Americans should focus on building peace | PennLive Letters
Published: Nov. 29, 2024
Thank you for publishing William Lambers’ 11/11 opinion “The silence heard around the world brought peace.”
Lambers sagely reminds us that the true spirit of Armistice Day, is “to keep up the mission for a world free from the horror of war.”
We must make it a priority to invest in goodness, not war: We need to disarm and dismantle the military-industrial complex that our tax dollars have helped build.
Fully respecting basic human rights and the rule of fair and just laws is a good first step in building peace.
Our domestic and foreign policies should align to shape true justice, peace, and prosperity for all people, regardless of race or religion.
Anne Selden Annab, Mechanicsburg Pa.
NOTES: "This year’s proposed budget for the Pentagon and nuclear weapons work at the Department of Energy is $886 billion —more than twice as much, adjusted for inflation, as at the time of Eisenhower’s speech. The Pentagon now consumes more than half the federal discretionary budget, leaving priorities like public health, environmental protection, job training, and education to compete for what remains. In 2020, Lockheed Martin received $75 billion in Pentagon contracts, more than the entire budget of the State Department and the Agency for International Development combined." ..."Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." THE NATION May 9, 2023 The Military Industrial Complex Is More Powerful Than Ever- The current war machine isn’t your grandfather’s MIC, not by a country mile. https://www.thenation.com/article/world/military-industrial-complex-defense/
ReplyDelete"The military-industrial complex is a nation’s military establishment, as well as the industries involved in the production of armaments and other military materials. In his 1961 farewell address, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously warned the public of the nation’s increasingly powerful military-industrial complex and the threat it posed to American democracy. Today, the United States routinely outspends every other country for military and defense expenditures." https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/military-industrial-complex
"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..." https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights