I have not intended to be judgmental or intolerant in my skepticism that government structures such as the Department of Peace will stop the hawkish leaders who have ignored the majority wishes of America. This is simply my belief, and I ask for tolerance of it: as I have posted previously, I support your ideas, I just question the efficacy of this Department. I am tryinf to contribute toward a solution also. read more »

I fully support efforts at peace, which is why I joined this site. But do you folks really think that a new federal bureaucratic agency will succeed in stopping the warmongers when the entire Congress hasn't the will or power? Bush will soon invade Iran, another irrevocable tragedy.

e need a populist revolt, folks, not more bureaucratic impotence. A third party might "evolve" out of our current mayhem, and many are trying to initiate just that (e.g. The Revolutionary Coalition, at TheRevolutionaryCoalition@Yahoogroups.com) But even this is na effort to solve our problems employing the very institutions which have failed us. read more »

Declining Military Enrollment: A Modest Proposal © 2006, John Stoddard Klar

It is unthinkable for America to withdraw from Iraq, so it is obvious that the United States has no choice but to increase troop levels. Yet a draft is unpalatable, especially when young women would today be as vulnerable as men for compulsory enlistment.

It is thus with high hopes that this humble writer proposes a simple solution to America's troop shortage: instead of drafting our young people, institute a new military draft of people aged 65 and older. While at first blush this may seem like it might present some tactical drawbacks, let us more fully review the multiple benefits which would arise from such a program. read more »

Americans can relax now that they no longer need refer to their Bibles in order to discover the Lord's will - The Wall Street Journal is now explaining moral issues with such clarity and conviction that surely this corporate-loyal oracle will supplant the archaic texts of the Bible. After all, in modern America, who needs the word of God when our country's moral course is in fact already determined by our great God mammon, who teaches us that wealth and comfort are all that matter, and that "He who dies with the most toys wins!" ? read more »

George W. Bush in recent speeches has responded to the conclusions of a recently-released April National Intelligence Estimate that "the Iraq war has fueled terror growth around the world"¦" (The Wall Street Journal, 9/27/06, p. A18.). Mr. Bush's comments offer an opportunity to clearly examine the flawed, deceptive logic employed by this administration in justifying the indefensible. read more »

What a tragic day in America, when Republicans ignore the Constitution and the Bible in their zeal to fight a worldly crusade, and Democrats ignore these same documents in their single-minded focus on reelection. Machiavelli taught that "the ends justify the means," and this is the creed now embraced by Americans in place of their once Christian value system.

The only effective counterforce for terrorism is to undermine the conditions which feed its existence. Instead, this administration consistently feeds the infection of Islamic extremism, dishing out the exact recipe to strengthen and enrage these people: unilateral support for Israel as it employs excessive force in Lebanon and Gaza "defending itself"; an attack on Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11; the use of torture, which has included the inflammatory practices of using women as interrogators, and of desecrating the Koran. Americans quickly dismiss these concerns, judging these offences by their own rather than their enemy's standards. Yet whose hearts and minds do we seek to win? To Arabs who are not currently al Qaeda operatives, America increasingly looks worse than the terrorists, and if nothing else America will lose the sympathies or support of Muslim moderates. Arabs are increasingly inflamed to anti-Americanism because of these policies, and yet our president tells us the terrorists "hate us because we're free." Only the simplest of minds can even consider accepting such tripe as truth. These unchristian policies will turn more and more in the world against America and against Christianity (for we pretend to a Christian faith while we institute patently unchristian policies). This will only feed the flames of Muslim extremism, just as Jesus taught: the only way to end cycles of violence is to reach out in Christian peace, and reverse decades of failed imperialistic American policy: Americans have everything to gain from this, but our corporate dominators have everything (in profits) to lose. read more »

Rosie O'Donnell has come under fire by many Christians for her recent comments suggesting that followers of Christ are no different from Muslim extremists because they blow up civilian children in the name of their religion. I distinguish between true followers of Christ, who would not do such a thing, and the Bush-supporting (creating?) Religious Right in America for whom this is an extremely accurate criticism. And the view this woman so courageously expressed (to the shock of Americans and their censored press) is the view non-Christians in this country and around the world have of Christians. And who can blame them, if Christianity is to be judged by the Christians? (Though it should not be so, this is what happens, just as some attempt to condemn all of Islam because of its worst extremists, etc.) read more »

Love is indeed the answer to taday's escalating ills. For those of us who have recognized the existence of God, who is love, it is evident that man is incapable of "culturally evolving" toward sustainable social justice. Evolution used to be a "theory" but is now widely accepted as scientific fact -- the missing chain (for it is not just links, but the whole chain, which is missing) has been filled in with speculatiuon, and the secular world accepts as fact a theory which does not hold up even to scientific scrutiny. Mankind is sin-cursed, and will never save himself. Evolution dictates that evil and war are perfectly satisfactory tools for survival. If one believes in social justice, and that good is better than evil, evolutionary "theory" is ruled out -- we are moral beings, and survival should not be our paramount goal. read more »

I enjoy communicating with such a diverse crowd as is found on this site, and look forward to more discussions. Of chief concern is indeed the fostering of peace, and for me this is through embracing the teachings of Jesus Christ.
My chief effort in this regard (a "solution" or "action") has been to write a book ("Christian Words, Unchristian Actions: George W. Bush and the Desecration of Christianity in Modern America") which contrasts the lofty promises of George W. Bush with his delivered actions, in the context of what Jesus had to say on various subjects: war, torture, the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich, the destruction of our environment, etc. President Bush's record is somewhat deficient in these and other areas. read more »

It seems more and more like effective solutions to our current sad quandary cannot be had through our existing governmental structures. Yet, to abandon those Constitutional structures would be to concede the failure of the American democratic-republic model, leaving a black social hole into which we have no new theory of governance to shed light and hope. Must we then continue to seek to influence existing failed structures toward peaceful action, knowing that the exercise is largely futile? I like to think that if there were concerted and organized movement toward truly embracing peace and a theory of social justice that cared for all people, that the corrupt, entrenched bureaucratic behemoth which is modern American government would be compelled to yield; but I am fairly resigned to the unfortunate reality that the American people will not move toward such a result until their own skins are at stake, by which point it will be too late to effect change without revolution and anarchy. read more »