No Military Intervention in Syria - or anywhere!

Interviewer:  What made you decide to join this action?

Bill and I have long been opposed to military action anywhere.  Call us "old peaceniks".  In April and October 1967, Bill marched in New York City and in Washington, DC  in opposition to the Vietnam war.  The enormous toll of war was apparent:  the environmental destruction, the waste of petroleum products, the re-building of lives, livelihoods and infrastructure.  When the peace movement influenced the US to pull out of Vietnam, many of us thought the world had reached an intolerance of war.  We raised families and developed professional careers.  

In the 1980's, the world accumulation of 67,000 nuclear weapons, enough to destroy ourselves many times over, spurred us to action again.  We were involved with International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War  (IPPNW) - it brought Reagan and Gorbachev to the negotiating table, the numbers were reduced to 23,000 and we thought the reductions would continue.  We were wrong. 

This year Obama devoted more than $80 million dollars to update nuclear weapons.  We don't know what he is truly thinking when he claims that he had have a "limited military action".  The Prime Minister of Russia has said, "Russia will regard such an action as an 'act of aggression'"?

Both sides have nuclear weapons and a measure of immaturity!  No military action in Syria.

Interviewer:  What do you think should be done?

Taking military action is will give in to the enormous military-industrial lobby, which will wring its hands all the way to the bank.   Whether it is power or oil or the banks, the beneficiaries will not be the people.  As the Mafia says, "Follow the money." 

"Occupy Wall Street" was right!  The economic system is intrinsically dependent upon both the petroleum industry (and other extractive industries) and upon the arms industry.  It is an entirely artificial, human-made system.  War and redirection of the world's resources into the military - the single greatest consumer of petroleum products and hence contributor to greenhouse gasses – is its product.

"Idle No More" sprang up to offer impetus to justice for Indigenous People and expanded to recognize the inclusion of opposition to extractive industries  and preservation of the environment.  It, too, will spur us towards the tipping point, the point where the human race changes direction. 

Do we "go where no man thought" (Carl Sagan), develop an economic system dependent upon sustainability (David Korton), accept the sacrifices (Naomi Klein) and create the world of the United Nations mission statement, a vision of peace and cooperation amongst people.  Or do we choose death - either by nuclear weapons  (nuclear winter – Carl Sagan, Ira Helfund) or by environmental destruction (global warming, increasing carbon)? 

Let us choose neither and start with Syria.  No military intervention. 

Let's:  choke the flow of arms into the country – identify the profiteers on both sides.  Pinpoint the manufacturers of weapons of mass destruction.  Remove international provocateurs.  Provide lots of work for undercover agents and journalists!

Start talking at every level of government, start teaching non-violent conflict resolution – not just in Syria but everywhere, start dealing with the already overwhelming numbers of refugees from Syria (but also all over the Middle East) and the personal traumas of survivors, including soldiers. 

Take it slow and take it patiently.  Real change does take some time.  Let Syria not slide into another violent Western-created quagmire like Iraq or Libya.

Interviewer:  Do you have hope for the future?

Yes.  The choices are clear and it is clear that many of us are making a choice to live and to create a world for future generations.  The human race has no alternative but to do it – and do it quickly!!!