe...the facts,
2. Judge...according to principles,
3. Act...in good conscience.

Well, here goes!

Observe:

l993 U.S. arms sales to 141 of the worlds 173 countries totaled $33.2 billion in
l993, double l992's 15.2 billion.1.

90% of all U.S. arms deals are to unelected governments and dictatorships, as in El
Salvador, Indonesia, Somalia, Guatemala, using our arms to suppress internal
dissent. 2.

73 % of total U.S. arms sales go to Third World countries, eight times the amount
of each of our nearest rivals, Britain and Russia.3.

President Clintons 5-year plan for U.S. military spending, beginning with the
increase to $264 Billion in l995, will consume $1.3 Trillion. To print that money at
the rate of $1,000 a minute would take over 24 centuries.4.

The Department of Defense 94-95 budget includes $30.4 Billion for thirteen Cold
War Weapons conceived specifically to defeat future Soviet weapons which will
never be built, for example: C117 Globemaster Transport Plant (l981) $3 Billion
95; Trident II Nuclear Missile $700 million 95, Ballistic Missile Defense (l981) $3.3
Billion in 95.5.

The Center for Defense Information documents a sustainable national defense that
would cost no more than $200 Billion vs. our proposed escalating budget.6.

Judge:

Money spent on weapons is capital not labor intensive. Military spending creates
half as many jobs as the same money spent in other private and public sector
enterprises.

Weapons do not create wealth. Shovels and hoes, hammers and ladders, some
roads, some power tools create wealth.

Arms bazaars are underwritten by tax dollars.

Many developing nations are encouraged to waste resources and foreign aid on
weapons instead of investing in economic development, health, education.

Arms exports cause loss of domestic jobs.

U.S. arms are used against U.S. soldiers.

ACT

A. If you work for peace, stop paying for war. Many are the ways to lessen our subsidy of weapons industries.

(1.) Lower your income, lower your war taxes. Get the book: Your Money or Your
Life, by Joseph R. Dominguez, a program for transforming your relationship with
money and achieving financial independence while safeguarding the environment
and paying less war taxes all at the same time.

(2.) Support the War Tax Resistance Movement by subscribing to More than a
Paycheck, publication of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating
Committee, a clearing house and resource center for conscientious war tax
resistance. $10 to NWTRCC P.0. Box 774, Monroe, ME 04951.

(3) Support the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, call Tom Shea (616)
946-3693; or write NCPTF 2121 Decatur Place, N.W., Washington, DC 20008.

(4) Avoid products made by companies with big weapons contracts. Get Shopping
for a Better World by the Council on Economic Priorities.

B. Support non-violent nuclear resistance like a presence at ELF ( extremely low frequency command to Trident subs, See article on page ?), in Republic, Michigan (near Marquette) these and other actions announced in The Nuclear Resister: A Chronicle of Hope $13 to $18, P.O. Box 43383, Tucson, AZ 85733.

C. Call the The Michigan Peace Team, (517) 484-3178, and talk to Peace Team members whove been to Bosnia, Haiti, El Salvador, Cuba, They offer training for a citizen-based peace-making, a Global Peace Service movement that is rising world wide.

President Clinton, addressing the UN General Assembly, Sept. 26, l994, said: Let me suggest that it is time for the members of this assembly to consider seriously President Jnems (of Argentina) suggestion for the creation of a civilian rapid response capability for humanitarian crises.

OTHER RESOURCES:

American Friends Service Committee
1501 Cherry St.
Philadelphia, P.A. 19102-1403

Amnesty International,
322 8th Ave.
NY, NY., 10038

Center for Defense Information
1500 Massachusetts Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20005

Episcopal Peace Fellowship
P.O. Box 28156
Washington D.C. 20038-8156

Fellowship of Reconciliation
Box 271
Nyack, NY 10960

Methodists United for Peace with Justice
421 Seward Square Southeast
Washington, D.C. 20003

Pax Christi
348 East 10th St.
Erie, PA 16503-1110

Unitarian Universalist Association
25 Beacon St.
Boston MA 02108-2800

War Resisters League
339 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10012

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1. "The Defense Monitor," Center for Defense Information,(CDI) Vol. XXII, No.9., 1993, p.3.
2. "Merchants of Menace," New York Times, 5/19/93
3. "Arms Sales and False Economics," The Nation, 10/3/94, p. 343.
4. CDI, XXIII, 5., l993, p.1.
5. Department of Defense
6. CDI, XXII, 7, l993.