Lee Brown: Stop the War Stimulus

Stop the $625.8 billion War Stimulus Bill now moving through Congress! Congress must reject the $625.8 billion 2010 Defense Budget because…

1. The War Stimulus Bill funds the Afghanistan War. Approximately $128.2 billion of the total is for conducting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through September 2010. For very convincing reasons the majority of Americans oppose continuing these wars.

2. The War Stimulus Bill funds projects causing Global Climate Change. Last April the WASHINGTON POST reported that the Department of Defense is the largest consumer of energy in the United States. (1) Bruce E. Johansen, an expert on the causes of Global Warming, documents “The Carbon Footprint of War.” His evidence includes these facts: “The U.S. armed forces consume about 14 million gallons of oil per day, half of it in jet fuel. Humvees average 4 miles per gallon, while an Apache helicopter gets half a mile per gallon…The 68-ton Abrams Tank gets 0.8 miles per gallon…The business of the Pentagon is still war, and the making of war destroys the Earth.” (2)

3. The War Stimulus Bill makes possible manufacture of weapons for export. Last year the United States sold $37.8 billion worth of weapons around the world. (3) Being the world leader in selling armaments, you might say we are doing more than any other nation to encourage war around the world!

The most serious threat to the whole world is Global Climate Change which has recently caused death and destruction in Taiwan, Istanbul, western equatorial Africa, southeastern U.S., and Manila. Less dramatic than the flooding caused by severe storms but also deadly are the droughts confronting Darfur, Iraq and eastern Africa.

Instead of a War Stimulus Bill, the United States should be passing a Green Jobs Stimulus Bill. We citizens must insist that the U.S. Congress changes its first priority from death to life.

Lee Brown is a WNPJ member and a member of United Nations Association - Wisconsin