"War can not be reformed, it can only be abolished." -Albert Einstein
Dennis Kucinich agrees, Kos disagrees. That is the heart of Markos' repeated bashing of Kucinich. Kos is a war pragmatist, Kucinich is a war abolitionist (or as close as it gets among the Dem Presidential candidates). More on the flip.
Markos has repeatedly attacked Kucinich with ad hominem assaults, calling him "eccentric, weird," and "creepy as always" or just "Ugh!" However, Markos' infamous "I am a war pragmatist" declaration is at the heart of his objections to Kucinich:
I'm not one of these touchy-feely hippy types that thinks war is inherently bad. I laugh at people who think they can "visualize peace".
In so doing, Markos laughs at people like Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Markos lays it all out here:
I oppose the Iraq War. But I refuse to be labeled "anti-war". I'm not. I'm anti this war. Why? Because I'm a war pragmatist. I understand the costs of war, but I also understand the potential benefits.
What Kos does not understand is that with the nuclear weapon Genie out of the bottle, there's no way that the current war system can continue. One day either we're going to abolish nuclear weapons and create a peaceful world, or we're going to end up the victims of Nuclear Holocaust. As Dr. King said, "We no longer face a choice between violence and nonviolence, but a choice between nonviolence and non-existence."
Who do you believe is correct? Former Republican and John McCain supporter Markos Moulitsas, or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Kucinich, if he were elected, would implement by far the most progressive policies of any Democratic candidate: the department of peace, social security benefits at age 65, universal health care, marriage rights for the GLBTQ community, the peace tax fund, a serious plan to lower emissions and protect the environment, instant runoff voting, real campaign finance reform, withdrawal from NAFTA and the WTO, regulation and labeling of GMO food, etc etc.
Markos dismisses the Department of Peace:
"Higher evolution of human awareness"? "Transform consciousness"? "Paradign shift"? What the hell is this crap? I expect this kind of crap out of Deepak Chopra (or Tom Cruise), not a serious presidential candidate. And by the way, the "Department of Peace" already exists. It's called the "U.S. Department of State".
Yes, and our state department is doing a fabulous job of promoting peace and nonviolence, isn't it? The State
Department does not have as its mission to make "nonviolence an organizing principle of our society." On the other hand, look at what the Department of Peace sets out to do...
While Kucinich never comes out and says he's a full-fledged war abolitionist (after all he did vote to bomb Afghanistan), he's the closest we've got to such a candidate:
The concept of a Department of Peace is the vehicle by which we express our belief that we have the capacity to evolve as a people, that someday we could look back at this moment and understand that we took the steps along the way to make war archaic.
Violence is not inevitable. War is not inevitable. Nonviolence and peace are inevitable.
update #1: I want to thank everyone for your comments and dialogue. I'm honored you took the time! It seems like this question struck a nerve of some kind.
If anyone's interested, I co-edit a magazine at UC Berkeley entitled PeacePower - please check it out if you like. I'll try to respond to some of the comments soon...