Can I just play the devil's advocate here for a moment.
I've always been told that the capitalistic system operated on a scarcity model, and in reality, that almost always amounts to those without enough trying to get a few crumbs from those who have too much.
This system is wrong, and it only breeds a certain form of competition where I want mine first before you get yours. Another better strategy for planet earth is that there is enough for everyone. There is no scarcity of funds, we are only led to believe this so the powerful can control the less powerful.
Now let's jump to another subject: The moral issue of constant war, the killing of innocents, the maiming of combatants, a general disrespect of the sacredness of life. Is this strategy in itself too weak to garner support for the alleviation of war?
Or must we sell the cutting back of an inflated military budget using the scarcity model?
Are we ourselves clawing to get our crumbs for healthcare, education, environment, etc.? Can we lower the death rates from war by appealing to people's self-interest of having the public services they need by cutting back military spending? If so, we have not really addressed the real moral issue that should drive us to outlaw war.
Let's say we do bring some war dollars home for awhile, but we only cut some of the military budget. Won't the maiming and killing of children continue to happen in our names? And who's to say that the situation we have now won't gradually come back in just a few years to the 60 percent of spending that we have now? We have no guarantee.
If the military budget is cut, who's to say that the services we want funded won't still be left in the wilderness? Those in power now want to de-fund government overall until, as Grover Norquist says, "it can be flushed down the drain."
Is there any way we can work long term to be sure that this doesn't happen if we get the military cuts we want? So I wonder if we are neglecting the real moral issue here in favor of pandering to the self interests of people, appealing to their economic consciences only and not to their moral consciences? I especially think that our religious allies need to help us with raising the real moral reasons war is not acceptable.
What I write above is a possible response we are likely to get from those who have been peace activists all their lives ....perhaps purists, some may say. I do not mean to infer that I agree with everything I said above, but nevertheless, we need to respond. I remember that after the Soviet Union fell, we all proposed a peace dividend. But it didn't happen, much to our chagrin.
The military-industrial complex is certainly very powerful, much more than it was back in the 50s when President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about it. Such a partnership is not likely to give up without a struggle. And that's what I hope we are also prepared to go ... not to give up on the moral issue, while also appealing to people's self interests. We just need to know the enemy and its tools, and be ready to overcome them with our well-thought out plans.
Many of us in the peace movement have to give up our naivety. I hope that all we are doing works. I'm on board. But I do think we have to be prepared for a Goliath out there. And likewise we have to be prepared for those who are on the left side of us, who think anything less than total withdrawal from the Middle East is not enough. They mourn the killing of innocent babies by our own soldiers. They think that is reason enough to work for peace, and bringing more funds home only plays to those who are consumed by a cost-benefit analysis.
We have to be sure to stand our ground and continue to stress the morality of providing necessary public services in a civilized society, war or no war. And even if we are able to cut the defense department's spending, we cannot let the savings go only to cutting the national debt or being sent back in the form of tax cuts for the rich.
This is an issue that needs further discussion in peace groups around the world, so we can act in unison to advocate for a moral just and life-giving peace that also reaps benefits through life-giving public services.