Our country deserves a break from the failed policies of the past. Our arms sales and military aid programs have created widespread anti-American sentiment. Our nuclear weapons policies are encouraging nuclear proliferation. Our approach to the international community is leading to growing isolation and foreclosing meaningful leadership. Huge increases in military spending won’t make us safer, but they will take funds from education, health care and other programs and harm the quality of life for all Americans. Eliminating civil liberties will threaten our constitution and undermine the very values that make our nation great. We’ll make our country safer by affirming our values, not abandoning them.

1. Support Human Rights and Democracy
We should exhibit international leadership by opposing the policies of human rights abusers, not rewarding them with weapons.
Democracy and human rights are ideals that the American people hold dear. Our elected officials have not held true to these values. Sadly, our country leads the world in providing arms sales and military training to human rights abusing governments and dictatorships. When US weapons are used to prop up governments hated by their own people, bitterness is the result. When we sell weapons worldwide, those arms end up being used against our own troops.

2. Reduce the Threat from Weapons of Mass Destruction
Our nation should lead a worldwide campaign to reduce and control the threat from weapons of mass destruction - a policy we could be proud of. We face no greater threat than nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Such weapons are only effective as a means of terror - that can be aimed at us as well as others. The only way to be safe from this threat is to destroy the stockpiles and secure those facilities that make nuclear materials. Instead of leading efforts to secure and dismantle nuclear weapons, the Bush Administration wants to build new ones. In addition, spending billions on a missile defense that won’t work while building new nuclear weapons will only speed the pace of nuclear proliferation.

3. Cooperate with the World Community
We should play a positive leadership role in the world community, planning strategies for a future we can all live with. The Declaration of Independence urged a decent respect for the opinions of mankind. Our foreign policy isn’t reflecting that core value. Our elected officials have abandoned or blocked a host of international agreements on arms control, human rights, the environment, and the International Criminal Court. Instead of promoting pre-emptive strikes, the US needs to promote policies that address the larger needs of the world community and that minimize the potential for hate and anger. The US has the strength and ability to better the working and living conditions of human kind, and to increase our own security in the process - but only if we lead through cooperation.

Peace Action Education Fund
1819 H Street NW
Suite 425
Washington DC 20006
www.peace-action.org

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

Reverend Martin Luther King
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, April 4, 1967, Riverside Church, New York City

PEACE IS NOT AN OBSCENE WORD.

Violence begets violence.
Conflict occurs for a reason, usually because of need and injustice. Resolve the underlying reasons and spend the money on food instead of bullets.
It keeps coming back to truly treating others, as you want to be treated.