Americans are capable of building and leading a strategy to change the character of America’s public policy to one that successfully wages peace via pushing People’s Lobby’s citizen-initiated American World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposals. For a nation founded on "We the people..." having citizen-initiated legislation change the world should not be considered too far "out of the box."
In Waging Peace, aptly subtitled "The Art of War for the Anti-War Movement," Scott Ritter bemoans the obvious fact that the peace movement lacks an effective strategy to win peace.
As a well-versed military man, Scott quotes warrior Sun Tzu:
- All war is based on deception.
- The supreme excellence is to subdue the armies of your enemy without fighting a battle.
- He wins who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
Scott, a disgusted one-time Republican, then critiques the peace movement, Democrats, and progressives, by noting how they too often want to:
• Push a multiplicity of non-focused, self-absorbing issues.
• Act as chiefs on the battlefield of healthy policy implementation.
• Divert their time and energies into activities that have little effective strategic value.
Ritter’s book and talks call on the peace movement to fight like smart armies do. To do that, they need leadership and a strategy, not a series of ineffectual tactics. He calls on them to OODA, observe, orient, decide, and act.
The later half of his book is a copy of the Constitution. The Constitution, opines Ritter, is from whence the anti-war movement ought to develop a strategy that wins the war for peace.
That last half of the book may be a good way to get more Americans to think more about how to:
"...form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."
Unfortunately, restating the Constitution does not provide anti-war activists, political parties, progressives, etc., a strategy that produces a character-rich public policy, which would only rarely include warring.
In mid-April at Mill Valley’s Throckmorton Theater, Scott Ritter and Elizabeth de le Vega reiterated how we were conned into a stupid Iraq War. Barely fifty true believers each plopped down $15 to hear Marine Ritter and former federal prosecutor de le Vega give a talk chock-full of sad information. That evening 280 people jammed the theater, shelling out $40 per head to hear Robin Williams’ view of the world. Neither talk offered a strategy that would engrain into our character a better public policy. But, without a service draft, crowds will probably always choose to laugh.
Lacking an effective strategy has produced the Iraqi quagmire and has kept peace-wagers stuck in the mud. Here’s the root of the problem behind stupid wars and quagmires ... and a solution.
War’s roots
Too few Americans have the indelible learning and knowledge experiences that allow them to understand international cultures, policies, and how that lack of knowledge affect our domestic policies. Consequently, too few Americans have the common sense to trust character-rich Americans who serve in those settings. Instead, Americans are conned into believing trite phrases that revolve around simplistic rah-rah superficial patriotism is an effective policy.
The result? Too few Americans knew, or learned quickly enough, that it was dangerous and dumb to trust:
• Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, which from 2000-2004 received $33 million from the State Department and more from the Defense Department.
• Current Prime Minister Al-Maliki, who has long played Iranians, Iraqis, or anyone he could to acquire money and power and was known as al-Irani ("the Iranian") by Iraq’s distrustful Sunnis.
• A Douglas Fife, Paul Bremer, or those of that ilk who have never served in the fields of economic development or warfare, where one’s hands are callused or bloodied from hard work, but who had plenty of simplistic, silver spoon-fed theories to foist on public policy unaware Americans.
Americans trusted the hollow words from these types rather than field-tested words from Marines like Scott Ritter, Four Star General Anthony Zinni, and those numerous other generals, commanders, and intelligence officers who resigned at the time of our entry into an Iraqi quagmire.
Solution?Have a lot more Americans learn from indelible learning experiences in the field, which will spread to other Americans, so that our nation will undertake smarter public policies that will strengthen, not weaken, our military and economy.
How do we do that? Implement a strategy that builds a peaceful, productive army that meshes with our military. The 21st century needs this robust, peaceful, nation-building army, so life becomes safer and saner for our troops and nation.
A strategy is developed by defining:
• What are your values?
• What you want to accomplish?
• How do you design a plan, not just a series of tactics, to accomplish your goals and spread your healthy values?
The idealized America most of us envision has a peaceful, educated world where everyone has a healthy, middle class life. Involving citizens in lawmaking that moves Americans toward that ideal is the initial strategy that can help the anti-war movement produce the desired healthy world.
Imagine if JFK had lived and just his Peace Corps strategy had been implemented as he envisioned it. Instead of having less than about one hundred and fifty thousand Americans gaining indelible Peace Corps service experiences since 1961, twenty, thirty, or more million Americans would have served in organizations such as the Peace Corps and Volunteers in Service to America (a buried VISTA) by today.
Those robust, peaceful Peace Corps and VISTA armies, and the related do-good brigades they would have energized, would have implemented a doing and learning strategy that would have bettered America and the world. We wouldn’t be involved in another debilitating war quagmire. We wouldn’t have terrorists and terrorism sprouting throughout the world. We wouldn’t be watching dumb public policies shrink the middle class and bloat the poor.
"This country runs on laws. If you want to change the country, write its laws."
The People’s Lobby mantra is its strategy, and it provides the anti-war movement the strategy they need to wage peace successfully. It provides the mechanism – citizen-initiated Congressional law – that stops America from being conned into devastating fiascoes. It builds understanding, grassroots economies, and in the process spreads peace worldwide.
If enacted in this Congress, each year for the next seven years approximately 140,000 Americans would voluntarily choose to serve in their choice of the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Habitat for Humanity, Head Start, Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, OxFam, Mercy Corps, State Conservation Corps, etc. By the seventh year one million American World Service Corps volunteers of all ages, or less than .4 of 1% of those aged 18-70+, would annually serve for a year or two at home or abroad in the aforementioned and other existing governmental and non-governmental organizations. After 20 years, Congress could consider sunsetting the AWSC legislation.
People’s Lobby’s AWSC legislation
http://www.worldservicecorps.us/... has traditional and non-traditional funding mechanisms that with enough public support can make this cost effective program field 21 million serving Americans over the next generation. Details on how to finance the AWSC are at http://www.worldservicecorps.us/... .
We have been deceived into a senseless war. Our enemy is incapacitating our military without fighting a single battle. Our silver spoon-fed leaders didn’t know when to fight and when to not. Most country western bars knew more than silver-spooned leaders, because they "know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em.
We and the world face big problems. To stop the American system from crumbling, we need to field this army quickly. People’s Lobby needs your help to enlighten Congress and spread the word enough to introduce and implement the AWSC Congressional Proposals soon. Learn more and participate at www.WorldServiceCorps.us.
One successfully wages peace with a smart, strong army that doesn’t need to deceive, subdues the enemy without fighting a bloody battle, and knows when not to fight, People’s Lobby’s citizen-initiated American World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposals builds that needed 21st century army.
